Pancake alert
Today on Gourmet.com:
Okonomiyaki: The Pancake Pizza
I’d never cooked with mountain potato before, and it’s pretty awesome: It appears to be an ordinary daikon-like root vegetable, but when it hits the grater, it immediately turns into ribbons of slime. (Fresh-tasting slime that helps give okonomiyaki its toothsome texture, I hasten to add.)
edit: Here’s the okonomiyaki I made for myself:
Comment by Bishop
Hmm, the okonomoyaki I remember eating have the meats fried into them, and are only topped with bonito and sauces — flavored mayo and hot sauce of some sort. It this a difference between home okonomiyaki and restaurant okonomiyaki, or something else?
Anyways, yay okonomiyaki!
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Comment by mamster
The meat is cooked in in these, it’s just not added to the batter. As for the toppings, I think it’s really an anything-goes thing. You can certainly find it either way, and lots of other ways I didn’t mention, like the style with soba noodles fried into it.
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Comment by Rob K
Woah, that looks like a literal “pizza” interpretation of okonomiyaki. I bet it was good though! The name literally means “grilled as you like it”, kind of like Burger King! So theoretically there’s no wrong way to make it. :)(probably it originally meant “grilled to order” or “grilled fresh”, really?)
Would you be interested in some play-by-play, “making of the” okonomiyaki pictures?
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Comment by mamster
Definitely, Rob! Let’s see them.
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Comment by Stacy
ha, when I was travelling this week I unloaded my backpack - and found the rice seasoning I dragged up to Maine last summer for okonomiyaki. reminding me that we need to make some.
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Comment by Katelyn
The Okonomiyaki or whatever at Boom Noodle is great — definitely my go-to dish there. I hadn’t even considered trying to make it, but… genius! When I was there the first time, the waiter suggested it but with this caveat: “It’s a BURST OF FLAVOR. If you don’t like flavorful foods, you might not like this. It’s explosive.” How could I not order it with a recommendation like that?
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Comment by mamster
“It’s a BURST OF FLAVOR. If you don’t like flavorful foods, you might not like this. It’s explosive. I’m going to set this fire extinguisher right here on the table. Do you have health insurance? What’s the deductible on that? I’m going to need to give you a routine ear, nose, and throat exam before you eat this.”
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Comment by brandon
Wow, that looks good. It would make our friend Crispy Anco proud.
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Comment by Katelyn
Yes, I tipped him well for the free ENT exams that came with dinner.
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Comment by Jason Truesdell
I don’t think the baking powder is customary. In fact, it probably makes the texture very different from normal okonomiyaki. It might be necessary when you don’t have the mountain yam available and need to substitute water or dashi, but I’ve never seen anyone use it and I don’t use it.
Wikipedia Japan says that the ratio of cabbage:yamaimo/nagaimo:egg:flour should be about 4:3:2:1 to 3:2:2:1. I believe that normally the fancier okonomiyaki in Kansai region just has the yamaimo, no water or dashi. (Hiroshima seems to prefer dashi).
I highly recommend including some kizami-shouga, pickled matchstick cut ginger, or perhaps ordinary beni-shouga. Especially, but not exclusively, if you’re doing something pork-driven (though I say this as a vegetarian).
The sriracha would be rare too, but almost anything goes, after all… some people use shichimi togarashi, which is usually mistransliterated as nanami togarashi here. Also there’s a slightly spicier version of the okonomiyaki sauce available at some places.
Posted on April 23, 2008 at 9:17 am
Comment by mamster
Yeah, I knew the sriracha and baking powder were nontraditional. Hunt uses baking powder, but I’ll try it without next time. Pickled ginger sounds great.
Posted on April 23, 2008 at 9:58 am