The American version of grilled-then-glazed chicken on rice that Toshi Kasahara invented at his Lower Queen Anne counter in 1976. Sugar, soy, char and shredded cabbage.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
On 2 March 1976 Toshihiro Kasahara opened a 30-seat shop at 372 Roy Street called Toshi's Teriyaki. His sauce broke with the Japanese ryori he had grown up around: he swapped mirin for granulated sugar, basted the marinade on yakitori-style chicken thighs over charcoal, and finished the plate with a scoop of rice and a pile of shredded iceberg. The Seattle Times credited the move with launching a city-wide format that now numbers more than 200 teriyaki shops, more than any other US city. Toshi sold the original room in 1980 and now runs Toshi's Teriyaki Grill in Mill Creek. The format spread fastest through the 1980s as Korean and Japanese-American operators opened cheap, fast counters from Lake City to Federal Way. The dish is the only American food invented in Seattle that the city eats without irony.
Common allergens: Soy, Gluten
Tip from the editors. Charcoal beats gas; the sugar in the sauce only blackens correctly under live fire. If you only have a pan, add a teaspoon of neutral oil and finish under the broiler for 30 seconds.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
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