On the hunt for a good Okonomiyaki

Much like a feverish person stranded on a desert island, I too feel stranded in Melbourne without the abundance of Okonomiyaki. This sumptuous dish from Japan is one of my favourite dishes, other favourites include... hmm, well.. everything. I much prefer the Hiroshimayaki style which, instead of the ingredients being mixed into the 'batter', they are layered. Here are a few photos of some great Okonomiyaki being prepared somewhere in the Hondori Arcade in Hiroshima- December 2008.

As you can see here, this fine specimen started off as a thin layer of batter, topped with cabbage and bacon and flavourings.

Then it was flipped over while the noodles cooked beside it. I think they used Yakisoba sauce or some equivalent to give the noodles some more flavour. Next the noodles and babbage/batter pile were added together, and finally flipped onto a thin layer of egg.

It is then topped with the delicious brown okonomiyaki sauce and spring onions. I love to have mayo with mine, and extra helpings of okonomiyaki sauce, just in case.

SOOOOOOOOO back in Melbourne, I did what any curious person would do when looking for answers, I googled it. From a myriad of blogs and articles i learnt that "Melbourne's Best Okonomiyaki" was served at Teppansan on Swanston Street. So I thought we'd get the crew together and give it a try. Being sophisticated travellers and food coinessuers, naturally we took our little monacles along with us, and our handy dandy mental notebooks to make an adequate (personal) review of the fine establishment, let me take you on a journey... to flavour town...

Night had fallen, and we gathered outside the little restaurant (me not pictured, muahahaa):

We were too excited to read the menu properly, re-reading the names of the dishes and going "omg omg they have this!!" We started off with Takoyaki and Gyoza. The gyoza here were great, fresh off the grill. The Takoyaki didn't sit well with me, I like them to have a good chunk of octupus, as well as the brown sauce, mayo, bonito, seaweed, and even spring onions - yeah i like it with "the lot" mmmm. I think it only came with brown sauce and seaweed, and the waiter forgot to bring us mayo *sniff sniff* but we are all too cool to complain haha so we ate it without.



Pretty sure we all got Okonomiyaki, i was honestly hoping for hiroshima style even though i know i had little to no chance of it becoming a reality. In fact it was quite different to anything I imagined getting. Below, is my friend Doraemon-orey eating his Okonomiyaki. I had to protect his real face as he will hate how his chopstick fingers look in this photo. You know who you are.

Also, we are not all dressed in white on purpose, it is just a coincidence that all 3 people or shoulders happen to be wearing white. It's not like we are some weird kind of cult or whatever. ANYWAY. Yeah the Okonomiyaki was like a thick batter topped with some grilled onion and meat then folded in half. It was delicious, i don't want to slander the good name of Teppansan, but it was so not what I had hoped for.

OKONOMIYAKI ATTEMPT 1... epic fail. sort of. the food was nice. just not perfect.

I know of a few other places that do Okonomiyaki, so I will try some more. I still imagine i could make a fairly accurate and delicious one. I can make gyoza, and ramen pretty good. I will also collect and scrutinise recipes and present my findings shortly...

adios