Japanese Pizza: Okonomiyaki
Posted: July 21, 2010 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Cooking, Japan, Korea | 7 Comments »This is an old post I wanted to do for a few months, but finally found the time. 
I consider myself lucky to have married a nice lady who cooks good Japanese home-cooking (among other things), and one thing she likes to cook from time to time is okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), which are a delicacy in Japan, but hard to explain in Western culture. In books I’ve read, written by Japanese, they’re often referred to as “pancakes” since they have a similar kind of batter and the way they are cooked, but in my opinion, they are more like pizza because of the toppings. Korean cuisine also has a similar food called pajeon (파전),1 though that dish tends to be much larger, and is cut pizza-like before serving. My wife and I love Korean food2 and Seattle has a vibrant Korean community, so we consider ourselves lucky to enjoy it sometimes.
Getting back to okonomiyaki, my wife makes it like many Japanese do. She makes the basic wheat batter, and mixes in lots of chopped cabbage, and other items. Such items could include:
- cheese
- meat (typically seafood or sliced pork)
- bean sprouts or other veggies
Then, like a pancake, you make a small batter circle in a fry-pan, cook on both sides and server. On okonomiyaki, you can add many condiments like mayonaise,3 a kind of brown-sauce my wife calls “bulldog sauce” but seems like the “brown sauce” I frequently enjoyed Ireland, aonori which is a kind of ground seaweed that tastes very good, ginger and so on. Here’s the finished product my wife made, minus a few bites:
My wife also decided to experiment that night, and made one with cheese:
And since she likes Korean food so much, she mixed in some old kimchi in the house into another batch:
But okonomiyaki is by no means a home-dish, and in fact there are plenty of restaurants where you can make okonomiyaki yourself on hot iron griddles, by mixing your ingredients and seasoning to taste. My wife’s good friends like near the old city of Kamakura, and we never fail to go there whenever we visit, and after seeing the sights of the Great Buddha and the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, we venture down the market area to a certain okonomiyaki shop and enjoy ourselves. With little children you have to be careful of course, but they do enjoy watching the little pancakes/pizzas frying on the griddle almost as much as eating them.
If you can enjoy okonomiyaki or pajeon, definitely do not miss out. It’s debatable whether they’re pizzas or pancakes but taste good either way.
P.S. Off taking the RHCE exam again Friday, hoping to pass this time. :-/
1 Korean is not my strongest language, but I believe it’s pronounced like “pa-jawn” where the “eo” syllable rhymes with “law”.
2 Korean food is quite popular in general in Japan, and Asahi Shinbun recently did an article about the increasing popularity of Japanese food in Korea in the last 5 years. A great article showing how increasing cultural exchange between the two countries is really leading to positive things.
3 Japanese mayonnaise is different than American mayo, and arguably a lot better. More creamy, less oily. In the same way, British mustard is definitely superior to American mustard, and that’s one of those little foods we miss since coming back to the US. We’re happy to see certain brands sold though even here in Seattle. Beware, it’s hot though if you’ve never tried it.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
Yum yum! A food-related topic! Just the other night at an izakaya/pub, I had チジミ, which I thought was the Korean version of okonomiyaki. It is very common in pubs now even if they are not especially focused on Korean food. So what is this pa-jawn, I wondered. The Japanese wikipedia page could not make a very strong differentiation, although the chijimi might have more negi or green onions (the green part). In Japan, at least, it is thinner and maybe a bit more oily than okonomiyaki, so it is considered more suitable as a snack with alcoholic drinks. It is often flavored with sesame oil. On a related note, in Tokyo can get arguably the best okonomiyaki in the part of town called Tsukishima, actually an island in Tokyo Bay. You can also enjoy monjayaki, which is the most typical Tokyo version of the dish (I think okonomiyaki is basically a Kansai dish). Monja is a much thinner batter, actually not much flour in it at all, so basically you have to press each bite into the grill to form a thin crust around your morsels of vegetable or meat or fish. Well, this could go on forever, so I had better stop here. The gradual invasion of cheese into EVERYTHING is beginning to happen here (much further advanced in the US, of course), but I suppose that is a topic for another time.
If it helps, what your wife calls “Bulldog Sauce” is what’s commonly just called “sauce” in restaurants in Japan. Bulldog is the most common brand-name sauce is sold under.
It’s brown, but I find it lacks the tamarind and spiciness of English brown sauce (we’re so flattering in how we name things), of which HP is the most well-known brand.
I do love Kamakura! I shall have to find this purveyor of fine okonomiyaki next time I’m there
Hello Gentlemen, and apologies for the late reply:
Johnl: I was overdue on a food topic.
As for “chijimi” versus pajeon, I am not sure what the difference is. I’ve had chijimi before, but only in Japanese contexts. Also, I know from being in Korean restaurants they call it pajeon, so either chijimi is a different food, or just a term used in Japan only. Not sure. :-/
Troo: Thanks for chiming in. I’ve been meaning to get to the bottom of that “sauce”, but you’re right in that it has less of a kick than “brown sauce”, and yes I do enjoy the British/Irish way of understating things.
Okonomiyaki you can’t beat it! One of my favourite dishes. When I first dated my wife we had it over lunch – wonderful. And its really quick and easy to knock up at home. I enjoy helping mixing it all together. Especially delicious with seafood thrown in. Had it a few times in Osaka the spiritual home of okonomiyaki. Now that was good.
As for Korean food I absolutely love it. I am addicted to Kimchi which is also very popular in Japan. We are lucky in London there are some very nice Korean restaurants around town.
Hi Jishin,
Haven’t tried Osaka-style Okonimiyaki, but you are making me hungry.
I enjoyed anecdote about you and your wife, too.
Y U M
nice post about one of my fav dishes.