Crazy Americans

By chandlerdelinks

February 16, 2012 Comments

One thing we vowed to do while in Tokyo was to eat as the Japanese eat.

So far, I have shared Hotel Breakfasts, Sushi, Shabu Shabu, and now it’s time for a meal from Osaka called, “Okonamiyaki.” They call it the “Japanese Pancake,” but I can assure you, this ain’t your standard breakfast dish.

Yaki, in Japanese, is Grill. So when we were brought to our tables, we were greeted by a large grill embedded in the table.

The server lit the propane fired Yaki and then proceeded to mix and mold a combination of cabbage, bacon, beef, onions and some other unknowns into two piles.

After the piles were sufficiently built, they were left to cook for 15-20 minutes on the yaki.

While we waited, our hosts decided to continue playing a little game they like called, “What will Tim and Chandler eat?”

This time it was something they had a lot of difficulty describing. They were able to say, “Stomach and tendons.” I think Tim added tripe to the description.

Some things were chewy. Some things were not. Some things were tasty. Some things were not.

Either way, we polished off the bowls and our hosts were left in a state of disbelief.

After the bowls of entrails the server brought out a kind of omelet. I never was able to get a name for this item, but it was basically an omelet wrapped around pork and some sort of cheesy, milky substance.

It was interesting watching it cook on the grill, since it almost appeared to jump and dance as it cooked.

I think the topping of this omelet was either seaweed flakes or fish flakes. I couldn’t really tell, but as I brought it closer to my mouth it smelled a little like fish, but it didn’t taste like fish.

This was not my favorite dish, but I ate it.

In the meantime, the Japanese Pancakes were still cooking and the server came to add some additional ingredients…

The sauce was hard to describe, except that I think it’s called okonomiyaki sauce. It’s gooey and sweet, but not that sweet, almost like a bland caramel.

After a few more minutes of cooking, the pancakes were then chopped into individual servings for our table.

Some noodles were added to the grill.

I don’t really know how to describe the okonomiyaki. There is so much going on with it that it’s hard to identify one real taste. The texture is definitely enjoyable, since the cabbage is crunchy and then there are the grilled noodles. I wish I could describe it better, but I really can’t.

As we were eating our pancakes, we were then given some raw squid to grill and eat. Shame on me for not taking a photograph.

This was, literally, one of the most delicious things I ate while in Japan. It didn’t appear to be seasoned in any way, but it tasted so. It was salty and less chewy than expected.

Much to the dismay of our hosts, when Tim and I took a bite of the squid, we both reacted the same way. With full mouths we tried to say, “It’s delicious.”

Their response? “Crazy Americans. They like squid but they don’t like McDonald’s.”