OKONOMIYAKI

The 'pizza crust' or 'pancake' is made from a mixture of grated cabbage, potato, egg, and flour. Then various topping choices are added. (See below.)

When we were planning our trip to Kyoto in June, 2001, our friend Maho (living in NY) gave us instructions to try a specialty of her home town of Okayama. Okayama is located little east from Osaka, one hour from Osaka by Super Express Shinkansen. She said we would find it in Kyoto.
At first we could not find it. But near the end of our stay, a young man, Akira (pictured here with Kathy at the restaurant) found us looking at a map for the Contemporary Art Museum, and offered to show us the way. For two days he came to our hotel, and in exchange for 'practicing his English' he showed us many things we would not have seen otherwise. We asked him about Maho's favorite Okonomiyaki. He knew where to go. It was a specialty restaurant, and all that was served was variations of this dish. It was prepared on each table which was fitted with an individual grill. Our OKONOMIYAKI TOPPINGS were bonito (tuna) shavings and ground pork. We also had a calamari topping.
On each table (you can see the little shakers in the photo above) were things to sprinkle on top: Dried red chili pepper, dry seaweed sprinkles; in the white bottles: miso sauce, hot or sweet. Okonomiyaki were really not like anything else, and very delicious! We were so glad we found them.

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