This week I decided to make okonomiyaki which, I’ll be honest, I really didn’t know about until I stumbled across this recipe. A lot of the recipes I came across actually referred to okonomiyaki as a type of street food, so I thought that was something fun to try out! After doing some research, I learned that this Japanese recipe is pretty popular and after trying it, I can definitely see why.
I really liked the recipe that I decided to use because it included a lot of background information where I learned a lot about this dish.
I also appreciated the simplified instructions and photos that made this recipe seem a lot less daunting, especially since I had no idea what to expect.
When I started cooking, all I really knew was that this dish was eventually supposed to resemble a “Japanese pancake”. I’ll be honest, this recipe was pretty intimidating at first but looking back on it, I really don’t think it was as complicated as I originally expected. Finding a “Japanese yam” was probably the most difficult part of this whole recipe which I eventually did.
The actual recipe was really easy to follow and once I had the right ingredients, it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I was really pleasantly surprised by how this dish turned out because it was my favorite amount of delicious and savory. I decided to use shrimp instead of pork for this recipe and I thought it was so good. The whole thing took me about an hour (not including the amount of time I spent looking for the ingredients at the store) so I think it was a good amount of time, especially considering that you can prep a lot of them at once and keep them to cook for later in the week. This is another recipe that I would definitely recommend with the colder weather slowly creeping up.
I also loved how this recipe was super customizable, and a lot of the recipes I read suggest a bunch of different toppings and ingredients that you could pick and choose from. For some of the more difficult to find ingredients (like the Japanese yam), the recipe also offered a lot of different alternatives and substitutes which was really helpful to have especially since these ingredients were not as easy to find in my local supermarket. If you’re interested in learning more about the different traditional Japanese ingredients, I’d definitely recommend checking out the link to the recipe.
If anyone decides to try this recipe out over the break, I’d love to hear about it (or if anyone has ever had this before). I’ll attach a link to the recipe I used at the bottom of this post as well as the source for the photo I used.
Photo Source: https://thejapantry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Okonomiyaki-closeup.jpg
I personally don’t like pancakes or anything related to it, but it looks delicious. Love it!
This looks really cool and delicious. The picture is super intimidating, so I don’t know if I could make it. I will save this recipe to maybe try in the future!!
This dish certainly sounds like an interesting blend of ingredients and not how I would ever think someone made a pancake! You have done a great job of finding really unique recipes from different cultures and expanding your palette.