Fun Ginza Facts from Ginza 2008
Charcoal briquets In the span of about 18 hours of Ginza last year, we cooked over 3 tons of chicken (more than a Hummer H2 weighs) grilled over 1,600 pounds of glowing charcoal briquets (that's 80 twenty pound bags or about 45 feet tall if stacked in a single column). The results are the best chicken teriyaki in Chicago and the only teriyaki chicken that is charcoal grilled over an open pit. This is what makes our chicken teriyaki the signature dish of Ginza Chicago. And no wimpy portions here, you get a generous serving of half a chicken per dinner.
We cooked over 700 pounds of rice and boiled over a quarter ton of noodles. And talk about eggs, we cook 60 dozen eggs over the 2 1/2 days of Ginza.
Even the little things add up. We go through 10 pounds of garlic and 30 pounds of ginger. There are over 20 pounds of butter melted to drizzle over roasted corn-on-the-cob. We also use over a quarter ton of sugar in various marinades.
The Temple's woman's auxilliary uses 500 sheets of seaweed (nori) in preparing well over 3,600 sushi pieces. There are also 1,200 tofu pouches that have to be stuffed with rice by hand.
The beverages are the easiest part of Ginza, there's little preparation - you just have to serve the customer. Even then there are 10 half barrels of beer that needs to be carried along with well over 2,000 cans of soft drinks. Does anyone know how many cups poured that 10 half barrels of beer represent? Someone also has to make the 90 gallons of lemonade and 40 gallons of iced tea.
Barack Obama's letterAnd here's an interesting piece of correspondence. Way back when Barack Obama was the junior Senator from Illinois, he sent us a letter of congratulations on the 50th anniversary of Ginza. That was back in 2005.
All in all, even with all the preparation and work that goes into Ginza, we take joy in hosting such a memorable event in the great city of Chicago. After all we've been doing this for 54 years, we must have fun doing it.
* Statistics supplied by Mary Holcomb.