okonomiyaki - version 2.0

I make an okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake) with ramen noodles sometimes, but it's also really good Osaka style (recipe here, though read on to see how I change it a bit) - with pork, cabbage, and green onions. Gets those salivary glands going (especially if you're breastfeeding and hungry all the time anyway, though I don't know anyone like that). Okonomiyaki has such a variety of flavors and textures that all sing in your mouth to create this addictively beautiful melody with notes of sweet (the brown sauce), sour (the pink ginger pickles), sharp (onions), salty, crunchy, soft.

Matthew the Preschooler Bean likes to help me make them.

Whisking the eggs...


Mixing the batter...

Chowing down (please excuse the excited gaping-mouth-full-of-food)...going, going...


Gone!

Our favorite okonomiyaki shop (Miyako) is actually in the food court of a mall, if you can believe it!


There's always a huge line of people waiting there to get their hands on this good stuff...




(These pics were actually from March, in case you're wondering about the warm clothes!)

The recipe in the link above calls for tenkasu (tempura flakes), but I just use panko (Japanese breadcrumbs). I'm sure wherever you are and whatever you have (or don't have) access to, you could just use regular breadcrumbs. I used water instead of dashi, and in addition to the pork, cabbage, and green onion, I also added grated carrots (toally un-Japanese of me).

I served it with mayo (just for hubby - I'm not much of a mayo girl myself but it's the big thing over here to have on your okonomiyaki, believe it or not), tonkatsu sauce (kind of a sweet tangy brown sauce - recipe here if you don't have access to it in your neck of the woods), katsuobushi (bonito fish) flakes, extra green onions, and beni shoga (pink pickled ginger strips).

Have you ever made okonomiyaki, and if so, was it similar to this style or pretty different? There are so many ways to make it over here in Japan - with seafood, chicken, pork, different veggies, you name it.