Osaka's Okonomiyaki

[okonomiyaki + yakisoba]

Delay no more... I'm starting to get emails from readers checking my whereabouts. My wanderlust has gotten me to Japan and back. This time besides shopping and more shopping in Tokyo, I got around taking the Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka and Kyoto for a bit of outside-of-Tokyo reality. Though I must say, I'd rather spend the entire 10 days in Tokyo alone. There's just too much to see and too little time to fit all in.

With a food-themed blog like this, a snapshot of the food I savored is a must. First off, let's check out this Japanese pizza-like delicacy from the Osaka area. Okonomiyaki restaurants are so much fun. They're more like street food than anything else fancy. You get a server turning the gooey dough into a irresistible crispy pancake filled with seafood or meat right in front of you on a grill. Top it up with bulldog sauce, mustard and Kewpie mayonnaise, you've got just the right flavors oozing through the thick yet light pancake. I'd say it's like a cross between savory pancake and pizza. To check out how this is done, here's a recipe to attempt.

[Japanese pancake/pizza]

In Osaka, we were fortunate to have an old college mate of mine to take us to the best restaurants around. Ryutaro and I went way back to our junior year when we both had part-time jobs at the same place. Those were the days when we had to show up at 7 in the morning, preparing salads, fruits, sandwiches and packing them into clear plastic cases for delivery across different cafes on campus. Now 10 years later, he's a successful businessman having been expatriated to Egypt where he met his wife and now having a new-born daughter named Marina. It's so much fun to relive the good old days with lotsa beer and good japanese bar food. Ryu is just how I remembered him to be, his ability to down pints of beer before the first course is served and his laughing reprise of what life brings.