what i made for dinner :: okonomiyaki

my mother is a whiz at making okonomiyaki, a japanese savory pancake-like dish. being from the kansai region of japan, this is soul food for us, and my mother's made-from-scratch version is what i consider to be perfect okonomiyaki. my version? i make it from a mix and i cut some other corners too. guess what? it doesn't come out nearly as good as my mom's. no surprise there.

but it's still fairly tasty, especially since we smother ours in okonomiyaki sauce, doro sauce, and kewpie mayonnaise (if i'm at my mom's i also dump on the aonori). besides the chopped cabbage and green onion, i usually mix some shrimp and squid into the batter. if i feel like doing some more work, i'll also sautee diced konyaku on high heat in shoyu and sake to add to the batter. i always layer sliced pork on top after sprinkling the batter with ground pepper, msg (the horror!), tenkasu, and katsuobushi.