Jingisukan (ジンギスカン, Hokkaido lamb grill)

The lamb is the hesitation. In much of Japan, beef and pork take the easy fame, but in Hokkaido we put lamb in the center of the table and let everyone cook together. Jingisukan looks like a special pan and a crowd's ceremony. It is really thin meat, fresh vegetables, and the nerve to leave the sauce honest.

The first secret is the slice. Ask for lamb shoulder or leg cut 2 to 3 mm thick, or chill the meat until firm and cut it yourself. Thick pieces toughen before they brown; thin ones catch the hot iron quickly and stay tender. The tare is shōyu, apple, onion, ginger, and garlic, not a cloak. It seasons the lamb and then gets out of the way.

The domed pan tells you how to cook. Meat goes on the crown, where it sears; onions, bean sprouts, and kabocha sit around the lower rim, where the juices run down and season them. No Jingisukan nabe, the domed iron pan? A heavy cast-iron grill pan will make a sound supper, though the dome's clever drainage is part of the honmono.

At the table, this is the method, not the menu: grill, eat, add more vegetables, grill again. The 旬 (shun, at its prime) part moves through the pan, spring onions, summer peppers, autumn kabocha, winter cabbage, but the rule stays the same. Good lamb, clean heat, nothing hidden.