Comments on: Japanese Pizza: Okonomiyaki

By: thesoulofjapan

thesoulofjapan — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:19:41 +0000

nice post about one of my fav dishes.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:28:38 +0000

Y U M

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:44:48 +0000

Hi Jishin,

Haven’t tried Osaka-style Okonimiyaki, but you are making me hungry. I enjoyed anecdote about you and your wife, too.

By: Jishin

Jishin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:33:02 +0000

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.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:41:44 +0000

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.

By: Troo

Troo — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:55:19 +0000

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

By: johnl

johnl — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:42:38 +0000

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.