sovay | This year, next year, sometime, never

Prior to this evening, my major accomplishments for the day were cleaning two bathrooms and baking a nut-flour cake. (I was helping my mother around the house. My aunt is visiting from the West Coast this weekend.) As of this evening, I would say my major accomplishment for the day was learning how to make okonomiyaki with

sairaali.

I do not know why Wikipedia calls okonomiyaki "Japanese pizza." They're both circular and you can put anything you feel like on them. By this logic, plates are a form of pizza and so are DVDs. My closest culinary referent for okonomiyaki came out when I exclaimed, after several minutes of stirring the dense, sticky batter of shredded cabbage, grated nagaimo, chopped spinach, chopped mushrooms, and pickled red ginger, "These are the snottiest latkes I've ever made."

(That would be the nagaimo. Japanese mountain yam. Dioscorea polystachya, the internet tells me. I have never encountered anything like this plant before. It looks like a perfectly straightforward tuber with a lightly freckled skin and a crisp white interior. We bought it packaged in shrink-wrap from H-Mart. It crunches when you cut it. So far, so vegetal. And then you begin to grate it and it's mucilage all the way down. It practically dissolves into whitish strings of glop. It looks like a handkerchief failure. Or an accident in a rubber cement factory. I would love to know, botanically, what causes this effect: it looks hilariously disgusting and it is responsible for the characteristic texture of okonomiyaki. If it's responsible for any of the taste, I can't hold anything against it except its appearance. Okay, and the fact that when raw it's an irritant to human skin, but the chemicals responsible cook off really quickly. I now want to try making latkes with nagaimo as the binder instead of egg—I've never really had a good recipe for vegan latkes, and judging by the fluffiness and the tenderness of the okonomiyaki, mountain yam feels like the way to go. There's some egg in the okonomiyaki batter, but it's not the primary liquid. I suspect it would work without.)

I had never had okonomiyaki before. Apparently it is difficult to get in the U.S., or at least difficult to get properly made. Fortunately, Saira knows how to make it;

rushthatspeaks and

gaudior joined us as we were moving from the chopping to the cooking stage; now I know that I really like okonomiyaki and I'm already thinking about other fillings that I would fold into the batter and other toppings I might want to eat it with. We had Kewpie mayonnaise, tonkatsu sauce, and bonito flakes. (I went home with the bag of bonito flakes. I have stashed them in the pantry alongside the various Korean foodstuffs

yhlee has been sending me. The cats are becoming really curious about the dried seaweed, puffed rice, dried sweet potato, and now multiple kinds of fish.) Leftover spinach and mushrooms turned into a quick stir-fry on the side. It was ridiculously tasty. Afterward there was a sort of decompression period of hanging out, eating fruit, and admiring the blue-and-orange nudibranch Saira was knitting. Eventually I got a ride home and was pounced upon by cats who are simultaneously attempting to convince me that they have never been petted and never been fed.

So far, this weekend, so good.

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Heh, let me know if the Korean foodstuffs are any good to you! I am informed that the puffed rice can substitute for Rice Krispies in Rice Krispy Treats by a baker friend (haven't tried it myself), but I imagine that would interact poorly with braces. But if there's anything you particularly like, let me know and I'll keep an eye out.

I am informed that the puffed rice can substitute for Rice Krispies in Rice Krispy Treats by a baker friend (haven't tried it myself), but I imagine that would interact poorly with braces.

I really miss Rice Krispies treats. I used to make them semi-regularly. They're one of the few completely terrible things that I enjoy eating.

But if there's anything you particularly like, let me know and I'll keep an eye out.

I shall certainly keep you posted. Right now all I can remember is that I need to buy more coconut milk, which is not your problem.

The bonito flakes we have bought packaged as cat treats worked perfectly well for humans, but the humans do not try to turn inside out for them.

The bonito flakes we have bought packaged as cat treats worked perfectly well for humans, but the humans do not try to turn inside out for them.

That's good to know. That sounds dangerous.

(I like bonito flakes a lot, but I like most forms of fish a lot. My life needs more fish in it, really.)

"These are the snottiest latkes I've ever made."

Hee!

Hope the rest of your weekend is as delicious and hilarious.

Nine

Okonomiyaki are to be compared with latkes, if any comparison is possible. I don't know where the "pizza" thing came from, either.

I had a head start on learning how to make these, because I'm a fan of a (sadly, now deceased) YouTube entertainer who devoted an episode of his cooking show to making okonomiyaki. Find it here, if you're curious: http://blip.tv/youcanplaythis/you-can-cook-this-okonomiyaki-6614170

Actually, I have half a cabbage in the refrigerator. You're making me think I need to try this.

I've compared them to omelettes before, but that only works if there's egg in it. The ones I had were very eggy: the woman cooked them on a hot-plate in front of us, and if memory serves, her method was to pour the batter, then drop toppings onto it, then flip the whole thing over to cook a bit more. Which is pretty omelette-y, to my eye. But there are probably different ways to do it.

I've only ever made them eggy, too. Batter of flour, water, eggs, salt and pepper, finely chopped cabbage, and then press tasty things (veg sausage, in my case) into the raw side and flip it over to cook.

I've never had one without egg in it, but the addition of nagaimo to the egg really changes the texture and makes it far less like an omelet.

I'd still say it bears more resemblance to an omelet than to a pizza. :-P In the end it isn't either of those things -- it is itself, nothing more -- but if you're trying to get the concept across to someone who's never seen one . . . .

(I confess I am insufficiently familiar with latkes to render an opinion on whether that's a closer analogy than the omelet one.)

Ahh, I missed the comparison relative to a pizza. I agree, it is much more omelette-like than pizza-like. The pizza comparison just baffles me.

(I confess I am insufficiently familiar with latkes to render an opinion on whether that's a closer analogy than the omelet one.)

My family makes them very simply: shredded potato bound together with egg and salt and black pepper, fried in a skillet with oil. I don't actually like them very much, but I don't like most things made with potato. I enjoy making latkes for people and I'd like to have a viable vegan option that doesn't fall apart in the pan or run the risk of making me ill (I'm allergic to flaxseed).

I love okonomiyaki. I haven't had it in awhile, but I used to get it for dinner when I lived near a Japanese shopping center. I bet I could find some in downtown LA.

I'm so glad you've tried this! As for equivalents, I think of it as having some distant relationship with bubble and squeak, though perhaps that's a little fanciful.

The sushi/ramen place near us has what they call "Seafood Japanese Pizza" which seems to be an okonomiyaki-like dish, except the base is a pancake with various kinds of seafood without the cabbage grilled up ...and served on a bed of raw cabbage. It's very tasty but extremely confusing.

I do not know why Wikipedia calls okonomiyaki "Japanese pizza." They're both circular and you can put anything you feel like on them. By this logic, plates are a form of pizza and so are DVDs.

*love*

Glad you are enjoying okonomiyaki, whose name pretty much requires that you do :-)

This year, next year, sometime, never

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