I look at these photos as I write and sigh...ahh...such happy memories! And what exactly might I be sighing over? It's only one of my favorite Japanese snacks/meals, the okonomiyaki, those delectably fluffy and savory pancakes, mixed with your yummy protein of choice and topped with a generous sprinkle of dried bonito flakes, spring onions and a most dashing slashing of kewpie mayonnaise! We've gobbled mucho of it here in Hong Kong and actually I've made it at home many times, very popular and super scrumptious!
So on our recent-ish trip to Tokyo, queen amongst cities, we had a major late night Snack Attack while exploring the vibrant Shinjuku area and thus wandered into an okonomiyaki restaurant. OMgosh...best time ever! Not only was the okonomiyaki fabulously delish and cooked right on our own personal table grill but the atmosphere in this eatery was too cool for school!
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| Godzilla head on Shinjuku Toho Bldg (photo by Ajay Suresh) |
Turns out that this okonomiyaki restaurant, Osakaya, that we stumbled onto is actually a wee bit famous! It's a long running restaurant (since 1980!) in the Kabukicho Shinjuku area, located in a basement just near where you can find the awesome Godzilla sculpture glowering in all his monstrous majesty! This restaurant is not only known for its fabulous okonomiyaki but also for being open 24 hours a day! Dontcha just love 24 hour restaurants? It's just so darn reassuring that one can get yummy food any time one desires, lol.
Here's a view of our personal table grill. And, though the grill was on our actual table, know that we were definitely not in charge of the cooking of this okonomiyaki! Our wonderful waiter poured the okonomiyaki batter, and then cooked and flipped the pancakes to omg yummilicious perfection. And as we waited, surrounded by the amazing cooking aromas, the atmosphere of our surroundings had time to penetrate our hunger daze.
If you've ever thought that the Japanese are a reserved people, well, that night would have proved both you and I wrong. Between the okonomiyaki and the many, many pints of beer washing it down, the folk in this restaurant were seriously letting their hair down! Loud happy voices, raucous laughter, slamming of beer glasses on tables, the diners in this restaurant were having a really good time!
Let me explain a bit about okonomiyaki first. The name itself, 'okonomiyaki', is derived from the Japanese word 'okonomi' which delightfully means 'how you like' and 'yaki' which means 'grilled.' So it's a grilled how you like it kind of snack!
The okonomiyaki pancake's basic batter is made from flour, grated nagaimo (a type of yam), dashi (Japanese soup stock), eggs and shredded cabbage. Lastly, in the spirit of 'how you like it', a final ingredient is chosen to be mixed in, usually some type of protein such as pork belly, octopus, squid, shrimp and sometimes even vegetables or cheese.
The photo above shows our okonomiyaki batter just after being poured onto the grill. Such golden deliciousness, amirite? We chose the Seafood Okonomiyaki which included bits of shrimp, squid and octopus mixed in with the basic batter. OMgosh, the aromas from this pancake cooking right at our table!
The restaurant's wait staff had the cooking time done pat and magically appeared at just the right moment to expertly flip the pancake for us. Look at that perfect sear! You can just see the bits of shrimp and octopus peeking out.
The waiter then brushed on some sauce, their famously secret version of the thick sweet and savory Japanese sauce used specifically for okonomiyaki. A sprinkle of spring onions and then a signature good ol' slashing crisscross of kewpie mayonnaise* finished the job and the gorgeous pancake slid on to our plates. Looks amazing, amirite!?
*Kewpie mayonnaise is the best selling brand of Japanese mayonnaise known for its rich and tangy eggy flavor and creamy texture.
Nom, nom nom! But wait a moment, it was not quite ready to gobble down just yet. The cooked okonomiyaki was to be further embellished with various toppings, all of which were available right on the table. This part was DIY...so much fun!
Let's see, first we added a ton of dried bonito flakes which are super thin shavings of smoked and dried fish, packed with umami flavor. When piled onto hot food the thin bonito flakes will dance in the heat, very cool!
Then we sprinkled on a bit of anonori, which is a Japanese condiment made from dried green seaweed. It not only adds a vibrant green accent but also provides a savory hint of the sea. I think I added so much toppings that the okonomiyaki is hard to see underneath, oops!
Now our okonomiyaki was finally ready for our greedy consumption. So good, omg...I think we breathed that pancake in...
We ordered two pancakes total, the second one a pork okonomiyaki, a traditional favorite and also fabulously yummilicious! We also decided to try a side order of stir fried soba noodles, another famous traditional Japanese dish and also cooked right at our table!
To round our hearty meal off and somewhat balance our overloading on carbs, we ordered two vegetable dishes, a salad and an edamame dish. Edamame is s popular veggie dish in Japan, where young green soy beans are boiled in lightly salted water. They are served still in their pods with the residue of salted water lightly flavoring the beans as you suck them out. Terribly fun to eat and tasty with a nutty, sweet buttery flavor.
Pssst...See our post about the Chinese version of this dish: Spiced Edamame Soybeans 涼拌毛豆, similar yet different and equally delish.
And thus our late night meal was finished. We were replenished, replete and relaxed as well as slightly tipsy (adults only) from the frosty mugs of light Japanese beer that washed down our okonomiyakis. As a memento, I wanted to take a photo of the really cool neon light hanging on the wall and accidentally caught our neighboring diner in a tearful state of food ecstasy? drunkenness? Ha, ha... Time to head back out onto the neon lit streets of Shinjuku, the part of the Tokyo that never sleeps! Onwards to our next adventure!
Stay tuned for our next post where we're making okonomiyaki at home!
Wandering Eats at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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