Okonomiyaki – Delicious Japanese Pancakes
Okonomiyaki are Japanese pancakes but nothing like any pancake that you have ever tasted! The basic ingredients of okonomiyaki are cabbage, flour, and eggs that are mixed together to create a pancake like batter. Other traditional ingredients like pork, shrimp and squid are the most common add-ins but you can add pretty much anything to okonomyaki and it will be delicious.
Okonomiyaki restaurants are fairly common in Japan and the dish is a popular one at festivals but what makes okonomiyaki special is not only do you choose your ingredients, but in most restaurants, you get to cook it yourself! Doesn’t that sound like fun? I know I really enjoy interactive dining experiences and you can’t get more interactive that cooking your own food!
Like Yakiniku, you will find a grill in the center of your table and the ingredients are brought to your table in bowls. All you need to do is mix them together, pour the batter on the grill and use a meal spatula to shape and flip your pancake. When it’s done, top it with some of the traditional, slightly sweet, sauce and optional items like mayonnaise and fish flakes and you are ready to eat!
One okonomiyaki will cost between Y800 and Y1,200 (USD $8-12) at a restaurant and will serve two people nicely. The Tokyo Metropolitan multi-lingual Okonomiyaki menu lists other combinations like asparagus and bacon (this one sounds really good to me!), Kimuchi (Korean spicy cabbage – Chinese cabbage) with pork and potato and bacon but the combinations are limited only by your imagination. I have to admit that at first I was hesitant to try okonomiyaki but I have even eaten one with octopus squid, or tako taco as it is called in Japan, and it was quite tasty. Okonomiyaki is something that I would not hesitate to try again, in fact I may even try to make it at home! (I’ll use this Okonomiyaki recipe from Kids Web Japan)
Photo Credit: Flickr, Okonomiyaki & Okonomiyaki
11 Comments
I love all kinds of pancakes. I’ll have to add this to my list.
These taste great! Everyone should have them.
Wow, these do sound delicious. I wonder if it’s possible to find this dish in the US mainland. Maybe at IHOP. Or not.
Cooking them is quite fun. My friends even make them into different shapes on the grill.
They really are quite good – I like them a lot.
Jody, you would probably need to find a Japan town to get okonomiyaki on the mainland but I’m sure you can find restaurants that make them in Honolulu. Or you could just make them yourself?
Clara you offer a great tip! If you have kids wouldn’t that be a great way to get them interested in trying something new?
yea they’re really good and easy to make. tako (taco) = octopus by the way, not squid.
Munkie, thanks for the correction. That one must have got my spell checker
There are also many different styles of okonomiyaki and Japanese take them very seriously. In Hiroshima they add yakisoba (fried noodles) either beneath or sandwiched between okonomiyaki but in Osaka, if one adds yakisoba it’s supposed to be mixed into the okonomiyaki.
Apparently this difference in preparation spurred an argument in Osaka (where people are stereotypically tough) and ended up in a stabbing. I asked one of my other friends who is from Osaka and he said he heard the same story.
So moral of the story… when in Rome, make your okonomiyaki like the Romans.
Oh and if you ever make your way to Tokyo you have to check out Tsukishima. It’s a town famous for a Kanto (Tokyo) variation of okonomiyaki called “monjayaki” (もんじゃ焼き) or just “monja”. They even have a monjayaki association.
The ingredients are similar but the batter is thin and watery. You cook the solid ingredients first then add the liquid. It honestly looks like barf but tastes great. My favorite is 明太子餅チーズ(mentaiko mochi cheezu [fish eggs, rice cake and cheeze]).
The streets are lined with rows of monja stores but stick to the crowded ones. The empty ones are empty for a reason.
I have a friend that loves okonomiyaki and we have been talking about getting together soon. I may suggest that we try monjayaki instead.
Thanks for the tip!
Yum Yum, My Favoritte! Good Idea, lets Eat!