[お好み焼き] Made how you like it!

It looks quite unappetizing, somewhat like vomit. It has no standard recipe, but the base is always made of cabbage. It’s covered in sauce and contains whatever you you want it to contain. It’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever eaten. It’s absolutely delicious. And it’s truly Japanese. I’m talking about okonomiyaki!

I must admit I had never heard of okonomiyaki [お好み焼き] before today. It took me ages to learn how to pronounce it. As a matter of fact, I bet that if you have not yet heard of it, you’re reading the word over and over again right now, because you can’t make any sense of it. Trust me, I know how you feel! Maybe it’ll help if I break it down for you. It consists of two parts: okonomi [お好み] and yaki [焼き]. The ‘yaki’ part is easy, since you probably already know it. It means something like ‘to grill’, and it’s the same ‘yaki’ as the one that’s used in teriyaki, teppanyaki, yakitori, yakisoba and so on. ‘Okonomi’ means something like ‘thing of choice’, or ‘preference’, if you will. It even contains the same kanji as the one meaning ‘to like’ [好き]. Therefore, you could translate ‘okonomiyaki’ as ‘grilled by your preference’, or just ‘grilled however you like it’. This refers to how you can pick the ingredients yourself, so everyone can make his or her own dish as delicious as they want it to be. It’s literally made how you like it!

I did not yet know all this while I was shopping at the Aeon mall with Hajime-san and Yoshie-san. When they figured it was lunchtime, they took me to a fast food restaurant (according to Japanese standards) on the roof of the mall and told me “Ah, you’re gonna like this.” I had no idea what I was going to like, but I was sure they were right.

When we sat down, I spotted a teppanyaki plate integrated in the table. A teppanyaki plate is a kind of hot, iron plate on which you can grill things like meat. Oh boy, were we gonna eat teppanyaki? Whoo! I was convinced we were going to eat meat. Little did I know that teppanyaki referred to so much more than just grilled meat. That’s why I was quite surprised when I got to see the menu. The pictures on there didn’t look like meat at all; but what on Earth was it then? I had no idea what I was looking at. To be honest, the pictures didn’t look like something I’d usually pick for lunch. Anyway, the only thing I understood, was that I had to pick a kind of meat. Hajime-san told me I only liked chicken, so I only liked chicken. And thus, I ordered chicken. With whatever it came with.

Next thing I know, there’s this guy at our table doing all kinds of tricks with the plate. Across the table I see Hajime-san grinning at me: this is gonna be good. The waiter brought some cups with raw ingredients and starts mixing them at our table. Something about the way he did it told me this wasn’t exactly his first time. When he was finished mixing the ingredients, he put the cups upside down on the plate and spread the mess out like it was some kind of pancake. He repeated this process three times, so all three of us were going to get a pancake. At this point, I still had no idea what was in store for me. It didn’t look very appealing yet, but it started to smell good alright. While the pancake was cooking, the waiter left the table, and returned later to flip the strange piles. Then he covered them in a two kinds of sauces and topped it all of with bonito flakes – at least I could recognize these dried fish flakes! When it was done, he put all the pancakes on separate plates. We received another, smaller plate and Hajime-san showed me we were supposed to take a little slice at a time and pry that apart with chopsticks.

Bonus video: Watch the waiter prepare our okonomiyaki!

The okonomiyaki was kind of hard to eat, since it fell apart pretty quickly, and I’m not exceptionally skilled with chopsticks yet. Hajime-san seemed to love this part, because he kept laughing while I was doing my best to get the stuff in my mouth. But the trouble was well worth it: it was absolutely, stunningly delicious! I’m sure there is so much more the Japanese cuisine has to offer me, but up to now, okonomiyaki definitely takes the cake. And it’s not just the taste, either: the show around it, of someone preparing it directly at your table, is quite spectacular. I love it. I really, really love it. If you ever get the chance to try it, please do! Don’t be appalled by the looks. I can’t really describe the taste, since it tastes like nothing else I know. You just need to try it for yourself. All I can tell you right now is that I am going to miss this stuff when I go back home. I really, really will.

お好み焼き

お好み焼き

お好み焼き

お好み焼き

お好み焼き

お好み焼き

お好み焼き

#Japan2015