Okonomiyaki Recipe Blog

What’s so special about the kind of okonomiyaki you find in Hiroshima, Japan? 

The ingredients are pretty much the same — it’s the technique that makes them distinct.

Okonomiyaki in the Kansai and Kanto regions (aka Osaka-style okonomiyaki) is created by first putting the batter and all of your fillings into a big bowl, and mixing it into a pasty, lumpy mass before shaping it all into a pancake in the pan.

Hiroshima-yaki, on the other hand, requires a progressive layering of ingredients.  It begins with a small circle of batter on the grill, after which comes a heap of cabbage and fillings, proceeding to a fresh egg cracked on top of it all which is allowed to trickle down through the fillings and sort of glue them together.

What happens next depends on the chef, the style, and the fillings.  But usually, after the cabbage has cooked down quite a bit, the chef drizzles on another thin layer of batter, and then flips it to cook on the other side.

The effect is to create sort of a stuffed pancake.  And because the fillings and the egg are not mixed homogenously, the layered and varied textures of the pancake create an enjoyably interesting eating experience.

  In Hiroshima there’s a famous okonomiyaki restaurant called Waka-Taka that boasts the best Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki.  They’ve been doing it for 40 years — that’s more than enough time to become masters of their craft, I think! ^_^

Right on their front page you can see a progression of pictures that shows you how they make theirs.  It looks almost easy!

Most people seem to do Kansai-Style Okonomiyaki since it’s a little easier.

Have you tried making your own okonomiyaki in Hiroshima style?  What are your experiences with it?

Please post comments — I’m eager to hear about other people’s experiences making Hiroshima-yaki.

I found this set of photos on RamenAndFriends.com showing the process of creating an okonomiyaki from a bowl of raw ingredients to a finished and decorated savory pancake.  It’s very typical of any okonomiyaki restaurant in Japan.

Some restaurants don’t have instructions on how to make okonomiyaki, or the instructions aren’t in English.  Use these pictures and simple instructions in order to know ahead of time how to do it!

These are good pictures, and a picture is worth 1000 words.  If you have any confusion about how to prepare a Kansai-style okonomi-yaki, these photos will clear it up.

Very rustic looking but definitely OISHII-sou!  Well done.

If you feel like being an Okonomiyaki Perfectionist, on the other hand, you will find this video quite useful and amusing. ^_^

Thanks to Free Online Japanese Recipes for helping me find this clip!  As discussed on the blog, “here are some points from the video clip to cook a perfect okonomiyaki:

• When mix the flour and ingredients, be sure to let some “air” go into the ingredients
• Don’t over beat/mix to avoid moisture come out from cabbage
• Make the thickness around 3cm (Kansai-style Okonomiyaki) “

Put simply, Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake that’s been made in Japan since World War II.  Like most countries in the world at that time, Japan experienced severe food shortages that led them to switch to ingredients that could be grown or bought in large quantites cheaply.   Wheat and cabbage were high on the list of cheap and plentiful ingredients, with eggs in decent supply, and thus a savory pancake made of flour, egg, and cabbage pancake was born.

The making of this humble subsistence food turned into a celebrated and specialized craft, with many restaurants serving only okonomiyaki.  The popularity of this dish, termed “okonomi – yaki” which loosely means “whatever you like, grilled”, grew and spread all over Japan, with many regions developing their own standardardized versions of it.  Over at JapanSugoi.com, there’s a fantastic overview of okonomiyaki and various ways it’s made in different parts of Japan (complete with patrons exclaiming “oishii!!” and “umai!!” in reaction to everything they eat — very Japanese TV).

My favorite style is Hiroshima okonomiyaki, often seen shortened to “Hiroshima-yaki”.  Here’s a photo I took in Kyoto during New Year’s (shougatsu) festival, where a bunch of guys in this stall were making what quickly became my favorite okonomiyaki recipe.

No okonomiyaki recipe is complete without okonomi sauce!  This somewhat mysterious, proprietary, very Japanese concoction can be made at home, but for the most authentic okonomiyaki experience, I say just buy the sauce.  You can find it at many Asian grocery stores, and it’s simply labeled “Okonomi sauce” or “Okonomiyaki sauce”.  If that’s not on the shelf, Tonkatsu sauce is quite similar, as is Takoyaki sauce.

Having trouble locating Okonomiyaki sauce in your area?  Amazon’s got it!