My first Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is often referred to as a "Japanese pancake" and for the most part that's an accurate description. It's comprised mainly of a thick batter and cooked like a pancake but there are many variations which include anything from cheese to ramen noodles as well. There are two main types though: Osaka-style and Hiroshima-style. The main difference being that Osaka-style involves mixing all the ingredients together before cooking, where as Hiroshima-style employs a layered cooking technique. For most people though, Osaka is considered the birthplace of the dish, making that variety the more popular/prevalent style.

It's one of my all-time favorite dishes, however I've never been compelled to make it myself for fear of creating an abomination accompanied by a huge mess. I also view myself as a spectator of Japanese cuisine and since I didn't grow up around these foods it makes me less confident to make them myself. On two occasions I found myself trying to make sushi at home, was severely disappointed with the results and vowed never to do it again.

However, after committing years of interest into Japanese culture/cuisine I figured it was time to stop being a pussy and get knuckles-deep in some okonomiyaki batter. It also helped that I found myself in Mitsuwa where they carry okonomiyaki flour/mix which would make the process a lot easier.

Clockwise from the left: katusobushi (bonito flakes), panko, spring onion, cabbage, eggs, bacon and okonomiyaki flour (not pictured: mayonnaise and okonomi sauce)

The flour was something I had only seen at Mitsuwa and it's great because you don't have to go through the trouble of finding/adding sato-imo (a type of Japanese potato that is grated into a paste and used as a binding agent in the batter). There's also a small amount of flavoring/spices incorporated in the flour which help compensate for the absence of dashi.

Most basic okonomiyaki recipes incorporate seafood as well, normally squid, shrimp and/or octopus. Since this was my first attempt though I decided to leave those out of the mix just to make things easier overall. I'm pretty sure that I should've been using a different cut of pork also, but bacon was much easier/cheaper to obtain.

[Please excuse the lack of extensive photography because I was concentrating a bit more on the execution of the cooking...]

After finely chopping up the cabbage and spring onions, I prepared the batter by simply adding water to the flour mix. As you can see I don't even have a whisk and had to use a fork like a caveman... I'm so embarrassed!

Adding the chopped cabbage, spring onion, an egg and a little panko (a substitute for tenkasu [bits of fried tempura batter]) to the mix finished my ultra-simple batter, which I then poured into a lightly greased frying pan. Since it was my first time, I ended up making more batter than I would have liked and formed one massive "pancake". The upside to this is that it conformed to the shape of the pan which held everything together while cooking. Normally you would be making this on a huge flat top grill and would have to corral the goop into a uniform shape the whole time.

During the several years I spent thinking about cooking this, I've read about a dozen different recipes and cooking techniques. One of the constant instructions is to only cook each side once, no flipping back and forth. The fact that my batter was so thick kinda bothered me and I hoped that I wouldn't end up burning it by letting it cook too long on either side. When it comes down to it though it's just another one of those "cook it until it's done" type foods.

Low-sodium bacon, mind you!

Right before you're about to flip it you put strips of bacon on the uncooked side and then flip the whole thing over. As you can imagine that first flip is a little tricky, especially when it's a 1-pound mass of goopy crap.

This is the side of okonomiyaki you don't see too often... literally

The flip was quite easy actually and quickly after was followed by the surge of bacon grease seeping from the corners. While all this was happening I also broke another egg on top of it and roughly scrambled it (I saw Harumi Kurihara do this on 'Your Japanese Kitchen' and it seemed like a good idea). Because of the egg I flipped it over again briefly to ensure it would cook thoroughly and also to check on the bacon side.

In all it's messy decadence

After flopping this grease cake onto a plate I spread a generous amount of okonomi sauce (like a sweeter Worcestershire sauce), mayonnaise and katsuobushi over top. Another basic ingredient I skipped was aonori, which are fine flakes of nori seaweed that you sprinkle over top.

Cross-section where you can see a tiny piece of the bacon

I think I did a good job given the circumstances and lack of more interesting ingredients. The overall taste could have been a bit more "Japanese" for my liking, but maybe that was due to the absence of a few things. Everything was cooked through which is always a huge concern of mine. I did put a little too much sauce/mayonnaise on it though and attempted to eat the entire thing, which was a pretty stupid decision because stomach gave a big "fuck you" to me for several hours afterwards.