Tomato-maki (トマト巻き, pork-wrapped cherry tomato)

Cherry tomatoes are a summer bargain if you buy them when they are truly in shun: small, firm, sweet, and bright under the skin. Tomato-maki doesn't ask you to improve them. It asks you to wrap each one in thin pork belly, set it over heat, and stop when the pork has browned and the tomato inside is just ready to burst. Very serious cooks have written longer instructions for less. This one is kinder.

Here the first secret is the thickness of the pork. It must be thin enough to cook before the tomato collapses, but not so thin that it tears when you pull it snug. Wrap it with one small overlap and skewer through that join. The pork shrinks as it cooks, tightening around the tomato like a belt, and that is why the seam goes down first.

In Hakata-style yakitori, the word yakitori stretches past chicken to pork, vegetables, and little rolled skewers like this. We serve them as a snack with drinks, a first plate at a dinner party, or the thing everyone reaches for at the grill while pretending they were only checking the fire. The tare is light, just soy, mirin, sake, and a little sugar, brushed on at the end. Put it on too early and the sugar scorches before the pork is cooked. Brush late, leave it glossy, and there's nothing hidden: sweet tomato, pork fat, salt, and heat doing exactly what they came to do.