I went to a Japanese Nabemono (Chankonabe?) place, in Tokyo. The meal was basically a hot pot. But instead of the typical small candle or small methanol pot/gel I've seen used elsewhere, they had a sort of gel that came wrapped in a foil. Unwrapped, it stood on small metal legs.
Once lit, it burned like crazy. Scary even. Nothing like the run-of-the mill methanol burners for fondue. Brought the pot from refrigerator cold to boiling in under 15 minutes. It also happened to stop burning just at the right moment, so I figured it was sized accordingly to the pot. I'm looking for the name or description of this burnable material. Search engines don't seem to bring up anything with this level of power output. I can only find the usual candles or small gels I've seen used in North America.
Anyone familiar with these? I feel really bad now for not having taken a picture.
(I tagged the question fondue, but the level of power would definitely be too high for cheese fondue. This is something for water-based hot pots)
Best Answer
Sounds like they were using タブレット型固形燃料 taburetto-gata kokeinenryou, literally "tablet-shaped solid fuel":
(courtesy メシ通)
The market leader is a company called Nitinen, who offer a wide range of different sizes and shapes. The primary ingredients are methanol and alcohol, blended with fat in much the same way as soap.