Okonomiyaki

This is what I had for lunch last Tuesday after going to the Kunchi Matsuri. Okonomiyaki translates as 'as you like' or 'whatever you like' and this refers to the vast choice of ingredients that you can pick and choose from. It is kind of a mixture between pancake and pizza, so like pizza toppings, you choose ingredients for this too. It is also known as 'Japanese Pizza' for this reason. This is probably one of my favourite food finds so far. What is funny is that when I first saw it advertised in restaurant windows etc. I thought 'ew, that looks horrible'. In my defence, they advertise the ingredients here, not the finished product, like this:

This is because you cook it yourself at the restaurant. The table has a sunken hot-plate in the middle of it, so you receive your order simply as ingredients in a bowl. You mix it all up yourself, pour it onto the hot-plate and let it cook. Then you decorate it liberally with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and dried bonito. It was all very novel, but aside from that it was absolutely delicious.

(Kimura-san's is the one on the far right, May's on the near right and mine is the one on the left)

I thought if you make it yourself anyway in restaurants, I may as well try making it myself at home in a frying pan. I went online and found a few good recipes, which I thought I would share with you. You could easily try this at home if you felt so inclined:

Ingredients
Essentials:
1 cup flour
1 egg
¾ cup dashi or water
1/8 - 1/4 cabbage

Optional:
beansprouts
mushrooms
peas
sweetcorn
onion
tuna
squid
prawns
chicken
beef
or anything else you can think of!

Sauces:
Okonomiyaki sauce (or I suppose tomato ketchup or brown sauce would do)
mayonnaise
dried bonito flakes

Method
1. Shred or finely chop the cabbage.
2. Mix the water, flour, eggs and shredded cabbage together.
3. Cut your chosen additional ingredients into small, dice-sized pieces and add to the base.
4. Bung it all in a well-oiled frying pan and cook on a low heat, checking the underside regularly to see if it is turning brown.
5. Flip the whole think like a pancake. As with pancakes, it is always best not to drop it on the floor at this point.
6. Cook until the underside is golden-brown.
7. Decorate as you like with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and dried bonito. In this case, it is better to have too much than too little.
8. Cut into slices (like a pizza) and serve while hot. Enjoy.

Easy, or what? There you have it: your first Japanese pizza.