Darwin would have tried it. They say that, on his journey aboard the 'Beagle', Charles Darwin threw every exotic animal he found into the pot. Óscar López-Fonseca invites us to tour the kitchens of the world with culinary experiences that, surely, the father of the theory of evolution would have ventured to try on that trip.
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In this habit of comparing everything, there are those who define a peculiar dish of Japanese gastronomy called okonomiyaki like “a pizza” “Japanese style”. Others, however, prefer to look for similarities with the Spanish omelette, although there is little (or none) of the egg and there is no trace of potato and onion. And yet, it is neither one thing nor the other, nor is it cooked like them and it does not even resemble them, except for its rounded shape. In reality, the okonomiyaki It is one more example of the culinary wealth of a country that only seems to have crossed its borders for the general public. sushihe sashimi and, in recent years, the ramen (yes, what some already like to describe as “Japanese stew”).
In reality, the okonomiyaki It is one of the most popular dishes in Japan – there are more than 15,000 establishments specialized in its preparation – which has among its peculiarities that it is prepared on a hot griddle in full view of the diner. The other is that the list of ingredients added is as long as the cook is inventive. In fact, okonomi means “to taste” and yaki, “cooked on the grill or grill.” Everything mixed with a dough of flour and water type crepelarge amounts of cabbage, bean sprouts and, in some cases, noodles. In reality, you can take whatever you want (meat, seafood or whatever the chef has) and top it with Japanese mayonnaise, with a special sauce – which may or may not be spicy -, with aonori (nori seaweed flakes) or with katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings). In short: imagination to the palate.
Those who know about the okonomiyaki that in this apparent (only apparent) hodgepodge of ingredients there are two great culinary schools in Japan. One, from the city of Osaka, in the Kansai prefecture, in which they mix all the ingredients and then pour them onto the griddle to cook them. Its appearance in this case may slightly resemble that of a tortilla. The second is that of the city of Hiroshima, in which the components of the recipe are added one after another on the griddle until forming a dish with different thick layers. Furthermore, in this case a grilled egg is usually added as a differentiating element. From there, the variations in one and the other are infinite.
The Okonomiyaki Academy, an association created in 2014 to promote this dish throughout the world and which is based precisely in Hiroshima, links the origin of this dish with a street snack called issen yōshokua tortilla made with flour dough and water that was covered with some vegetables or dried fish shavings and was a cheap meal (its name literally means “a piece at the price of a issen“, fraction of a yen, the Japanese currency). After the Second World War and, above all, the destruction of this city by the atomic bomb that literally devastated it, what was a simple snack It became a main dish that could be cooked with flour delivered as food aid from the United States and cabbage. In the city it was then called “soul food” due to the importance it had in the diet of the survivors.
The passage of time and, with it, the arrival of economic recovery meant that little by little the recipe evolved and other ingredients were added – although maintaining generous quantities of cabbage as a reminder of those years of hardship – until it became the okonomiyaki current, forceful and that serves as a main dish. The director of the academy okonomiyakiShigeki Sasaki, assured in March of last year that “the okonomiyaki “It has gone from being a food for survival to the specialty of Hiroshima.” And he is right.
Currently, there are about 1,600 restaurants specializing in this dish in the Hiroshima region, half of them in the city itself. In fact, in the center, not far from the Peace Park where the ruins of the only building that survived the atomic bomb stand, there is a building that houses around thirty restaurants specialized in this dish, distributed among its different floors. It is known as okonomimuraliterally “the people of the okonomiyaki”. In reality, they are small establishments in which there is only one bar with an iron (called teppan) in front of which the clients sit on stools so that the chef begins the preparation of the dish and, with it, the show. Although each one has a specialty – due to the ingredients he uses or the way of cooking it -, broadly speaking, the majority repeat a similar culinary ritual.
Let's take as an example the one that has niku (meat), tamago (egg) and soba (thin noodles), considered one of the most typical in Hiroshima. In it, the cook first pours a thin flour dough to create a small circle that will serve as the initial base for the dish. On top of it he adds a handful of chopped cabbage, bean sprouts and thinly sliced meat, followed by other ingredients so that they cook. Meanwhile, he fries the noodles separately and, once ready, adds them to the small mountain, which he turns over to place it on another thin layer of dough in such a way that he is sandwiched between the first and this one. Finally, he tops it off with a fried egg as well.
Only then will you place the okonimiyaki before the client on the same floor so that they can add sauces and other ingredients to their liking, and will give them a metal spatula so that they can chop it and take the pieces to the plate to eat it. Chopsticks are optional. It is clear that any resemblance to a pizza or an omelette, no matter how “Japanese” we want to call them, is purely coincidental.
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