Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima Style...

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March 4th 2008

Published: March 5th 2008

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Side Street

The side alley where we found the amazing okonomiyaki

On our first day in Hiroshima, we were so hungry after looking around the Peace Park that we decided to go find something to eat before we did anything else! We saw golden arches in the distance, so we started walking that direction. We figured that where there's a McDonald's, there's usually other places to eat. So we walked all the way down there only to find a McDonald's and this place called Coco's Restaurant. Since we didn't want McDonald's we went into Coco's and were waiting to be seated. It was a western style restaurant, but the prices wer ea bit high and the portions were really small. So we decided to go find something better! We ended up wandering around the streets for about 15 minutes, not finding any place to eat anywhere. Finally we came to this little alley that has a bunch of tiny shops and saw an okonomiyaki place, but it was really small and it didn't look like the 5 of us wouldn't fit in it. So we were really sad and started walking away, but then this guy came out of the restaurant and told us its ok and that we would all fit

Okonomiyaki Restaurant

The blue flags are the entrance to our little okonomiyaki place

in there. So we piled into the restaurant as they put more stools out for us around the cooking bar.

It looked like a family-owned place, there was one lady cooking and her son or grandson was sitting there and would hand her ingredients when she asked for them. There were 3 Japanese men sitting at the bar too, drinking beers and talking. They seemed like regulars at the place, or friends of the lady, because they were just sitting there and hanging out, talking to her while she cooked. They were very friendly people though. They asked about us, like where we were from and where we went to school, and they made sure we were all comfortable. They were so nice!

Well, we were all pretty excited that we had found an okonomiyaki place because we had heard that hiroshima has its own style of okonomiyaki that's different from the Osaka style. So of course me and Lani just had to try it!

As you can see from the pictures, it was a very lengthy process to make the okonomiyaki. There were so many layers, and I guess the fact that she had to make

So small...

The tiny little okonomiyaki restaurant.

5 of them made it even longer! We all just sat and watched as the lady cooked our okomiyaki. It was very interesting to watch the different steps, and it smelled so good we couldn't wait to eat it. I loved the fact that we got to put the sauce on ourselves and put whatever seasoning we wanted. The lady even gave us an extra bottle of sauce while we were eating so that we could put even more on it!

So what's the difference between Hiroshima and Osaka okonomiyaki? Apparently it has to do with how the ingredients are put in. In Osaka, they put all the different ingredients into a bowl and mix them up before they put it on the frying pan. Then they just let it cook and flip it over to cook the other side, then sprinkle the sauce and stuff on top, and then its done. But in Hiroshima they layer the different ingredients and add them one at a time instead of mixing them up. That's why there were so many steps and it took so much longer to cook the okonomiyaki in Hiroshima. The okonomiyaki we had in Hiroshima was also

Step 1

Noodles- You can choose either soba noodles or udon noodles

different because this one had noodles in it. So that is a little different as well, but you could still get okonomiyaki with noodles in Osaka too. I have to say, though, that I prefer the Hiroshima okonomiyaki. It was honestly the best okonomiyaki I've had so far! Probably even one of the best meals I've eaten in Japan.

Additional photos below

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