I was wandering through Nishiki Market in Kyoto, and towards the end I noticed a vendor stand with an older-ish gentleman selling some things I hadn’t seen at any other booth. One of these was Ayu Yaki, which is something I was on the lookout for on my trip, the other was Suzume Yaki, which I didn’t even know existed until I saw it! Before this moment if you told me I was gonna go to Kyoto and eat a sparrow skewer I would say you’re insane, but in the moment I said why not, paid the man 700 yen, ate the skewer and it was actually quite good! Tasted like smoky chicken. Just thought I’d share since according to the internet this is a bit of a rare dish 🙂
by ProfessionalOne808
21 Comments
Noice! If you don’t mind me asking do you eat the whole thing?
That’s something I couldn’t eat.
Japanese sparrows are adorable…I could always hear them chirping during my early mornings in Akasaka.
😭
What is this 😭
I ate these too, they were alright
Tastes just like chicken!
Thank you for sharing this.
I remember having something like this at a Chinese restaurant when I was a child. I think they were baby squabs, we ate them bones and all. They were delicious!
I’m surprised them little sparrows have enough meat to nibble on. But I’d definitely give it a try.
I’ve been curious about this, they weren’t too dry and crunchy?
I could never eat them. I love sparrows and always put biscuit crumbs on the windowsill and sow seeds to feed them. No no, really horrible to see them like that 😭
I heard you used to able to find these around Fushimi Inari
Update: Did some research and found the booths name at Nishiki Market is “Notoyo” for anyone interested. They’ve been in the same market spot since 1912, and specialize in Ayu (the sweet fish on a stick), Suzume Yaki, and Eel.
The real question is, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen sparrow?
As a Japanese, WTF
I need eye bleach
I had wonderful fried sparrows at a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan a few years ago – they have a wonderful taste and mix of textures!
LMAO I love that people will eat 50 chickens in a year but draw the line at sparrows
They sound tasty! I would love to try them.
I’ve had it at festivals in the countryside in Japan. I ate it. It was edible. No gagging occurred. People were suitably impressed. Glad I could cross that off my list and move on … 🤷♂️
I thought they were bats
I’m surprised you can buy this in Japan, it’s illegal in China. I’d probably try it at least.