OSAKA SOUL FOOD 'OKONOMIYAKI' with HIGHBALL / Travel Story / Life Photography

This beautiful food is a Japanese pancake Okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き? o-konomi-yaki)  is a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "how you like" or "what you like", and yaki meaning "grill" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba). Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with the Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region. In Tokyo, there is liquid okonomiyaki called 'monjayaki.'

Okonomiyaki is one of my favorite Japanese foods. It is similar to Korean seafood pancake but there is the difference of the ingredients. There are lots of cabbage and meat with a variety of condiments. I think it can be called Japanese pizza. 

I really wanted to have a very good Okonomiyaki for my first dinner in Osaka. I looked around the food street and picked one which is filled with many people. I waited outside for minutes until I'm called inside. I was excited.

I ordered one Okonomiyaki with a draft beer as soon as I sit there.

The Okonomiyaki was served like the picture. It was so beautiful. The grilled Okonomiyaki smelled so delicious. I covered with two toppings of Katsuobushi and Aonori.

Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes): Katsuobushi is shaved flakes of fermented and smoked bonito. It’s a super umami rich ingredient that we use it to make dashi (Japanese stock for miso soup and all kinds of Japanese dishes). These flakes are super paper-thin – when you sprinkle on top of the okonomiyaki, they dance along with the steam! You can buy it from Amazon and Japanese/Asian grocery stores. You can omit this ingredient if you absolutely dislike fishy smell.

Aonori (dried green seaweed): It is dried green (Ao) seaweed (Nori) flakes/powder. This umami-rich seaweed has bright intense green color and has unique fragrant. Interesting fact: in ancient Japan, Ao (pronounce as [ah-o]) means green in traditional Japanese language (there were 4 colors; white, black, red, and green. These days, Ao means blue in contemporary Japanese).

-justonecookbook

I added two more foods and a glass of Highball. You should try this Japanese cocktail. I prefer a Highball than a draft beer with the Japanese grilled foods. 

Highball is the name for a family of mixed alcoholic drinks that are composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixer. Wikipedia

Osaka travel story of May continues.