Last night my girlfriend and I had some friends over and we made okonomiyaki. I had never had it before, but had heard about it from various Japanese friends, and was excited to try it for the first time. It’s sort of like a Japanese pancake, but mixed with various goodies and topped with sauces and other ingredients.

Osaka and Hiroshima are two places where okonomiyaki is particularly famous. We made Osaka style last night, where ingredients are mixed in with the pan-fried batter. We used cabbage, nagaimo (Japanese potato), and moyashi (bean sprouts) in the batter, and topped it with bacon, delicious Kewpie Mayonaise, and okonomiyaki sauce!

With Hiroshima style, the ingredients are typically layered and to spice things up sometimes noodles (udon or yakisoba) are involved! I made my girlfriend promise me that we could make this style next time.

Yaki means “grilled” and okonomi means “what you want,” so you do the math! I expect there are probably some pretty strange versions of this dish in various regions of Japan!

If you are interested in making okonomiyaki, here’s an instructional video featuring a man with a strange accent guiding you along as a Japanese woman and her small dog prepare this delicious dish!

Tokyo also has what is known as monjayaki that is a runnier, liquidy variant of okonomiyaki.

Micheal ‘Gaijin’ Pacheco

Michael plays guitar and keyboards in an Asian American themed band named The Slants.