Okonomiyaki

Several weeks ago I went to Osaka for the first time.  My friend Keiko had invited me for the Hinamatsuri Festival.  While there I was introduced to an Osaka culinary specialty - Okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki translates as "what you like, cooked".  It is a sort of reinterpretation of the European crêpe that came about after the War when times were tough.

It sounds a bit odd: shredded cabbage in a pancake batter with a layer of thinly sliced pork belly smothered in otafuku (a sort of Worcestershire sauce) and Kewpie mayonnaise.

This is not Japanese haute cuisine.  You will not find okonomiyake included in an elaborate kaiseki meal.  Emperors, shogunate and geishas do not eat okonomiyaki.  But it is nonetheless distinctly Japanese and sooo tasty.  It has become a staple at Robert no Uchi .

Part of the joy of eating in Japan is the unique cooking apparatuses that are brought to your table or built right in.  Dining here hovers somewhere between performance and self-catering depending on what you're eating and where.  Okonomiyaki is made on a teppan or griddle.  Where I had the good fortune to eat it for the first time this was part of the table.  This extremely hot iron surface and my meal sat between Keiko and I.

The server brought a bowl of batter-covered cabbage to the table, cracked an egg into it, mixed it up and poured it onto the teppan.  Then she left.  She returned with some more ingredients: pork belly, noodles, cheese, etc.  Then she left again.  I'm watching this funny pancake cook.  I'm smelling it.  I'm feeling the heat from the griddle.  I want to dig in.  But there is more.  She flips it once (twice?) then brings the toppings: otafuku, Kewpie mayonnaise, shaved "dancing" bonita flakes.  Finally we are instructed it is okay to eat.  There are no plates.  We eat right from the teppan.

Only in Japan.