Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a savoury griddle cake from Japan built mostly of shredded cabbage held together with a thin batter of flour, egg, dashi and grated nagaimo yam, cooked on a teppan and finished with a sweet-sharp brown sauce, mayonnaise, dried bonito flakes and powdered nori. The name means roughly "grilled as you like it", and the "as you like" covers the add-ins: thin pork belly slices laid on top are the standard, squid, prawn, cheese and mochi are common, and the Osaka style mixes everything into the batter before it hits the plate. Hiroshima has its own version that is layered rather than mixed, a crêpe-thin base topped with a mound of cabbage, pork, a tangle of fried yakisoba noodles and a fried egg, and the two cities disagree sharply about which is the real one. Both grew out of cheap wartime and post-war flour-based street food, and both are eaten in specialist restaurants where the diner often cooks at a hotplate set into the table.