What is Okonomiyaki?
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- What is Okonomiyaki?
A traditional Japanese comfort food that lets you mix up all kinds of ingredients and cook them in a fluffy batter.
Okonomiyaki starts with a batter of wheat flour and water, then you add whatever you like; vegetables, eggs, meat, seafood, noodles, etc., and cook it in a frying pan. Lastly, you top it with Okonomi sauce and mayonnaise. You can also sprinkle cheese or fish flakes on top. The variations on this recipe are endless because it tastes so good with any ingredients!
In Japan, Hiroshima and Osaka are the most famous areas for Okonomiyaki, but generally it can be found everywhere, and tourists from the US and elsewhere love to eat delicious Okonomiyaki!
The History of Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki was born from food shortages and the need to use up small bits of food. It was an appetizing way to prevent the waste of any food leftovers.
In the post-war era, a food distributed to ease hunger.
In the search to satisfy hunger, a food that became popular was "Issen Yoshoku" the predecessor of Okonomiyaki. Mainly sold in sweets shops, "Issen Yoshoku" was made by mixing wheat flour and water, adding green onions and then cooking it in a thin sheet and finishing with sauce.
Before the war, adults disdained "Issen Yoshoku" as a snack for children. However, food shortages after the war and the hunger that followed drove people to be more accepting and inventive, adding readily available pork to "Issen Yoshoku", and calling it "Okonomiyaki". Eventually, it was up-graded to a national dish.
Okonomiyaki gains a reputation as something everyone can enjoy.
In the 1950s the ingredients used in Okonomiyaki varied by region or by restaurant. It continued to gain popularity, no longer as just a way to stave off hunger, but as a dish both delicious and satisfying for adults and children and all the people of Japan.
Nowadays, its popular both in restaurants and as a home-made meal, each family having their own preferred ingredients, such as meat, vegetables and seafood.
The need for a sauce to go with Okonomiyaki.
When "Issen yoshoku" turned into Okonomiyaki, there were some complaints that the sauce was no longer suitable, it always ran off the Okonomiyaki and onto the iron pan, sticking to the pan. The early, enterprising founders of Otafuku Sauce co. spent two years of trial and error to finally develop a sauce to go perfectly with Okonomiyaki. This sauce doesn't easily run off the Okonomiyaki, it soaks in well and tastes good with any ingredients. That is how "Okonomi Sauce" came to be. Today too, we at Otafuku are continually looking for ways to improve our Okonomi Sauce, making sure it is available as the must-have sauce for Okonomiyaki both in restaurants and at home.