Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style

We recently got home from a packed 2 1/2 weeks travelling around Japan. I’ve got a whole list of stuff I want to write about and at least a million photos to trawl through but as I sat on the plane home contemplating our trip, I knew that this would be the first experience I posted on the blog.

Have you heard of okonomiyaki? It’s a Japanese savoury pancake which can be filled with whatever you want. ‘Okonomi’ means “what you like” and ‘yaki’ means fried or cooked. The dish originates from Hiroshima although we saw it all over the country. Usually though, it’ll contain at its minimum, eggs, noodles, dried shrimp, onion and cabbage. The noodles are what makes it ‘Hiroshima style okonomiyaki’ and we tried it in Kyoto on our trip without them. Definitely not as yummy!

I’ve tried this savoury pancake a few times, earlier on this Japan trip, once in Melbourne where the East Asian food is pretty good in my opinion and once at the Tsukemono pop up here in Bristol (more about them here). All of them were super tasty but bore only a passing resemblance to what we ate at Okonomimura in Hiroshima’s downtown Shintenchi district.

Okonomimura is a grubby looking building from the outside, and easy to pass by, despite the bright banners hanging over the entrace. Don’t let the exterior put you off. Inside, spread over 4 floors are a whole myriad of Okonomiyaki bars each doing their own take on this Hiroshima classic. We wandered the floors a few times before deciding on a place in the far corner on the 3rd floor, run by two women. I’m afraid I can’t tell you what it was called but honestly, I think you’ll have a great time and tasty meal at any one of them.

The food

We ordered two Okonomiyaki and went halves. There were plenty of combinations to choose from and we went for one with bacon and cheese. The other had offal in it and was entertainingly called ‘Organyaki’. It was cow intestines, I think…

Watching the women cook several orders at once, flipping them around and moving them on the griddle – I wasn’t entirely sure we’d end up with the right pancakes. Expert doesn’t cover it. They knew exactly what they were doing, with a full bar and orders backing up they went about their business with ease, chatting and laughing with the customers, answering the phone and taking money all at the same time. It was fantastic to watch. It was also incredible how such a huge pile of cabbage and beansprouts shrinks down to a relatively flat pancake.

Clearly used to tourists, one of the cooks insisted on taking our photo once our Okonomiyaki were ready. She’s spotted me taking snaps throughout so no doubt thought I’d want one too. We don’t usually go in for that kind of thing but hey! We were on holiday and on our second or third beer so why not.

Once the photoshoot had finished (there’s a reason I’m usually on the other side of the camera) we ate. And wow. What a meal. The pancakes were absolutely delicious. Despite their huge size and sheer density, they also had a fresh, almost light, taste. This is most likely from the cabbage, bean sprouts and spring onions. Both flavour combinations were tasty but I think it’s safe to say that we both loved the offal pancake most. The creamy offal against the charred edges was incredible and the sharp sauce cut through the fat perfectly.