Okonomiyaki: Japanese Comfort Food

For those not inclined to read a long review, I'll start with the punchline: this book should be considered indispensable by any fan of this wonderful Japanese dish. I strongly encourage anyone new to Okonomiyaki to start with Osaka (Kansai) style. Those experienced with any given style will find Mr. Saito's book to be an inspiring guide on their trip down the Okonomiyaki rabbit hole!We first looked into Okonomiyaki after a friend from San Diego posted a picture of what turned out to be an Osaka-preparation to her Facebook page without a caption. Being foodies, we couldn't let something as unusual-sounding as a pancake made with shredded cabbage and garnished with shaved dried tuna, pickled ginger, seaweed and a special sauce made specifically for the dish go untried. Though we're happy to try new recipes on our own, given the unusual list of ingredients we decided that our first experience should be with a professionally-prepared dish made by an experienced chef- that would give us a benchmark. Though we live in a large metropolitan area, not a single restaurant seemed to have Okonomiyaki on the menu. A google search yielded one attempt to provide a worldwide list of places serving Okonomiyaki, however. ... and jackpot! The one place listed in our area no longer had it on the menu, but the 85-year-old chef was experienced in making five different styles, and was only too happy to make it to order with a day's warning! After trying a few different styles for inspiration and as a measure of the quality of our own attempts, our friend in San Diego sent a "care package" containing Okonomiyaki flour, Okonomi sauce, tempura bits (Tenkasu) , and shaved bonito flakes (Katsuobushi). We were instantly hooked. It was the night after our first (happily, successful!) attempt at Kansai Okonomiyaki that we found this wonderful guidebook to the broader world of this delicious dish.Our favorite (thus far) is Kansai/Osaka style with pork belly (just ask your supermarket butcher if they don't normally have pork belly on the shelf). We make the dish healthier by trimming all of the fat off of the pork belly and just using the meat (chopped). We find one pound or so of untrimmed pork belly yields enough meat for two Okonomiyaki. If you don't have a Japanese market in your area, you might try eBay and Amazon for the flour, Beni Shoga (red pickled ginger), Katsuobushi, Tenkasu, Aonori (seaweed flakes) and Okonomi sauce. We use Kewpie brand mayonnaise (a Japanese favorite) but I think most any high-quality relatively neutral (not sweet) mayonnaise would work well. If you're in a hurry, try using the angel hair shredded cabbage sold in 10 oz bags in many supermarkets for use in making cole slaw.Okonomiyaki is quick and easy-to-make, probably unlike anything you've ever tasted, and almost impossible to describe in terms of other familiar flavors. It instantly became (and remains) our family's favorite comfort food. I'm sure we'll keep coming back to Mr. Saito's book for ideas and inspiration for years to come- it's written with the love, thoughtfulness, creativity, and sense of culinary adventure that a cooking tradition this wonderful deserves.

This book I knew I had to buy. And I love it! It brings back so many great memories of Osaka, Japan! Yoshio! You do your daughter honor for this book! (My heart goes out to you!) And you reminded me of one of my favorite trips with my recently departed husband. We were in that basement of one of two twin skyscapers that had that reproduction of a 17th Century traditional Japanese town, complete with various small restaurants, including this wonderful okonomiyaki cafe. The chef made our order... but included two additional, extra-large okonomiyaki as well! Poor Masako! She was trying to address the mistake in the order without causing loss of face on behalf of the chef. Finally, he explained why the extra two. He had mistaken my six-foot-seven, 400-pound husband with long wavy hair as a sumo wrestling student and could not understand why we didn't order enough for him!! We tried to explain to him that my husband was not a sumo wrestling student, but he thought we were trying to hide his identity. Well, he did eat both and some of the other two!! He might not had been a professional student, but he did have the heart and body of a sumo wrestler. (What a compliment for a gaijin!) I love your book. I can taste what I had, and now I get to make it for myself and my family. Thank you again for such wonderful memories that is now in my own kitchen.And you're right. How DO you describe what okonomiyaki tastes like???? All I can say is: YUM!!!!!!

This is the best Okonomiyaki book I have ever found out there. That being said I believe that a person needs to know how to cook Japanese food in order to use this book. The author has several good recipes in here but the editing needs lots of work. Recipes state ingredients then is the preparation stage don't tell you where to use them. Also some recipes have ingredients missing (not listed) then calls for them in preparation. There are also duplicate recipes in the book. I ran into one recipe where it repeats itself in the preparation stage. If the author ever does a second printing I hope that he has these editing problems fixed. Maybe get a professional editor to do them. Again, all this being said it still is a good book to use when cooking Okonomiyaki. You just have to watch what you're doing.

What a fun little book! I had no idea that there are so many variations of okonomiyaki, from plain to indulgent. I appreciate Saito's explanations of the regional variations, and his in-depth explanation of cooking technique. I am lucky that I work a few blocks from a good Japanese/Asian seafood and grocery market, and have access to most of the required ingredients. But finding out that there are okonomiyaki batter mixes avaiable makes the dish a practical item in my menu rotation. I don't understand the Japanese fascination with mayonnaise, but since I'll be making okonomiyaki at home, I can skip the mayonnaise and save a lot of calories. Meanwhile, I have another use for the many cabbages I've received in my organic vegetable deliveries.This is my first Kindle cookbook. I don't know that I'd want a comprehensive cookbook on Kindle, but a small one like this is handy and space-saving.

Excellent introduction to making Okonomiyaki. Everything is well explained and the author gives alternatives to some of the classical ingredients. You do need to live in a proximity to a Japanese shop though, as some of the ingredients cannot be replaced if you want to keep the original flavour.

I came back from Japan and loved this dish so much that I bought myself a Cuisinart Griddler in order to make it myself at home. The only problem is that I din't know where to start. This book filled that gap and brought Japanese Okonomiyaki into my life. I strongly recommend ithis book for begginers who want to know the nuts and bolts of this incredibly delicious dish. Bon appétit!

This book has good recipes in it but the quality of the print is really bad. It looks like someone has just typed and printed it at home with little attention to the design and page layout and then bound it in a slightly better glossy cover. Not really what I was expecting in terms of quality.

Ce livre est très cher (50€) pour ce qu'il est. C'est un ouvrage broché qui semble avoir été fait de manière très "amateur". Le texte et les images paraissent imprimés avec une imprimante jet d'encre de qualité très moyenne.Par ailleurs, les recettes sont assez moyennes. Ce n'est pas un livre de référence comme je l'attendais.

gut gemacht und fachlich toll. kommt etwas einfach von der aufmachung daher. es ist in englisch verfasst und somit gewöhnungsbedürftig.