Okonomiyaki!

No, that’s not some sort of Japanese profanity. Okonomiyaki is a sort of pancake, often referred to as Japanese soul food. Literally, Okonomiyaki translates to “whatever you want grilled”, which is quite appropriate since there are several styles to making it and there’s no limit to what you can put in it, although most of them contain cabbage, seafood and/or pork.

Some okonomiyaki restaurants have a chef cook them for you while others are sort of self-serve where you can grill your own on at your table. This particular okonomiyaki place serves Hiroshima-style, where the ingredients are layered. Kaisai-style, on the other hand, mixes all the ingredients together in the batter.

The one on the left contains seafood (prawns, scallops, squid and fish) layered with udon noodles while the right is pork with ramen noodles. Both are topped with an egg and brushed generously with sauce. Personally, I prefer okonomiyaki this way as you can really tell what’s in it. There are a few other variants on okonomiyaki but these are the most popular.

It’s a really delicious epitomous Japanese food that’s great for sharing like tapas with some friends over a few beers.

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