Since Amazon decided to totally cancel all of the affiliate memberships that belonged to people who live in California — like myself — I’ve gotten rid of the Amazon ads on this site. I’m going to be trying out some other ad networks.

So far the only ad network that comes close to being useful for this site is VSW because they have a Food and Drink channel. I hope these ads will be relevant and help you find good things.

I still have lots of links around the site pointing to Amazon products. Those will probably stay in, since they’re useful. It’s hard to find okonomiyaki related products at a good price. They just won’t earn me any money when you click on them. Oh well.

I may do a little research to find another company to partner with to bring you okonomiyaki products, since I doubt that any ad network is going to show enough Japanese food options to be truly relevant to this website. It doesn’t seem right to show ads for irrelevant stuff!

I wonder how an okonomiyaki truck would do in San Francisco. Perhaps it would advertise as “the bacon pancake” truck, and specialize in okonomiyaki with bacon and egg.

Now I think I should start an okonomiyaki cart!

This article also gets the distinctions between the different styles of okonomiyaki wrong. “Hiroshima style” doesn’t necessarily include noodles, and usually doesn’t. It’s MODAAN style that’s all about adding extra carbs (noodles)!

Lately, though, I’ve been doing a very-low-carb paleo diet. I won’t go into exactly what the Paleo diet is, (you can read lots on ThePaleoDiet.com and on MarksDailyApple.com), except that you don’t eat any grains or seeds. That’s rice, wheat, quinoa, and lots of other things totally out. I can’t even make my usual gluten-free okonomiyaki!

So tonight I came up with a paleo-friendly okonomiyaki recipe. I did it Hiroshima-style, which is always my favorite.

Paleo Okonomiyaki Recipe

Batter:

• 6 Tb almond flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup dashi (or leftover miso soup)
• 1 tsp oil
• 2 Tb finely ground flax seeds (optional) (adds chewiness but is a non-paleo ingredient)

Fillings:

• 1 C shredded cabbage
• 1 Tb beni shouga
• 1 egg
• anything else you like!

Procedure:

1. Sprinkle a good cooking oil on a frying pan, and then heat up the pan. ALWAYS start with a sizzling hot pan.
2. Pour half of the batter into the pan, tilting the pan as necessary to let the batter spread into a nice circle.



3. Wait about 30 seconds, and then top the batter with all of the cabbage. Just pile it on there.
4. Let this cook down for about 2 minutes. You can make it go faster if you cover the pan for 60 seconds, but the cabbage will then be a bit soggy.
5. Make a “well” in the cabbage, and crack the egg on top of it. Immediately break the yolk and swish all of the egg so it covers the cabbage. (It may drop off your okonomiyaki and onto the pan. No worries! Just lift it up and back on top of the cabbage.)



6. Place other filling ingredients on top of the egg. I like to put a few springs of parsley in for color.
7. About a minute later, pour the rest of the batter on top of all of the fillings. Try to cover everything evenly, and this time if bits dribble into the pan, just let them go.
8. Ready to flip? This part can be challenging! Take your BEST SPATULA and lift up all of the edges of the pancake to make sure nothing is sticking. Then slide the spatula under the middle of the pancake and — very confidently, as if you cannot fail!! — flip the pancake in place.



9. With any luck, your flipped pancake now looks like that picture above, shown next to my hand for scale.
10. The Home Stretch! All you have to do now is wait until it looks like the egg inside of the pancake is all cooked, and then most likely the bottom of the pancake will be cooked too. Test the edges and then flip it onto a plate.
11. Sprinkle bonito flakes, which are like fish bacon, and decorate liberally with Kewpie mayo.
12. CONSUME!!

The only problem with paleo is that sugar is definitely off the diet. So no Okonomi Sauce. Hmm, maybe I’ll come up with a paleo version!?

Oh, and I don’t care if Kewpie mayo has some sugar in it. American mayonnaise just won’t do.

I just remembered, I forgot to top it with aonori! And I had some! Oh well, better okonomiyaki next time!

The post is all about the desire to find good okonomiyaki in Melbourne, after having had Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki in the past.  They heard about a place called Teppansan and headed straight over with their foodie hats on:

Being sophisticated travellers and food coinessuers, naturally we took our little monacles along with us, and our handy dandy mental notebooks to make an adequate (personal) review of the fine establishment, let me take you on a journey… to flavour town…

This little excursion doesn’t exactly go as well as hoped, which really just makes it all the more fun to read.  Sorry to hear about Melbourne’s lack of good okonomiyaki though!

Hey Aussies, if anyone should be able to make a good okonomiyaki in the English-speaking world, it’s you!  Get on it!  ^_^

DO NOT BE DISTRACTED BY THE SHINY RED BAR!

Okonomiyaki is the only food. THE ONLY FOOD.

Thank you.

Over at NipponPhile blog you can read about a group outing to a restaurant called Sakuratei, situated near the nifty Design Festa Gallery.

I’ve been there!  It’s a cool place, and you get to walk through the amazing fashion district of Harajuku to get there.

The gallery itself is affiliated with the Sakura Hostel of Asakusa, a place I heartily recommend spending some time at.  The cost is under 3000 yen (about $30) per night for any dorm bed, and the dorm rooms are actually pretty spacious with good privacy and access to your own power outlets.  Plus, free WiFi!  It was my favorite budget accomodation in Japan.

The best part about spending your nights in the Asakusa area of Tokyo: you’re about a 5 minute walk away from about 10 different places to eat okonomiyaki!  Hee hee.

Yup!  They do grow ‘em big in Kansai.  Wow. 

And in Japan, you really can’t take the food home with you.

Here’s a straightforward Kansai-style Okonomi-yaki recipe that is totally vegan and much more simple to follow.

Ingredients

makes 4 large pancakes

• 2 vegetable boullion cubes dissolved in 2 cups hot water
• 1 cup sweet potato flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1 cup flour (whole wheat and buckwheat work well)

Fillings:

• 2 c shredded cabbage or kale
• 1/2 c grated carrots
• 1 c parboiled chopped broccoli
• 4 Tbs beni shouga or finely grated fresh ginger
• any other nice veggie you have on hand
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Put dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir together.

Gradually add in the veggie boullion, stirring.  Stop adding liquid when the batter appears pancake-like (thick, not too runny but still pourable).

Stir in all the fillings you would like.

Heat up a non-stick griddle or frying pan over medium high heat with a little sesame or peanut oil.  (Any oil you like really, but those two are tastiest.)

When the edges look a bit brown, carefully flip the okonomiyaki over. Press down firmly, and lower the heat to about medium. Cook for at least 10 minutes, pressing down occasionally, until it’s thoroughly cooked through.

No problem!  Tapioca flour is the real magic goo here.  Sweet potato flour makes for a smooth and chewy texture that becomes a mesh between the tapioca and the regular flour.

Need help finding tapioca and sweet potato flour?  Amazon has good deals on vegan ingredients for okonomiyaki:

• Tapioca Flour
• Sweet Potato Flour

Over at 100yendinner, the lovely Kanmuri has posted her 100-Yen Okonomiyaki — precisely 93-yen actually — which even includes beef!  That’s pretty luxurious in Japan.  ^_^

Kanmuri’s 100-Yen Okonomiyaki Dinner:

Beef: 50¥
Cabbage: 25¥
Egg: 18¥
Total:93¥

• This is not the exact recipe for Okonomiyaki but it is my simpler version of it.
• In a bowl mix half a cup of flour with half a cup of water. Add an egg and mix well
• Mince cabbage (a little less than 1/5 of a whole cabbage) and add it to the mix.
• Put about a table spoon of olive oil in a fry pan. Add the mixture and fry the same way you would a pancake. Add thin slices of beef or pork on top.
• Once the the okonomiyaki starts to brown, flip it over and wait for the meat to be cooked.
• Transfer in a serving plate and add mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce and aonori (green seaweed flakes) and serve!

I noticed that flour and okonomiyaki toppings aren’t in the ingredient price list.  I suppose it’s assumed that most people already have these on hand.

But the cost of a tablespoon of mayo and a half cup of flour wouldn’t jack the price up all that much.  All totaled, maybe it would come to about 150 yen — still impressive.

Whether you buy your ingredients in yen, dollars, or pounds, go give Kanmuri’s recipe a try and tell us how it works out for you!