Beer Garden Grill · Mutton on a Dome
Jingisukan (Genghis Khan Grilled Mutton)
Photo: Jesper Rautell Balle / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
The dome-shaped cast iron grill it's cooked on is shaped to resemble a Mongolian soldier's helmet — the name and imagery were adopted in Japan with no real Mongolian recipe behind them.
Sliced mutton and lamb are grilled at the table on a convex iron dome, the rendered fat basting a ring of bean sprouts, onion and cabbage piled around the rim, everything dipped in a soy-and-sake based sauce before eating.
Why it's made this way: Hokkaido was the one region where an early-1900s government push to raise sheep for wool actually took hold; when demand for wool collapsed, that homegrown mutton supply got redirected to the table, giving Hokkaido its own grilling tradition and, by 2004, official recognition as Hokkaido Heritage.
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