Home Cooked Okonomiyaki!

Two of our students, Mitsue & Teruyo invited us over to their house for a real home-cooked Japanese meal!

The japanese-style low table was very nicely set. They had two appetizers set out for us and they were SO yummy! see below:

The tomatoes were boiled, pealed, and marinated in shoyu and sesame oil- This is when it became necessary that I learn to say "kore wa mecha oishii" which means "this is very good!" On the right is a delicious shrimp & avocado salad - also mecha oishii!

Teruyo & Mitsue cooking okonomiyaki on the grill.

Okonomiyaki is like a japanese pancake/pizza. The word is derived from "okonomi" which means "anything you want" and "yaki" which means "grilled". Basically, okonomoyaki has many options for ingredients but most commonly it consists of cabbage, flour batter, egg, octopus, squid, bacon, and various vegetables. As you can see above, they also made us "modanyaki" which is okonomiyaki plus soba noodles on top. Once it was done grilling, they put a dark sauce and mayonnaise on top. Yes, the Japanese love mayonnaise on pretty much everything.

Then, it was time for dessert. For dessert we had a delicious vanilla ice cream dish with blueberries, pineapple, and watermelon mixed in. [FYI fruit is ridiculously expensive in Japan. One-quarter of a watermelon will cost you about 450 yen ($4.50)!] By this point we were all very full, about to burst! You might be surprised to know that the Japanese have VERY large appetites, even larger than mine! They kept trying to feed us more food but physically, we couldn't.

Then it was time for tea. It is customary for Japanese meals to end with green tea and a sweet bean dessert. The purple gelatin looking thing on the left is made from sweet beans and you are supposed to eat it along with your tea. It was okay. not bad, but not great.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful meal! Mitsue and Teruyo were great hosts and we enjoyed every minute of it!