Okonomiyaki

I mentioned this in the Easter thread, since that is what I am cooking.

Anyone interested or will this just slide on down the page?

F

I mentioned this in the Easter thread, since that is what I am cooking.

Anyone interested or will this just slide on down the page?

I'd love to learn something about it, Frank, though I suppose Google would be a good place to start. Sorry that I can't contribute anything useful to the discussion.

Mark Lipton

Mark, I suppose one reason to talk about Okonomiyaki is that it is "comfort food." I think all cultures have their comfort foods and when you taste it you know what it is. That was what surprised me when I tasted "Timpano." That was the centerpiece of the movie "Big Night." I think when you taste Risotto you know you are eating something elegant and special, but when you taste Timpano, surprisingly, it is immediately obvious that this is comfort food, in a way "nothing special." Despite what the movie would lead you to believe.

I don't know how completely I understand the situation but I think that even in Japan, sushi is something special. To be done right you have to have fish that is absolutely fresh and of the best quality. This is going to be expensive and a special treat whether it's eaten in New Jersey or Shibuya.

But Okonomiyaki starts out as a cabbage pancake. "Soul food." You have to grate or finely chop the cabbage (my tongue says "rice" when I taste it). Make a batter of eggs and flour and "dashi." This is japanese soup broth that tastes a little of fish and seaweed, there are various very easy ways to produce it. "Okonomi" means "whatever you want" and so the ingredients are whatever you feel like eating. In that way this really is "Japanese Pizza" because we can order cheese or sausage or mushrooms or pineapple or black olives etc etc. The traditional Japanese toppings would be squid and shrimp and shredded pork. But I think nowadays things like bacon or cheddar cheese are not uncommon.

At any rate in the fashion of Osaka, you mix the chopped cabbage in with the batter, and you start to pre-fry the toppings before pouring in the batter. Then you flip the pancake over and finish browning the second side, and serve. Part of the extreme deliciousness of this dish comes from the fact that you cover it with sauce when serving. You will want mayonnaise in a squeeze bottle and Okonomi sauce (or Tonkatsu). It isn't traditional but I like Hoisin with my Mayo. If you have done your shopping you will also have Aonori (powdered green seaweed) and Katsuobushi (finely cut tuna flakes) to sprinkle on top. But I can tell you it tastes awfully good even without the sprinkles.

There is also the Hiroshima version of Okonomiyaki, which relates to the Osaka version more or less the way Cincinnati Chili relates to Chili from anywhere else on the planet. There are noodles and eggs added to the basic recipe and the cooking technique is a little different.

This is a dish very much worth trying. It's not hard to cook and it's very savory. The hard part is the shopping, if you are a perfectionist. If you are NOT a perfectionist, buy some cabbage, flour, eggs, and bacon and give it a shot.

Frank

That looks eminently edible!

Here's a fairly easy version. Googling will turn up hundreds of recipes.

http://visualrecipes.com/recipe-details ... ese-Pizza/

Note -- you have to cook rather slow and long because the center of this pancake can turn out gummy-gluey.

With all that sauce and mayo I find I don't even mind that but it kind of drives Louise crazy.

If you go to ANY asian market you should find Kombu and Bonito dashi powder. You treat Kombu something like tea leaves. It is a thick dried kelp, you put it into boiling water (but DO NOT BOIL it) and let it steep for half an hour, and you get something rich and interesting. Take out the seaweed and throw it away. The dashi powder, throw in a little and you get a fishy meaty flavor. Buddhist monks make a beautiful clear dashi from nothing but Kombu. If this freaks you out buy a can of Campbell's Chicken Broth.

F

When I lived in Tokyo, I used to go with my colleagues to eat monja in the Tsukishima district. I understood from them that it's a Kanto variation on okonomiyaki. Not my favourite Japanese food but nice on occasion. Ramen was my real comfort food there... and the best thing to slurp down after a night of drinking.

When I lived in Tokyo, I used to go with my colleagues to eat monja in the Tsukishima district. I understood from them that it's a Kanto variation on okonomiyaki. Not my favourite Japanese food but nice on occasion. Ramen was my real comfort food there... and the best thing to slurp down after a night of drinking.

Wikipedia says Monja Street is the main street of Tsukishima, and that "Monjayaki" is a liquid runny version of the dish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki

I suppose I wouldn't like that quite as well...

F

I live in Japan now - here is a link of some okonomiyaki photos I posted in another section of the site. Click the link and then scroll down a bit

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10974&p=184246#p184246

[Jenise]

At any rate in the fashion of Osaka, you mix the chopped cabbage in with the batter, and you start to pre-fry the toppings before pouring in the batter. Then you flip the pancake over and finish browning the second side, and serve. Part of the extreme deliciousness of this dish comes from the fact that you cover it with sauce when serving. You will want mayonnaise in a squeeze bottle and Okonomi sauce (or Tonkatsu). It isn't traditional but I like Hoisin with my Mayo. If you have done your shopping you will also have Aonori (powdered green seaweed) and Katsuobushi (finely cut tuna flakes) to sprinkle on top. But I can tell you it tastes awfully good even without the sprinkles.

Frank, I came in here this morning planning to start a thread of my own titled Conveyor Belt Sushi, but gosh, now that I've read your informative post, I know what those beautiful flat 4" diameter things were that started going by just as we were getting our check last night--they looked like a very well-developed flower that has opened out completely and gone a bit flat, or an umbrella whose spokes have been rendered straight in a big wind. Each was attractively propped up on its side on a short nest of fried rice noodles. They were Okonomiyaki--a food that has never ever passed before me before. And yes, they were topped with several sauces including squeeze bottle mayonnaise and and what I now realize were the other toppings you mention. My aversion to mayo prevented me from tasting these delicacies, but they were quite beautiful and I was disappointed that our seating position was such that we weren't close enough to any of the sushi makers to ask what they were. Boy are you handy!

And that introduces my topic quite well--conveyer belt sushi. I had never been to such a restaurant before encountering one in Vancouver, but one recently opened in Bellingham and we decided to try it. It's obviously a huge success--the place was slammed. We had a half hour wait for seating space, and in this economy no other restaurant in this town owns that luxury. And for anyone who is not familiar, what I'm talking about is a restaurant that is one giant sushi bar, only there are multiple sushi makers who put their wares on color coded plates (in this case, yellow plates were $1.50 and black were $3.50 with three other price ranges in between), top them with little clear domes, and then set them onto conveyor belts where patrons help themselves. Approximately 40 diners can be served at the same time this way.

I have to admit that the time I saw this in Vancouver, I thought it was hokey and touristy. There's certainly no tea-house calm, no zen, to this process. It is not serious dining. But Bellingham has terrible sushi and the guy who started this place had gotten great reviews at the little place he worked at in Lynden, and which I didn't get to try before it burned down in a fire, so I was willing in a new, slightly desperate way, to give the place a try. Conveyor belt or not.

So in we walked to this noisy, brightly lit yellow space, which is already not what I want from the sushi experience, and I scanned the faces of the sushi makers in elegant hopi style jackets, if I have the term right, of the 'cooks' as if finding them more likely to be Vietnamese or Chinese would confirm that I'd been suckered once again. Which it wouldn't--I was just looking for fault to quell the rising excitement I felt, like when I was a kid and we arrived at Disneyland and got that first view of the Monorail as it sped past the parking lot, on seeing all that sushi zooming around the room.

And it dawned on me that there were serious advantages to this. Think dim sum as delivered by carts--the original Asian businessman's quick lunch. Impersonal and cutesy though the delivery system is, the food was being hand-made in a traditional and hygienic manner from good ingredients, and there's a lot to be said (tapas, anyone?) for being able to partake of a larger variety of smaller portions of just about any cuisine. I had seaweed salad, octopus salad, 6 or 7 different rolls and many pieces of plain raw fish on rice--suddenly can't think of the name. Nigiri? And could have had, if I'd been more daring and understood what it was, even something as authentic as Okonomiyaki. I probably only sampled 30% of the food that went by--I got too full! We had 15 plates and shared a large bottle of Kirin for $42.

So I walked in a doubter, came out a fan. It's a true case of don't blame the messenger--the conveyor belt itself is not the determiner of quality. Oh sure, it's not an elegant dining experience but not all meals at all times of day are about that. For fast and fresh, you can't beat it.

So in we walked to this noisy, brightly lit yellow space, which is already not what I want from the sushi experience, and I scanned the faces of the sushi makers in elegant hopi style jackets, if I have the term right, of the 'cooks' as if finding them more likely to be Vietnamese or Chinese would confirm that I'd been suckered once again. Which it wouldn't--I was just looking for fault to quell the rising excitement I felt, like when I was a kid and we arrived at Disneyland and got that first view of the Monorail as it sped past the parking lot, on seeing all that sushi zooming around the room.

Jenise,
I've seen a variant of this in the suburbs of Portland: a sushi place where the sushi came out in boats floating on a circulting "river." Quite a bit less noisy/glitzy than your place, but otherwise quite a similar concept.

Mark Lipton

And there's the place in Philly, across from the train station, where they have the conveyor belt of sushi come around to your location. One of Starr's places, but can't remember the name right now.

Philly is getting pretty close to me. You're talking 30th Street or downtown? I'm curious about this, please tell me the name if you remember it, or an approximate address. I have friends in Philly who could try it out.

I decided to move this picture here from the Easter thread. It is a children's book, "Old Grandma Okonomiyaki"

She is wielding the spatulas that are often used to serve the dish -- you don't necessarily get a whole "pancake" -- you are given an edge piece and when you eat that another piece is cut off, so that each bite is hot and fresh off the griddle.


[/quote]

F

I've seen a variant of this in the suburbs of Portland: a sushi place where the sushi came out in boats floating on a circulting "river." Quite a bit less noisy/glitzy than your place, but otherwise quite a similar concept.

Even in Memphis, Tennessee.

for what it's worth - conveyor belt sushi is not some American perversion of tradition - there are many places like that in Tokyo

Frank, love the title of that book – roughly Grandma’s “Anything is OK” Okonomiyaki

I’m also a big fan of kaitenzushi. The places I used to go to in Tokyo were almost entirely self-service. There were ample supplies of shoyu, wasabi, ginger and green tea bags/powder you could help yourself to. Of course you could place special orders with the chefs if you wanted, but I was usually pretty happy with the selection (but did take care to avoid items I thought had been circulating for too long.) Last time I was in Singapore, I went to a kaitenzushi place that had touch screen monitors from which you could place your orders. It was cool.

Happy Easter to all! (Easter is already over this side of the Pacific.)

[Jenise]

for what it's worth - conveyor belt sushi is not some American perversion of tradition - there are many places like that in Tokyo

Considering Japanese ingenuity and technology, that's not surprising at all.

[Jenise]

John, you inspired me to see if googling could find the originator of this type of sushi, and under "conveyor belt sushi" on Wikipedia I found the answer:

Conveyor belt sushi was invented by Yoshiaki Shiraishi (1914-2001), who had problems staffing his small sushi restaurant and had difficulties managing the restaurant by himself. He got the idea of a conveyor belt sushi after watching beer bottles on a conveyor belt in an Asahi brewery. After five years of development, including the design of the conveyor belt and the speed of operations, Shiraishi opened the first conveyor belt sushi Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Osaka in 1958, quickly creating a chain of 240 restaurants all over Japan. However, the number of restaurants was down to 11 in 2001. Shiraishi also invented a robotic sushi, served by robots, but this idea has not had commercial success....

Conveyor belt sushi is a market of 240 billion yen annually in Japan, with almost 3,000 restaurants (data from 2001).[citation needed] This popular type of restaurant can be found in other places in the world. However, some traditionalists criticize conveyor belt sushi restaurants as destroying the ritual of eating sushi as many traditional sushi restaurants are driven out of business under competition.

Frank, love the title of that book – roughly Grandma’s “Anything is OK” Okonomiyaki

Hi Alex, and how would you pronounce "Anything is OK"? I think it's part of Okonomiyaki -- whatever you want, on the grill. I'm just cutting up some cooked "Tako" that I got from our local Greek market, to go in it.

We had a beautiful easter here. Lots of flowers, lots of sunshine but still quite cool.

Louise called her brother in Vermont -- they went out for an Easter breakfast which turned out to be in the town where that American captain lived. Lots of yellow ribbons everywhere. Of course there was good news about him today as well.

Frank

Hi Alex, and how would you pronounce "Anything is OK"? I think it's part of Okonomiyaki -- whatever you want, on the grill.

Frank, you're right. But the way I read it - and my Japanese is rusty - the repetition in the title makes it cute. The Japanese title is Bababaachan no nandemo okonomiyaki, where nandemo means "anything is fine" or "anything is ok".

Tako sounds yummy, I'm looking forward to hearing how it turned out!

I don't know how completely I understand the situation but I think that even in Japan, sushi is something special. To be done right you have to have fish that is absolutely fresh and of the best quality. This is going to be expensive and a special treat whether it's eaten in New Jersey or Shibuya.

But Okonomiyaki starts out as a cabbage pancake. "Soul food." You have to grate or finely chop the cabbage (my tongue says "rice" when I taste it). Make a batter of eggs and flour and "dashi." This is japanese soup broth that tastes a little of fish and seaweed, there are various very easy ways to produce it. "Okonomi" means "whatever you want" and so the ingredients are whatever you feel like eating. In that way this really is "Japanese Pizza" because we can order cheese or sausage or mushrooms or pineapple or black olives etc etc. The traditional Japanese toppings would be squid and shrimp and shredded pork. But I think nowadays things like bacon or cheddar cheese are not uncommon.

Sushi as something special - well, yes and no. In Japan, if you want to take someone out for a nice meal one would never take them to a sushi restaurant. It's not viewed as special, even though there are places that treat it, rightfully, as a high art.

Regarding Okonomiyaki, according to my Japanese co-workers none of them prepare it at home. But it certainly is a comfort food. What would make it more of a special evening, than sushi, with friends is that it is a communal dining experience. Typically, all the diners participate in adding their own ingredients and helping to cook okonomiyaki at their table. It's the, to borrow a german word, gemütlichkeit, that raises it to the comfort food level, similar to other Japanese meals such as, shabu-shabu, nabe or even korean barbeque. Everyone participates, shares, and helps others, especially any children, cook the food.

Now for a speacial impress-the-guests kind of meal, that would be either Kaiseki or western-style haut-cuisine.

Thanks Alex and Eric -- I am feeling my way along here, both with the cooking and the language, so what you've told me is helpful.

Last night I used "kits" for my Okonomiyaki -- three kits made six pancakes. I had rummaged around and found a metal ring a little more than six inches in diameter, and that really helped get a circular shape so they looked very good. The kit has you start by adding powdered yam to 160 ml of water (as a chemist I really liked having my measurements in the metric system!), stirring it, and then adding a flavored flour and stirring that in, and 2 beaten eggs. You are not supposed to over-stir because it makes it tough. So when you add the cabbage, thin sliced scallions, and octopus you basically just fold it in until mixed. Oh, you also add in a package of what looks like Rice Krispies. I had imagined that this would retain some crunchiness in the final product, but it didn't and I am a little unclear what the purpose was. Well -- it's tempura leftovers I suppose and that would give some flavor. The octopus was pre-cooked and very tender, from the Greek store. Tako.

Anyway I put the ring into a preheated teflon pan, loaded it up with the thick pancake mixture (there is a lot of chopped cabbage, 150 gm per kit) and lifted off the ring -- put it into the OTHER preheated teflon pan and loaded it up again. One kit, 2 pancakes. For non-vegetarians you then put a couple of slices of bacon on TOP of each pancake. Cook 3 minutes (the first side should be browned) and flip over using 2 spatulas. Cook 5 minutes (pressing down at first) and then flip AGAIN back to the first side and cook another couple of minutes. I had a stovetop -- what do you call it, flat slab of metal (teppan). Grill? I transferred the pancakes there and loaded up another couple of pancakes.

These looked beautiful and tasted very good. I had actual Okonomi sauce and Kewpie mayonnaise to squeeze on top, and green powdered Aonori and lovely little fish flakes or Katsuobushi to sprinkle on top of the sauce. We were 100% authentic last night.

I suppose I was a little disappointed, the octopus was so tender you couldn't tell when you were eating it. And I had imagined that the texture would be completely different from my initial non-kit pancakes. It was not much different although I was very careful to follow all the instructions -- I suppose that really means that my initial efforts were pretty good. The important part is that the dish got raves from everyone. We had it as the third course in an "around the world" menu (the first courses were Moroccan and Persian) so I gave everyone half a pancake, but several of us needed a little more than that.

I'll probably get more kits. I'll certainly do it again, perhaps more likely with my own recipe with regular flour. Oh, and I may actually prefer Hoisin sauce to the watery texture of the Okonomi sauce I bought...

Frank

Jenise, "conveyor belt sushi", or a "sushi train" as it's known here, is really common. We love it, although it can cost us a fortune - our eldest likes to get the spot next to the window where the sushi comes out and just picks up the dishes as they're made. We've taken to feeding him a large sandwich before we go, because we find we'll save 25% of the meal cost that way. (He'll still eat like a horse, just not like a lion). I had a funny story - a friend took her 18 year old son to Sushi Train for dinner and had to buy him a kebab on the way home because he was still hungry..

Our sushi trains are quite sophisticated now - we can get everything from sushi to hot dishes and desserts. I love okonomiyaki (as it's made here - I'm sure it's very boring compared to the real deal) and will have to try making it - thanks Frank! The other dish which we all love at the sushi train is the little bowls of endamame - we can go through two or three of these at one sitting.

Cheers, Celia