 Okonomiyaki
(お好み焼き, Okonomiyaki) - A pan-fried Japanese dish
cooked with various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you
like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or
"cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba); thus, the name of this
dish means "cook what you like, the way you like". In Japan,
okonomiyaki is usually associated with the Kansai or
Hiroshima areas, but is widely available throughout the
country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to
region.
Kansai (Osaka)-style okonomiyaki is a pan-fried batter cake.
This is the style of okonomiyaki found throughout most of
Japan. The batter is made of flour, grated yam, water or
dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other
ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally pork or
bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or
cheese. Okonomiyaki is sometimes compared to an omelette,
pizza, or pancake, and may be referred to as "Japanese
pizza", "Japanese pancake", "Japizza", or "Japancake." Many
okonomiyaki restaurants are set up as grill-it-yourself
establishments, where the server produces a bowl of raw
ingredients that the customer mixes and grills at tables
fitted with special hot plates. They may also have a diner
style counter where the cook will prepare the dish right in
front of the customers.
In Osaka (the largest city in the Kansai region), where the
dish is said to have originated, okonomiyaki is prepared
much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are
fried on both sides on either a hot plate (teppan) or a pan
using metal spatulas that are later used to slice the dish
when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped
with ingredients that include okonomiyaki sauce (similar to
Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), nori, fish
flakes, Japanese mayonnaise and ginger. When this style of
okonomiyaki is served with sliced cabbage and a layer of
fried noodles (either ramen or udon worked into the mix) it
is called modanyaki (モダン焼き, modanyaki?) "modern yaki".
Negiyaki (ねぎ焼き, Negiyaki) is a thinner offshoot of
okonomiyaki made with a great deal of Welsh onion.
Information source: “Okonomiyaki.” wikipedia.org. Article
date: 21 Jan. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 2 Feb. 2008 <Okonomiyaki>.
Video - The following shows how to cook okonomiyaki. |
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