Hiroshimayaki (okonomiyaki: a bit of this, a bit of that)

Hiroshimayaki.  Either it inspires a happy smile in your belly, or you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about.

     Hiroshimayaki is a griddled food of the overall okonomiyaki group of food-stuff, and originates in Hiroshima (yeah: that second part really surprised you, right?).  The exact ingredients vary wildly (yes: wildly, not widely--I'm descending into hyperbole, if you don't mind), so you needn't follow this recipe with exactitude.  It's almost as broad in its flexibility as the term "omelette" is:  omelettes are eggs plus something, okonomiyaki is a crêpe-like batter with cabbage plus something (and hiroshimayaki just requires that one of the somethings be yakisoba: noodles).  It occupies a food niche in Japan somewhat comparable to that of pizza in America (though perhaps not nearly as universally present as pizzerias are).

     That being said, this recipe is what I've come to love.  It comes from Dotonbori, a restaurant (chain of restaurants?) in (or was it only near?) the Fussa Shi prefecture (borough/county) of Tokyo.  Way cool place: they had these statues of tanuki (mythical trickster raccoon-dogs) by the front door.

     This is a reconstruction which I had put together about 2 years ago, when I hadn't had any hiroshimayaki for about 4½ years.  I had had to work from memory (which was probably a good start, since I used to make it myself all of the time [it was that sort of restaurant], so the muscle-memory and so forth is probably clearer than a taste/visual-only memory at an American restaurant would have been), as bolstered by Googles (and Wiki).

     This particular recipe below tastes good, but I'm pretty sure that the batter had come out far too doughy (though that could have been my deviating when I made it--it's been a while, so I'm not 100% on how closely I'd followed my intended recipe).  You might consider running a standard crêpe batter, if you want to be fairly certain of success, and reserve experimenting with the batter below until you have time to compare and contrast.

     Google hiroshimayaki for alternatives; you might like the idea, but wish to use (instead or as well) shrimp, rice, beef/chicken, kimchi, etc..
     Note: the image below is representative, from a Google search, not a pic of my own; it looked much like this (in the same way as burgers all look much the same), so I'm throwing it in in order to give you a visual cue.

Hiroshimayaki - serves ~2-3

Ingredients:

   Batter:

½ cup flour (yam flour, preferably)

½ cup water (or dashi soup stock?)

1 egg

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   Layers:
2 cups shredded cabbage

¼ cup bean sprouts

¼ cup shredded green onions

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5-10 bacon strips

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1 cup boiled/steamed yakisoba (soba: noodles)

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2-3 eggs (uncooked), depending upon number of servings being made

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Okonomiyaki sauce, to taste

     (go to the store for that one—and yakisoba or tonkatsu sauce can substitute)

Katsuobushi , to taste

     (basically: fish shavings [it resembles pencil-sharpener shavings])

Seaweed powder, to taste (confetti-like, ~1mm²)

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PREP WORK:

You NEED a very broad spatula for this.

     Mix flour, water, eggs, and yam flour to form a thin gruel-like crêpe-batter.

     Prepare the vegetables as a tossed-salad looking mix of fine-shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, and green onions.

COOKING:

Onto a medium-heated griddle, dole out ~6” diameter pool of batter—it will cook rapidly, so immediately pile on a handful of cabbage.

     Ladle a thinnish layer of batter onto the cabbage, and flip the whole over to cook that layer, and press it firmly to the griddle.

     Lay on the bacon, with another thin coat of batter, and flip/press again.

     Lay on a handful of soba.  At the same time, pour the egg onto the griddle (break the yolk or not, to taste), allowing it to partially cook (so that it’s slightly manageable, but still runny enough to sink into the soba), then spatula it onto the soba, and flip the whole yet again, pressing down some more.

     Transfer to plate, the whole being ~1”-2” thick.

     Coat (to taste) with okonomiyaki sauce.  If you haven’t had it before, give it a quick taste—it’s a bit strong and somewhat salty.

     Sprinkle with katsuobushi and seaweed, to taste.  (Note: this is where it gets kind of interesting: the katsuobushi, being shaved fish, curls and unfurls in a thermal effect; way cool.)

     Repeat for next serving.