Japanese Pizza: Okonomiyaki!!!

Some years ago, near the turn of the new millenium, I lived near Kyoto, Japan and taught English. My friend Julie lived there as well and we had many great food adventures. In Japanese society, people greatly value keeping personal honor and family honor. This is why most of the food we had was great. No one would want the shame of being known for terrible food and losing personal honor. Even the cheap chocolate in the convenience stores was great, unlike the waxy stuff we Americans are subject to at our local stop and shop. One of my favorites was Crunky Pop Joy, a wonderful blend of chocolate nuggets and crisped rice. To my chagrin, I can never find this one in the import shops. The sushi in Kyoto was fantastic and much better than anything I've eaten in the states, they even use a different type of rice. Italian cuisine was all the rage in Japan at the time and they made excellent pizzas. They used a very thin crust with terrific toppings, two of my favorites were cheese, potato and mayo pizza, and also a very tasty bacon and eggplant pizza. I never could develop a taste for ramen. In Japan, they have many ramen restaurants that make gourmet ramen. It just wasn't my thing. Another thing that somewhat repulsed me were the small fried balls containing baby octupi. They were available in many groceries and were not only strange to look at but had a very strange taste to my palate. Then there's the day I thought I was buying chocolate ice cream bars only to find out they were red bean ice cream bars. Blech.
But other than those few things, I really loved all the great food and treats in Japan. I'll never forget the fast food place that had personal size margarita pizzas and "meat flavor" french fries. Speaking of pizza, my very favorite Japanese food is okonomiyaki, which is sort of a savory pancake. Some refer to okonomiyaki as "Japanese pizza." I had my first experience with okonomiyaki at an okonomiyaki restaurant in Kyoto. We sat at the bar in front of a grill where a lovely woman with a perfect command of English explained what she was doing and what we could get. Okonomiyaki starts with a flour, egg and cabbage base. You can add whatever toppings you like. Julie always got noodles and seafood on hers while I preferred bacon, cheese and potatoes. Once they are cooked, you top your okonomiyaki with shredded nori, fish flakes, mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce, which is a bit reminiscent of teriyaki sauce or a thickened worcestershire sauce.
When I would tell my Japanese students that this was my favorite food, they would always laugh and say, "Really? Okonomiyaki?" It was considered quite the common household food in Japan and my stating this as a fave was the equivalent of a Japanese person in the U.S. stating that meatloaf is their favorite American food. As you can tell, I have glamourous tastes.
I can never find okonomiyaki on menus at Japanese restaurants in the USA, so I decided to make my own. A few years ago, I made some at an Asian themed potluck in Portland. I had plucked the recipe off the internet and in my opinion, it came out a bit bland. To my friends who had never tasted this specialty, it was a different story. The men in particular went wild over it! They were begging me to give the recipe to girlfriends or to call their favorite Japanese place and tell them how to make it.
Last night, I wanted to make it again for my friend V Edina, who was coming over for one of our semi-regular movie nights. My terrific new friend Robert-Gilles at the Shizuoka Gourmet blog, was nice enough to post some okonomiyaki recipes for me. I also consulted with Julie, who had made this many times during her years in Japan. The recipe I came up with is a conglomeration of all of this info sharing. It was super delicious and V loved it too!

To completely re-create the experience, we started with glasses of chu-hi, which is a mixture of half beer and half soda. I always loved the melon type and had to go to two different import groceries to find this. Asahi imports at 6105 Burnet Rd had some great stuff, but they were sold out of the melon soda. MT Grocery in the huge Asian shopping center at N Lamar and Kramer has a humongous beverage section but we finally managed to find some.
For dessert, in true Japanese fashion, we had the ever reliable Pocky.

Many foodies will know what this is, but for those who don't, it is a Japanese candy. Crispy sticks that taste like a blend of cookies and pretzels are coated in chocolate. There are many varieties, but for this dinner I chose the chocolate coconut flavor. Dee-lish!
I'm sure these recipes seem odd to the American palate, but I encourage you to try them, your tastebuds will thank you. Here is the recipe for okonomiyaki:

Okonomiyaki:

1 1/2 cups okonomiyaki flour
2/3 cup water
2 eggs
1 cup chopped cabbage
1 Tbsp chopped/shredded pickled ginger
Toppings of choice: we the frozen cubed potatoes, cheese and for myself some bacon, V is vegetarian, you could also use sliced pork, chicken, veggies, seafood, ramen or soba noodles, etc.
shredded/flaked/ground nori
fish flakes
mayonnaise
okonomiyaki sauce or tonkatsu sauce

In a large mixing bowl, mix up the flour, water, eggs and cabbage. Stir in the pickled ginger. Spray a large skillet with cooking oil and put on the stovetop over medium heat. Allow about five minutes for the skillet to heat and the batter to thicken. Pour enough batter into the skillet to form a large, medium thick to thin pancake, you should have about half the batter left in the bowl. Allow this to cook for 9 minutes. While it is cooking, place potatoes, bacon or other toppings on the uncooked side. Do not add cheese at this point. After 9 minutes, flip the pancake with a large spatula and cook for 7 minutes.

After 7 minutes, flip the pancake, add the cheese, cover the skillet and let cook for 2 minutes to melt the cheese. Once cheese is melted, remove the pancake and put it on a plate. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp nori and 1 Tbsp fish flakes over the okonomiyaki(vegetarians can omit fish flakes). Squirt mayo and okonomiyaki sauce over the pancake in a criss cross pattern. Enjoy!