I’ve been experimenting with indoor or semi indoor grilling methods for a long time. I own an electric smokeless grill, a Korean style gas cartridge BBQ stove, a Japanese stove top fish grill, a vented charcoal pot and now, this Japanese stove top grilling rack.
Lets be honest, if you go smokeless, you can’t get anywhere near the taste you get with flame/charcoal grilling, that slightly sooty taste. There are many products being advertised as smokeless wonders, but they give you slightly burnt food, that’s all. For this reason, I am willing to accept having a little bit of smoke when grilling indoors.
My opinion of this grilling rack: it didn’t give a WOW kind of result. It’s definitely better than a Japanese fish grill because the wire mesh is big and flat, making it easy to place and remove food. The sprinkled charcoal dust was insufficient to produce enough of the sooty BBQ taste. I would try placing larger chunks of charcoal next time (although that will definitely create more smoke). Grilling of fatty food is not a good idea on this grill rack. Overall, I would still recommend this grill rack, although I think you wouldn’t be using it very often. (On Taobao they advertise grilling bread on this rack, but i suspect you get more or less the same result with an electric toaster. I should try it some day).
