One of the things that we really wanted to do while in Hiroshima was to find Okonomimura, which we understood to be a street where there were many okonomiyaki restaurants all in a row. We planned on eating lunch at this street.
We found it, but it wasn't a street. It was a building.....
(look at the cute little okonomiyaki dudes holding their little spatulas)
Three floors of okonomiyaki shops!
We wandered up to the floors and found the restaurants next to each other like this. You just walk around until you find one that you like. Some were busy and some were empty. We picked one that was kind of out of the way since we are such a large family and also had Kirstin sitting in the stroller. We didn't want to take up too much room.
Each city or area of Japan has their own way of making okonomiyaki. Hiroshima's okonomiyaki is supposed to be one of the best! We were excited to try it! Well, most of us. Tayla hasn't ever liked it, and Logan got the flu shortly after I made it once and because he lost all of his dinner from that night, he didn't want to ever eat it again. Neither of them were real thrilled to be here, but they said they would try a small piece.
They make the okonomiyaki right in front of you on these large hot griddles. They started out with a thin crepe.
Then they add a huge pile of cabbage, sprouts, and seaweed. Seasoned it with salt, pepper, and who knows what else.
Then he put some fried squid, bacon slices, and a couple of tablespoons of crepe batter on top of the vegetables.
We enjoyed sitting and watching our okonomiyaki being made right in front of us. Poor Audra was so tired from the bus ride the night before that she wouldn't wake up. She slept right through lunch, she wouldn't even wake up to eat.
After putting the meat on, he used two spatulas to flip the whole thing over so that the bacon and crepe batter could cook.
While the bacon was cooking, he put some soba noodles on the griddle, poured some okonomiyaki sauce on them and fried them for a little bit.
Then, he picked the vegetable-bacon mixture up and laid it on top of the noodles.
Next, he cracked an egg and used his spatulas to spread it out thin. They were moving so fast with their spatulas....it was impressive.
They set the okonomiyaki on top of the egg and then flipped it over. They put some kind of sauce on it and sprinkled seaweed on top.
Then, they pushed the finished product toward us and gave us a small spatula to cut it into wedges. There were also two different bottles of okonomiyaki sauce to squirt onto it. There was regular and spicy to choose from. We were supposed to leave the okonomiyaki on the hot griddle and just put a wedge at a time onto our small plate with the spatula and eat it with our chopsticks.
Lunch and entertainment all in one great experience! This was so fun--and the okonomiyaki was really good!! Even Tayla and Logan loved it and ate quite a bit! Oh, dear....my okonomiyaki is really, really lame compared to what these guys made. The family told me that I need to step up my game big time! I agree, I just don't think I can even begin to attempt this version!
No comments:
Post a Comment