japanese street food - okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki o-konomi-yaki is a Japanese savory 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". 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 a semi-liquid okonomiyaki called 'monjayaki.'
Kansai- or Osaka-style okonomiyaki is the predominant version of the dish, found throughout most of Japan. The batter is made of flour, grated nagaimo (a type of yam), water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally thin pork belly, often mistaken for bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, konjac, mochi or cheese. Okonomiyaki is sometimes compared to an omelette or a pancake and may be referred to as a "Japanese pizza" or "Osaka soul food"
Some okonomiyaki restaurants are grill-it-yourself establishments, where the server produces a bowl of raw ingredients that the customer mixes and grills at tables fitted with teppan, or special hotplates. They may also have a diner-style counter where the cook prepares the dish in front of the customers.
In Osaka (the largest city in the Kansai region), where this dish is said to have originated, okonomiyaki is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are pan-fried on both sides on either a teppan or a pan using metal spatulas that are later used to slice the dish when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include otafuku/okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger (beni shoga).

[gadgetgirl]

Japanese street food - singlehandedly keeping the cabbage industry alive.

[pauldaniel]

I love watching any street food videos when I'm about to fall asleep... something about watching the repetition and the ease lets me relax. Something therapeutic about it all.

[blaisegauba]

Man, now I'm hungry for some Japanese Okonomiyaki street food! Damn it! I miss living in Japan! Best food in the world! One of my Japanese friends used to take me to this one, teeny, tiny, little, okonomiyaki-ya in the northern part of Kyoto, where I lived. We had to walk through all these neighborhoods where there were no streets big enough for cars, only bicycles, scooters, and pedestrians way back up into the hills and finally, we came to this lady's little okonomiyaki restaurant. Only four people could sit inside at any one time. Her specialty was ika-okonomiyaki (squid). What was amazing, was that she served very fresh squid, because it was still alive when she chopped it up and cooked it into the okonomiyaki. It was SO delicious! Sorry little squid, but you tasted SO good!

[zeeshanrocks]

0:20 Oiling completes
1:15 Yam spreading
3:10 Cabbage Attack
4:50 Eggs on
4:50 Topping
5:50 More Yam
8:45 Upside down
11:30 Rolling completes
16:25 Enough Mouthwatering, Time for Business !
Thank me Later !

[obliviousfafnir]

90% of my reason to want to visit Japan is just to eat Japanese food like this.

[johnpaul]

Japanese street food is on another level.

[workinghard]

I CANT STAND TO WATCH THESE THEY MAKE ME HUNGRY AND READY TO EAT!!!  THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARE REALLY SO GIFTED!

[Kindred_Lamb]

just picture a whole street bustling with booths, stands and vendors selling a huge variety of Japanese street food and as you enter an enormous cloud of aroma coming from the different street food sold in each vendor. You're invited not just with the alluring scent of food but the cacophony of hundreds of people all gathered up walking around and about, to and fro in the clear sky illuminated not just by the moon but by the city below.

Its a whole new world out there

[teapottwo]

He made 35 in 12.5 minutes. So in an 8-hour shift a total of 1344 Okonomiyakis...Enough to feed me for a year or two!

[EdenDGarden]

I feel so proud of myself! I am finally watching food videos without being starving!

[jordanrelkey]

Those egg cracking skills are some sage ninja level Jitsu.

[gusj]

Everytime I think he was done, he was adding something else.

[peterawesomeness]

It kind of bothered me that he flipped the left side first, even though the right side had been on the pan longer. You can see the difference in color.

[-thesignpainter]

That cabbage slicer is some next level stuff

[norhifzan]

I like how generous they are with the ingredients’

[kendraluful]

When I lived in Japan, I loved Okanomiyaki! I liked it best at a restaurant with friends and your own table grill.

[coffaro]

Working very fast and hard. Maybe it’s not for me but I admire him for giving it his all.

[bbagachas]

When you have no food at home and you're watching videos of food....

[Q..J..]

That has got to taste amazing! All the layers, different things added along the way. The extra touch of brushing the sauce on the bottom of the container. Yes!! 👏

[chenbaekxisekaiyeol]

If I ever go to Japan I think I'd just stand there watching him make these all day and then buy the last one and go home 😂 so interesting to watch