“Hibachi” (‘fire bowl’, 火鉢 – ひばち) is a traditional Japanese brazier. It comes in different forms, but it’s conceptually no different than a European brazier - a fireproof container to contain fire charcoal. At its simplest, it’s a ceramic pot. Later versions had an open top to warm tea or cook food like this:
Meanwhile, there were shichirin (“seven rin”, 七輪 – しちりん). At their simplest form, they are ceramic chimneys with a grill on top. Later versions are box-shaped and now start to look like the familiar for yakiniku (literally “grilled meats”). “Rin” means “loop” or “ring”, but in this case has to do with low denomination coins. Shichirin means that the grill was efficient enough that it only used seven rin coins worth of charcoal to use.
Arianna Grande created the song “Seven Rings” and she tattooed seven rings onto her palm. Actually, she tattooed “shichirin” onto her palm. She later changed the tattoo. I would have kept it because I love yakiniku.
Later, veterans from WW2 returned from the Pacific and wanted to recreate the outdoors. They imported shichirin back to the US west coast and they were quite popular. They were marketed as “Hibachi”. These were later overtaken by “Weber” and their famous dome-shaped grills.
Meanwhile, Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki came to the US to study restaurant management. He eventually created Benihana (“safflower”), which introduced the concept of teppanyaki (table grilling) to the US. Benihana became a hit and spread across the US. While Benihana has faded as a brand, tepanyaki cooking has not. On the East Coast of the United States, hibachi means griddle fried “Japanese” food - either the giant tables meant for live entertainment or in-the-back griddle cooking. Hibachi is supposed to be Japanese food, but it’s essentially Chinese chop suey made with Japanese style ingredients. Some people love it and who am I to tell them what they should like. I think it’s gross.
Still giving away a box of great Sci-Fi paperback books soon, most bought used, some great art covers, lots of Hugo winners - most old, some newish (1990-2000?)
Anyway, or I'll take 'em to a Sci-Fi store on Claremont.
Name a Division 1 school that you think that fewer than 1% of our readers will know which town it is in off the top of their head.
Ship stuck in the Suez again. This theme seems to be evergreen.
https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1565104292708712451
Milpitas
Russia / Ukraine
CAL
https://twitter.com/WillMuldoon/status/1565183329607237633 According to the official AK voter rolls, there are actually *nine* official genders in Alaska
I'm not sure if this is going to happen.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1565318587736285184
https://twitter.com/itspeterj/status/1565046071050510339?s=20&t=kkRLXi4gX6kQtyZnQQXqBA
Any other celebrity pairs you'd put in this Tweet?
Still giving away a box of great Sci-Fi paperback books soon, most bought used, some great art covers, lots of Hugo winners - most old, some newish (1990-2000?)
Anyway, or I'll take 'em to a Sci-Fi store on Claremont.
OUR CRUMBLING REPUBLIC
NEXT VACAY
A/V CLUB
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
PRO
TODAY IN COVID
HIBACHI