Imagine indigenous people up in Alaska, back in the day, tying sides of salmon onto planks that were tied to wooden poles, then leaned onto a fire at a distance, cooking them slowly over an open fire. Similarly, this is how the Japanese Robata was born. If you get the chance to go to a robata in Japan, it is quite an experience and something to see. Not everything is placed directly onto the metal grill. A lot of it is place over on skewers like these two whole shrimp. Imagine cooking a whole fish like this, it would burn before the inside cooked thru, so you would have to keep it away from that really hot fire, on a skewer. They rotate it so that it cooks evenly on all sides. ----Stick a motor to it and that’s what they call it a rotisserie now, huh? In Hawaii, we have Huli Huli Chicken, which is local style seasoned rotisserie chicken cooked over kiawe wood. Not the same as robata, but all very ono.
