A lot went on in June, so there weren’t many updates. Come to think of it, my last trip, the visit to Osaka, is already a month-old story. A friend of mine lives in Osaka and told me to come visit, so I went, but I didn’t get to eat anything great, and after that a bunch of things piled up and I had no time to look after the blog. I plan to get back into it from now on. That said, I haven’t been to many places worth calling good restaurants, so the posts will probably be pretty lame for a while.
My friend said there’s an okonomiyaki place near his home that he goes to all the time, so we head over. It’s called Hanamaruya. It’s tucked away in such an out-of-the-way spot that I won’t bother giving directions. I don’t think a place of this level is worth going out of your way to find anyway.
My friend’s order: buta-tama with a heap of extra cheese
Unusually, they put the fresh pork on in whole chunks. Most places use thin slices. Okonomiyaki doesn’t use any fancy ingredients to begin with, so good pork alone doesn’t make it dramatically tastier, but it was still a notch above your average okonomiyaki joint.
My order: mix-tama
It has all sorts of ingredients in it. If you want something more lavish you can add toppings… but my friend was paying, so I just ate it as is.
Once it’s cooked, you have to flip it over
From the outside it doesn’t look much different from a Korean pancake. Actually it’s already done at this stage, and you just brush on sauce as you like, top it with bonito flakes and eat.
The finished mix-tama.
It would have been tasty if there had been a bit more pork or seafood in it. Then again, okonomiyaki is something you eat for the sauce, so it probably wouldn’t have made much difference..
My friend’s order: a high-calorie buta-tama okonomiyaki loaded with cheese
Watching my friend happily eat an okonomiyaki with such monstrous calories that just looking at it makes you shudder, I found myself wondering if he’s even human.. Eating is great, but you’ve got to avoid high-carb, high-fat food.. at our age and all..
Going on a trip to Osaka and being let down by okonomiyaki isn’t easy, but that’s the kind of guy I am.. -_-;; I vow to devote myself even more to the pursuit of good food from now on.