117 replies to this topic

[Yuki]

All of the okonomiyaki seems rather large to be eaten by one person..... but we always order one for each person since it looks bad if two people share a normal serving of food.

Really? We always share our okonomiyaki, I thought that was the norm. So do you cook yours at the same time, or does one person go first while the other person waits? Seems strange to me...

When we go to a restaurant then we cook both of them at the same time on the table in front of us. Of course when we get two okonomiyaki between two people, we always share. It is always too much food.....

I never tried cooking okonomiyaki at home before.

[Hiroyuki]

The ingredients shown in the photo plus eggs are about all that I need to make okonomiyaki. Too many ingredients spoil my homemade okonomiyaki.

[Yuki]

Just got back from Japan a couple days ago. Never realize that holidays can be so tiring.

I went to Hokkaido and Osaka during my holidays and noticed that the okonomiyaki from the same chain(Fugetsu) can be totally different. The okonomiyaki that I got in Sapporo, Hokkaido is more dough like. The one in Osaka is mostly cabbages with some egg. The menu in Sapporo is more complex, featuring Monjayaki and lots more different combinations of ingredients. Also, more people seems to be cooking the food on their own in Sapporo. In Osaka, the employees did everything from mixing the cabbages, cooking the okonomiyaki, and putting on the sauce.

Also tried the takoyaki in both Osaka and Sapporo. I prefer the chain(forgot its name) originated from Tokyo because it is crispy and not too watery. The takoyaki in Osaka is more soft and it is like eating a bunch of wet dough.
I didn't try every takoyaki and okonomiyaki in Hokkaido and Osaka so my judgment can be incorrect.

[nikko]

Also tried the takoyaki in both Osaka and Sapporo. I prefer the chain(forgot its name) originated from Tokyo because it is crispy and not too watery. The takoyaki in Osaka is more soft and it is like eating a bunch of wet dough.

I believe good takoyaki should contain lots of tenkasu (tiny balls of tempura batter). Some takoyaki places in Kyoto makes very good takoyaki - crispy and rich.

The secret to good Osaka-style okonomiyaki is yamaimo (yam?). Since I almost never go to okonomiyaki restaurant, I can't tell which place is good. I went to Botejyu in Osaka long ago; their okonomiyaki was juicy and rich with plenty of yamaimo.
I found Bisquick is good substitute for okonomiyaki-ko.

[Foodie_Penguin]

I like Osaka style, everything all mixed together, a nice cabbage, seafood, nagaimo mix for me topped with some thin slices of pork belly, the finished product topped with okonomiyaki asuce, mayo, aonori, and benishoga.

My absolute favorite though?
monjya-yaki

I prefer Osaka style okonomiyaki but I may be slightly biased because my father is from Osaka.

I think I must have seen monjya style okonomiyaki last time I was in Japan. I was taken to a little okonomiyaki joint in an underground shopping center next to a subway station in Tokyo (thi was nearly five years ago) and I saw diners close by eating what I considered very runny okonomiyaki. It didn't look too appetizing to me.

Also, there is (was?) an okonomiyaki restaurant in central London. I used to go there and take my non-Japanese friends there for some Japanese cuisine. It was very close to the British Museum. I've no idea if it's still there.

I'd like to make okonomiyaki at home but I don't have a flat griddle (teppan)





Foodie Penguin

[torakris]

I'd like to make okonomiyaki at home but I don't have a flat griddle (teppan)





Foodie Penguin

I have never used a teppan, I alwyas make it in a frying pan, I usually have two going at once!

[Foodie_Penguin]

I'd like to make okonomiyaki at home but I don't have a flat griddle (teppan) 





Foodie Penguin

I have never used a teppan, I alwyas make it in a frying pan, I usually have two going at once!

From my experience of flipping pancakes (mostly crepes) in frying pans, I think it would be easier to turn over an okonomiyaki on something completely flat without deep sides, like a teppan. Especially since the okonomiyaki is thicker than a crepe.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'd like to make okonomiyaki at home but I don't have a flat griddle (teppan) 





Foodie Penguin

I have never used a teppan, I alwyas make it in a frying pan, I usually have two going at once!

From my experience of flipping pancakes (mostly crepes) in frying pans, I think it would be easier to turn over an okonomiyaki on something completely flat without deep sides, like a teppan. Especially since the okonomiyaki is thicker than a crepe.

I used a frying pan as well -- many of us down't have a teppan and can work it okay. I use the method of sliding it onto a plate and then flipping the plate with components, upside down. Yeah, I usually lose stuff, but it works.

[helenjp]

We stopped at Okonomimura, a Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki place in the Niko-niko Road shopping street near Higashi-koenji station (come out on the north side exit, and head a few steps along Ome-kaido toward Shinjuku, then hang a left along the road that goes diagonally off it to the north) on the Marunouchi subway line (Tokyo) to cheer ourselves up after hospital visiting yesterday.

As we were hot, tired, dispirited, and had intended to take our kids to a great tonkatsu restaurant that we remembered until we found that it was closed, Okonomimura started under handicap, but the food was cheerful and pleasant, the service ditto, and they gave us a discount because it was so damn hot! If you're a Carps fan, you might get a discount anyway (if the team's winning, that is...).

We liked the menu - one side contained dishes "to fill you up", while the other had smaller portions. We found the smaller portions quite enough, and worked our way through 2 pork-negi deluxe, yaki-soba (can't say what that tasted like - son2 said it was "all mine" and refused to let anybody else take a bite!), and some yaki-udon. Their dishes were good without being stodgy or buried in condiments.

Okonomimura
1-6-19 Koenji-minami
Tel (03) 3311 5503高円寺南１－６－１９

Okonomimura URL (Japanese)

[Akiko]

I like Osaka style, everything all mixed together, a nice cabbage, seafood, nagaimo mix for me topped with some thin slices of pork belly, the finished product topped with okonomiyaki asuce, mayo, aonori, and benishoga.

My absolute favorite though?
monjya-yaki 


I prefer Osaka style okonomiyaki but I may be slightly biased because my father is from Osaka.

Are there other types of okonomiyaki besides Osaka style and monjya yaki? I think these are the only two I'm familiar with. And Torakris, I'm sooo jealous. I haven't had monjya yaki in almost 8 years (the last time I was in Japan). I don't know of a single restaurant that makes monjya yaki outside of Japan... in fact the only restaurant i know of that does Okonomiyaki on a teppan grill in front of you, outside of Japan, is Abeno's in London. As far as I know, there is nothing like this in New York or Chicago.. although there must be somewhere in California...possibly Vancouver or Hawaii?

[dougery]

I made okonomiyaki from scratch last night and had a most enjoyable meal with my wife. Okonomiyaki continues to be on of my all time favorites meals and I think I will die with a mouthfull of okonomiyaki and mochi. My mother made okonomiyaki that was well cooked and had a bit of a dumpling consistency. When I ate it in Japan (not the self cooked style but served) it always came a bit wet and runny. Is this typical for the Osaka style of Okonomiyaki? I probably wont make it this way for I was raised on a well cooked version, but I was just curious. I typically like mine very simple: cabbage, LOTS of scallions, side pork and nori. No mayo, or okonomiyaki sauce. Just soy and some chili oil and lots of green tea.

How do you folks prepare/eat yours?

[helenjp]

Yep, it's definitely getting to the okonomiyaki season!

I lived in Osaka before I moved to Tokyo, so I like the soft or "fluffy" texture (depending on how well done the pancake is) you get from adding yama-imo (yam). My husband likes the floury Tokyo style, which I find a bit stodgy. So now I use flour AND yama-imo (you can also buy it dried and powdered) AND egg, but I only use a bare minimum of batter, with more cabbage than seems sane - it cooks down a lot.

Like it with mayo and a dribble of sauce, topped with ao-nori and shaved katsuo, son1 likes mayo, sauce, and ketchup all blended together

[dougery]

Sounds wonderful, I wish I could fly over there for dinner tonight... Was the okonomiyaki served or did you prepare it yourself?

Preparing it yourself is fun. I once went to an okonomiyaki party at a friends house. They had three griddles on a huge coffee table, with tons of different ingredients in the middle (squid, octopus, beef, shrimp, eggplant,etc..) and everyone sat around and cooked their own. It's a great party to throw especially in the winter, it will bring your home temperature up to about 80 degrees (great way to save money on your heating bill!)

Edited by dougery, 13 September 2004 - 05:20 PM.

[dougery]

I'm sorry in advance if I got this wrong but for "resources" I'll assume you meant ingredients.

Carolyn's thread recommendation has a lot of good links for recipes but here is what I like to do. Since I have never really used measuring cups when I make this I'll go by approximation.

Batter

* about two cups flour
* two eggs
* 1+ cups cold water and/or dashi (vegetable stock works well too)
* 1/2 tspn salt (if just using water)

Ingredients to mix in batter:

* 2 cups sliced cabbage
* 1/2 cup chopped scallions
(other suggestions: chopped squid, chopped octopus, chopped prawns, sliced age tofu, etc)

Mix together, it should have a thick pancake like consistency.

suggested toppings (assorted combinations like pizza):

Thinly sliced side pork
Thinly sliced beef
squid
octopus
eggplant
prawns
mochi
Pickled ginger
nori
bonito

(I experimented with topping it with finely sliced seared maguro and ponzu.. it was excellent)

mayo
okonomiyaki sauce


There is a specific order in how you will want to apply toppings, flip the okonomiyaki, apply finishing toppings, and Carolyns thread recommendation will probably give you better instructions.

It is best prepared on a griddle in the middle of the table and have each person dress and prepare their own okonomiyaki. There are almost an infinite number of variations to this "pancake" so experimentation is a must.

I hope this is what you were looking for. I could include more info if you'd like.

[torakris]

Yep, it's definitely getting to the okonomiyaki season!

I lived in Osaka before I moved to Tokyo, so I like the  soft or "fluffy" texture (depending on how well done the pancake is) you get from adding yama-imo (yam). My husband likes the floury Tokyo style, which I find a bit stodgy. So now I use flour AND yama-imo (you can also buy it dried and powdered) AND egg, but I only use a bare minimum of batter, with more cabbage than seems sane - it cooks down a lot.

Like it with mayo and a dribble of sauce, topped with ao-nori and shaved katsuo, son1 likes mayo, sauce, and ketchup all blended together 

My okonimayi is very similar to Helen's, fluffy and slightly mosit and with much more cabbage than batter. I also top it the same! My husband tops it like her son...

Though sometimes I do a seafood version, my favorite is with thin slices of fatty pork from the belly. Pour/scoup the okonomiyaki into the pan/griddle and places strips of fatty pork on top, then flip it over to cook the pork side, I like to turn up the heat at the end to the pork becomes nice and crispy.

Okonomiyaki parties are fun, I did them a lot in college with my Japanese and Korean friends and I just had one last winter with some Japanese friends here.

We should declare some day okonomiyaki day andhave a big internet okonomiyaki party!

[tejon]

I'm in! I have made them from a recipe found online, but hadn't seen one with yam as an ingredient before now. If I wanted to include yam in the batter, what kind of yam would I be looking for? Do I finely shred the yam, or pulverize it in the blender? What does it add to the texture and flavor of the finished dish?

[Palladion]

I think it's traditionally yamaimo (mountain potato), which I've seen described as a starchy and sticky yam. I have no idea how changing that to a more normal yam would affect the texture and flavor.

I found a short blurb on yamamimo at this page: Bob and Angie

Here's the blurb:

Starchy, sticky yam/root. Ginengyo is wild yamaimo. nagaimo and yamaimo are culivatated. Grinded yamaimo with dashijiu is tororo. Put tororo on wheat rice, raw tuna or soba noodles. To prevent itching on hands and lips, soak yamaimo in vinegar and water before grinding. Add water to dried yamaimo in use as sticky starch.

I haven't had all that much success with okonomiyaki so far, but I'll give it another shot on the 1st!

-------
Alex Parker

[dougery]

Edited by dougery, 18 September 2004 - 02:19 PM.

[white lotus]

Just letting you all know that I am a great okonomiyaki fan here in the Pacific NW but unfortunately, no fabulous okonomiyaki restaurants here . I will be anxiously awaiting the photos and reports. It is not my wedding aniversary but I am unable to participate that day as I am busy . BTW for the person who does not eat eggs, I found that substituting tororo imo for the eggs helped keep the integrity of the batter. Also, substituting spelt flour for wheat (for those with allergies) did not make much of a difference. (I know that most likely this info may have already been shared on a past post and no one asked but I feel compelled to share with you all the results of my failed attempts to make okonomiyaki here.) I also found that for those of us here in the states who do not have ready access of bulldog or or that brown sticky sauce that usually goes on top, I have substituted A-1 sauce. The bold and spicy version is also a great substitute. I had a better result of a crispy crust with a cast iron pan than with a non-stick pan. I look forward to your monjya-yaki day celebration. Minnasan gambatte! (perseverance!) Sincerely, White Lotus

[torakris]

A-1 sauce, who would have thought?

thanks for all that info!

[Hiroyuki]

Healthy, low-cost, low-fat, and high-protein okonomiyaki
Ingredients:
Finely sliced cabbage
2 eggs
Boiled corn
Small dry shrimp
Tofu (momen)
Flour

All ingredients in a bowl, except flour:

Add flour (I didn't have to add any water) and mix well

Pan-fry

Pizza-style (put cheese and sesame seeds on top, sprinckle soy sauce, pan-fry, place on plate, and sprinkle bonito flakes)
This is how my wife and chidren ate it (mayo, ketchup, and tonkatsu sauce mixed together and bonito flakes
Not the greatest in the world but one of the healthiest... No?

Edited by Hiroyuki, 01 October 2004 - 05:47 AM.

[Palladion]

Alright, I survived okonomiyaki day! This is perhaps the 4th time I've made this dish, and it's probably my best attempt so far. I used a okonomiyaki mix and shredded cabbage and naganegi (Japanese long onion / dividing onion).

I just cooked up a single, small okonomiyaki:


Here it is, undressed. I topped it with a single strip of pork and some additional egg. The egg worked really well, I though, I wish I had used more. You can tell from the picture that I undercooked it. I'll practice again tomorrow -- I still have a lot more of all of the ingredients left over.



And then here it after I dressed it. Very simple this time: I just used okonomiyaki sauce and fish flakes. I actually like a touch (just a small touch, really) of mayonaise on my okonomiyaki, but I don't use it nearly often enough to justify keeping it in my (small) refrigderator.


It was nice, but I'll do a number of things differently tomorrow: Definitely more toppings (more pork, more egg) and longer cooking. Maybe look into adding a little bit of a few extra ingredients like carrot or ginger. Maybe I'll steal some ideas from other people who post their own okonomiyaki day experiences here.


-------
Alex Parker

[torakris]

Hiroyuki,
do you often use tofu in your okonomiyaki? I have never seen that before, but it sounds good!

pictures coming soon!

[torakris]

I normally like pork on my okonomiyaki, but pork was expensive yesterday and these shrimp just looked too good. So I addded shrimp, lots of negi (Japanese scallion), nagaimo (mountain yam), cabbage, along with flour, eggs, water and some salt, normally I add some powdered dashi for more flavor but was out.




the finished product (1 of 3)




topped with mayo (Kewpie 1/4 = quarter the fat/calories ), okonomiyaki sauce and katsuo-bushi

[tejon]

Didn't get a chance to get pictures as I was cooking (small persons got in the way), but here is the end result:



I added green onion, shredded daikon, and pork belly. Topped it with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, and some benishoga. Five minutes later and it's all gone.

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki,
do you often use tofu in your okonomiyaki? I have never seen that before, but it sounds good!

Tofu is a special ingredient that I used for this very special occasion. (I would have felt guilty if I had used premade okonomiyaki flour.) Actually, this is the very first time that I have put tofu in the mixture. It turned out very good. No one didn't notice that tofu was in it.

[smallworld]

Just finished our Okonimiyaki Day. My husband, from Osaka, fancies himself an okonomiyaki expert, so he did all of the actual cooking.
We did four kinds, but were full by the third, so we'll be brunching on okonomiyaki tomorrow. This is not a problem.

Here are the ingredients:

We made a basic kiji (batter) of flour, baking powder, egg, sakura-ebi (tiny dried pink shrimp), dashi powder, grated yama-imo (mountain yam), and water.
For each okonomiyaki, we'd mix this kiji with finely sliced cabbage and whatever extras we felt like, including beni-shoga (red pickled ginger), cheese, chopped kimchi, age-dama (little deep-fried balls of tempura batter), and chopped negi (green onion).
The batter is then cooked with pork, and for the modan-yaki, yaki-soba noodles; then the okonomiyaki is topped with whatever seasonings we feel like: okonomiyaki sauce, soy sauce, katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes), and more chopped negi. We usually also use ao-nori (seaweed flakes) but we forgot to buy it. Mayonnaise is banned in this house.

First up is kimchi-cheese okonomiyaki.

This was hands-down the best okonomiyaki of the day. I think the cheese we used was key- we used an aged New Zealand Cheddar, which really stood up to the kimchi. I think regular Japanese grated cheese would have been underwhelming.
This okonomiyaki had such a strong flavour that we didn't need to add any sauce- just a splash of soy sauce and a sprinkly of katsuo-bushi.
This will become a regular item on our okonomiyaki menu.

Next, modan-yaki:

This is a regular okonomiyaki topped with plain yaki-soba noodles. Topped with lots of the usual sauce and katsuo-bushi.
Here it is ready to go:


Next, tompei-yaki, an item only found in a few down-market Osaka okonomiyaki houses.

Very very simple- just a flour and water batter pancake, fried egg and pork , cooked seperately and then stacked into one.

Topped with sauce, negi and katsuo-bushi.

The last two were regular okonomiyaki with age-dama, beni-shouga and pork:

A bit burnt, but we weren't really paying attention. These are just for leftovers.

Edited by smallworld, 02 October 2004 - 09:45 PM.

[torakris]

that tompei yaki is interesting, I have never seen anything like it.

kimchi and cheese is one combination I just haven't been able to try yet......

[melonpan]

id like to start out by thanking torakris for such a great thread... its nice to be able to participate in this kind of a way...

last night i made two types of okonomiyaki... actually one kind. the other might not quite qualify...

raw ingredients: flour and eggs (both not shown), shredded cabbage, chopped shrimp, nagaimo, leftover spam, kimchi and scallions.
<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com....jpg"></center>

this was my first time using nagaimo and i did not expect the texture to be like jicama. for some reason i was expecting more of a potato or perhaps carrot like texture. instead as i sliced it it turned out to be crispy/slimy (i knew it should be slimy, but somehow i forgot that). instead of the cheese grater i was going to employ, i ended up using my radish (daikon) grater and that turned out to be the right instrument. fun!

i used the same basic batter for both types of okonomiyaki: flour, eggs, some water, nagaimo, dashi and some extra salt.

for the first type of pancake, i added shredded cabbage, spam and shrimp.

for the second, i decided to make something called pa-jeon (which many japanese seem to call chijimi, which is a korean word i do not recognise). i made kimchi pajeon, which is my favourite kind. the "pa" in pajeon means "scallions". lots of scallions and kimchi, extra kimchi juice and some spam. no cabbage. come to think of it, kimchi is cabbage!

both turned out well if i may say so myself. hubby seemed to like them too, but i think he liked the kimchi one more... i topped the japanese style okonomiyaki with okonomi sauce, some mayo, some babystar (kristin, do you usually add the babystar to the batter? i was wondering that as i was sprinkling them on top), and a little bit of aonori.

the pajeon was eaten plain, as is the usual style. because of the dashi and the kimchi, there wasnt any need for the usual soy sauce/vinegar accompaniment.

<center>okonomiyaki
<img src="http://www.rawbw.com....jpg"></center>
<center>pajeon
<img src="http://www.rawbw.com....jpg"></center>

thank you again, kristin for a great idea!

[helenjp]

A day late and a dollar short, as usual...and no pix, sorry! Son1 was in charge of taking photos, but somehow, there's nothing on the camera.

We made three types...all using the same batter. I think I used about 1 lb flour, a slightly smaller volume of dashi, 3 beaten eggs, and a ridiculous amount of naga-imo - about 10" length, grated. I had a large cabbage, so half of that shredded made a huge bowlful - added that to most of the batter, along with some chopped red pickled ginger, 1 finely chopped naganegi, 1 bunch of scallions, chopped, and a generous pack of ten-kasu (fried scraps from tempura). We fried up a little under 1lb of pork slices, and dropped the batter onto them in spoonfuls - the reverse of the normal procedure, but it works...

For the second type, we dropped plain batter on to the fried pork, then fried a little shredded cabbage and onion separately, and turned the pancake over on top of that. This normally works well, but this time round, the huge amount of naga-imo made the batter very cohesive, so it didn't run down into the cabbage enough. The naga-imo does stop the batter getting too floury and stodgy though.

We topped ours with the stanadard tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, ao-nori, and katsuo-bushi.

Third type...drumroll...canned fruit fried on the hotplate with a dollop of plain batter on top. Our sons were the only takers for this version, but they thought "dessert okonomiyaki" was pretty good! I suggested mayonnaise with it, but they wisely ignored me.