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Most (if not all) Japanese foods will leave you tousled in a very nice way and you’ll be drooling like a little baby while exclaiming “oishii!” (in kanji – 美味しい) and (in hiragana – おいしい) as you ask for more.
Today, I’ll be talking about 2 of the most well-loved Japanese recipes (in terms of ingredients, that is) that just happen to be as world-renowned as any other Japanese cuisine: the okonomiyaki and its evolved version, the monjayaki.
- Okonomiyaki is a unique recipe developed in the Kansai or Hiroshima regions in Japan, but is now a household delicacy throughout the country.
- Monjayaki, on the other hand, uses a pan-fried batter and had originated in the Kantō region.
Check out our article about teppanyaki accessories as well.
Let’s discuss a little background in the difference between okonomiyaki and monjayaki. And then we’ll go straight into a delicious recipe!
In this post we'll cover:
Monjayaki vs okonomiyaki
These 2 Japanese savory pancakes that contain a variety of ingredients are very similar to each other, which is why it’s necessary to identify the few differences that they have to avoid any sort of confusion.
First off, the okonomiyaki uses lots of toppings, and so, roughly translates to “whatever you want to grill”. This is the progenitor (if you will) of the monjayaki and is believed by food researcher Tekishū Motoyama to have been derived from the funoyaki, a thin crepe-like confection that was popular in Japan back in the 16th century (Sengoku period), which was often served as a snack to children.
Later on, this simple snack recipe spread to Kyoto, Osaka, and then to Edo (modern day Tokyo). It was dubbed gintsuba and kintsuba, respectively.
In the Meiji Era, it was called mojiyaki, but it wasn’t after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (Taishō Era) when the okonomiyaki began taking its current form.
Besides the common sweet types, savory types using fish, vegetables, and various meat began appearing when people cooked these crepes to make them into meals with whatever ingredients they had in the region.
And again, during the Second World War, when Japan experienced a rice shortage, the okonomiyaki finally became recognizable in the form that it has today, with basic ingredients.
Monjayaki may have split from okonomiyaki around the Meiji Era in the 19th century and may have derived from the old term “mojiyaki” that we’ve just talked about earlier.
Although it’s similar to okonomiyaki (as its batter is also based on wheat flour, water, eggs, meats, and vegetables), monjayaki uses different liquid ingredients; more so than its predecessor.
In fact, you can differentiate between the 2 recipes when you see them in person or in videos and images because okonomiyaki looks like a large fried pancake with meats, vegetables, and toppings, while monjayaki is a bit more runny and viscous.
While okonomiyaki looks more like a pancake, monjayaki, on the other hand, resembles some type of omelette.
There’s also a difference in how the 2 meals are served. For instance, you can eat your okonomiyaki on a small plate or in a bowl with chopsticks, whereas you can only eat monjayaki hot off the grill with a spatula-shaped spoon.
Easy okonomiyaki batter and toppings recipe
Equipment
- Teppan plate
- or: very large skillet
Ingredients
Okonomiyaki batter recipe
- 3.5 ounces okonomiyaki flour
- 3.5 ounces water
- 1/4 cabbage head
- 1 spring onion
- 2 strips bacon
Okonomiyaki toppings recipe
- Mayonnaise
- Okonomiyaki sauce
- Bonito flakes
- Aonori seaweed for that extra crunch
- Some pickled ginger
- Tenkasu (ready-made tempura flakes)
Instructions
- Pour the specially-made okonomiyaki flour into a medium-size bowl. Add water and mix thoroughly. Set it aside for later use.
- Start chopping your green onions and cabbage into small slices and put them into the bowl where the batter mix is.
- Toss in the egg with the batter mix. Try not to mix too much, as you may not get the desired result for your batter.
- Heat up the skillet or teppanyaki and pour some vegetable oil over it. Set to high heat. Now pour the okonomiyaki batter mix into the teppanyaki and use the heat to form a circular shape from it, just like how you'd make a regular pancake. Allow it to cook for about 3 – 4 minutes and see if the bottom becomes brown in color.
- Now you may add the bacon strips (or other toppings of your choice; bacon, shrimp, or squid would be good) before you flip the pancake over. Let the other side of it cook for another 3 – 4 minutes until it also becomes brown in color. In order to keep the pancake light and fluffy, just let it cook on its own and don't try to press it down with the spatula.
- Once cooked, transfer it to a large plate and then add condiments, such as okonomiyaki sauce, aonori seaweed, bonito flakes, pickled ginger, and tenkasu tempura flakes.
Notes
Okonomiyaki roots and regional variations
Okonomiyaki is the more prominent of the 2 dishes. Not only has it evolved over the centuries, but it’s also become a widespread delicacy across various regions in Japan, with each having its own blend and taste.
It’s interesting to know that places like Tsukishima, Hinase, Tokushima Prefecture, and a few other regions have their own unique style of cooking the okonomiyaki meaty-vegetable pancake.
The evolution of okonomiyaki is a wonder in and of itself. Now, let’s look at the different variations of this Japanese savory pancake.
Okonomiyaki comes in these different styles of cooking:
- Kansai/Osaka style
- Hiroshima style
- Tsukishima style
- Hamamatsu style
- Okinawa style
- Hinase, Okayama style
- Kishiwada, Osaka style
- Fuchū, Hiroshima style
- Tokushima style
This is a text overlay image of the original work Okonomiyaki! by SteFou! on Flickr under cc. What a great looking dish!
Kansai/Osaka style
This particular version of the okonomiyaki is the most popular among all of the okonomiyaki pancakes in all of Japan.
Dissecting this dish will be tough, as it has lots of basic ingredients. And since its name implies that you can customize it, that becomes even more complicated.
- Starting off with the batter, it’s made from wheat or buckwheat flour and sort of forms the foundation for the whole pancake.
- Then, other ingredients include a tuberous root vegetable called nagaimo, which is a type of yam that’s grated.
- Dried kelp or skipjack tuna extract called dashi, or sometimes, they just use water as a substitute ingredient.
- Shredded cabbage (these are the perfect ones to use for okonomiyaki!) and eggs.
- Additional ingredients include mochi or cheese, konjac, vegetables, shrimp, squid, octopus, thin strips of pork belly meat (looks very similar to bacon), and green onion.
The various slang for okonomiyaki may also include “Osaka soul food”, “Japanese pizza”, pancake, or omelet.
Okonomiyaki also has very delicious toppings, which add even more taste to the already very present flavors. These condiments include:
- Beni shōga or pickled ginger
- Japanese mayonnaise
- Katsuobushi or what’s otherwise known as bonito flakes
- Aonori (seaweed flakes)
- Worcestershire sauce or otafuku/okonomiyaki sauce
The okonomiyaki is cooked atop a teppanyaki grill and you may go to either a staff-served or grill-it-yourself restaurant where the latter will give you the freedom to cook your own okonomiyaki.
There are also other variants of okonomiyaki where they serve it with an additional layer of fried udon/yakisoba, and it’s called modan-yaki. Negiyaki, on the other hand, is a type of okonomiyaki with lots of scallions.
Hiroshima style
The Hiroshima cooking style of the okonomiyaki is sometimes referred to as Hiroshima-yaki or Hiroshima-okonomi.
This okonomiyaki style is quite distinct from its Osaka counterpart. While the ingredients of the latter are mixed, the former’s is layered with rock-like formations detailing geological timelines.
The layers commonly consist of:
- Baked flour batter
- Cabbage
- Pork (or seafood items such as octopus, squid, or shrimp)
- Cheese
- Typically, it’s topped with udon or yakisoba noodles, much like the modan-yaki
- Plus enough okonomiyaki sauce to blow all your blues away, simply because it’s very delicious.
This okonomiyaki has such a unique blend and taste to it that you’d recite the Japanese idiomatic expression, “花より団子”, which translates to “dumplings rather than flowers”. It can generally mean someone who prefers substance over style, or is a practical person.
In my collective assumption, the practicality of layering the okonomiyaki’s ingredients rather than mixing them enhances its taste more!
Tsukishima style
Specializes in monjayaki as this is believed to be the place where the monjayaki was born, but restaurants here also offer okonomiyaki.
They even named the main street here “Monja Street” as a reference to the monjayaki recipe.
Hamamatsu style
They cook takuan. This is pickled daikon radish and hardly considered as a type of okonomiyaki, except for its vegetable pancake-ish looks.
Okinawa style
This is a very simple type of okonomiyaki called hirayachi, but you’ll find it more often in households rather than in any restaurant in Okinawa.
Hinase, Okayama style
Chefs from this region love to put oysters in the okonomiyaki and improve upon the recipe to call it kaki-oko, which is their version of the famous cuisine.
Kishiwada, Osaka style
Their version of the okonomiyaki is called kashimin-yaki (カシミヤキ). The usual pork meat that’s added to the recipe is replaced with chicken and tallow, which gives the kashimin-yaki its unique flavor.
Fuchū, Hiroshima style
This version of the okonomiyaki has also replaced the pork meat belly in favor of ground beef or pork.
Tokushima style
This is a type of mixed okonomiyaki.
Hashimaki
This is kind of a style of okonomiyaki, but hashimaki comes served on chopsticks, ready to eat
Steps in cooking the common (Kansai) okonomiyaki recipe
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl made of plastic. You’ll get the desired airy texture of okonomiyaki if you stir the ingredients thoroughly in a plastic bowl rather than in a glass or metal bowl, so this is a good start for your okonomiyaki cooking skills.
- Start frying the mix on the teppanyaki grill. Make circles from the mix, kind of like how you make regular Western pancakes. Use a specialized Japanese spatula called hera.
- Flip your patty like a pancake. You need to flip the savory pancake as many times as possible in order to get the perfect color and texture. Unlike monjayaki (which can only be cooked on a teppanyaki grill), okonomiyaki can be cooked on both the teppanyaki grill and a regular skillet or frying pan.
- Add mayonnaise. Here’s a tip on how to efficiently use mayonnaise as a topping for the okonomiyaki; instead of aimlessly making a zig-zag pattern with it, try to make a grid on the surface of the pancake and seal the edges by making a circular pattern afterward. This way, the sauce doesn’t drip down from the okonomiyaki and stays locked in place inside the grid pattern that you’ve made earlier.
- Add okonomiyaki sauce and aonori. First, add the okonomiyaki sauce (note this isn’t the same as normal soy sauce, as it’s a mixture of honey, ketchup, and soy sauce, which gives the pancake a better flavor) onto the pancake. Then sprinkle aonori all over it too! Aonori is dried seaweed, which also enhances the taste of the okonomiyaki pancake.
- Add katsuobushi. Adding a final touch to the whole dish by scattering katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) on it will promise an exotic flavor that you’ve never tasted before.
- Serve it hot. Slicing the okonomiyaki into bite-size cubes is how you serve it. Enjoy every bite of this Japanese savory pancake!
The proper way to eat okonomiyaki
You can choose one of 2 ways to eat the okonomiyaki meat-vegetable pancake. You can use the hera (small spatula-like spoon) and eat it directly from the teppanyaki grill or transfer it onto a small plate or bowl and use chopsticks.
Okonomiyaki is a full meal in and of itself, so technically, you really don’t need to pair it with anything else.
However, if you do want to do so, then I suggest that you pair it with a green salad with Asian-flavored dressing.
As for drinks, you can eat it with sake, soda, or fruit juice.
Steps in cooking monjayaki
This is an animated gif of the original work Monjayaki @ Fuugetsu, Tsukishima by Hajime NAKANO, monja yaki by Helen Cook, IMG_2704 by Clemson, Tsukishima Monjayaki by sodai gomi and MONJA! (Tsukishima, Tokyo, Japan) by t-mizo on Flickr under cc.
- Cook the ingredients that aren’t used for the batter first. Start putting the beef, pork, squid, shrimp, octopus, and vegetables on the teppanyaki grill and fry them for 2 – 3 minutes.
- Arrange the scattered ingredients into a circle. Use the hera (small spatula-shaped spoon) to chop and form the ingredients into a circular form.
- It’s time to pour the batter in. Make a hole in the center until the first ingredients form a donut shape and then pour the dashi batter in approximated amounts just enough to mix them together thoroughly without spilling the whole thing all over the grill.
- Repeat the process until you’ve poured in all of the batter. Each time you repeat the process (this may take only 2 – 3 times to finish all the batter), wait for the whole mix to become viscous enough before you make a hole in the middle of it again and pour more dashi batter into it. Keep chopping the mix as you stir them over the grill so that the vegetables and the meats will be finely chopped and the whole thing becomes as gooey as possible.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Depending on the chef’s preferences or your own, there are other ingredients that could be included in the mix besides the basic ones. In Chef Yasutami Ōhashi’s restaurant the Hibachi and Taiyo no Jidai, for example, he complements his monjayaki with strawberries and cream! And no, you don’t eat that separately because it goes right into the monjayaki mix as well. Weird, I know, but that’s just how they do it in Japan. Meanwhile, in Tsuru-Chan’s restaurant, they complement theirs with mentaiko (salted walleye pollack roe with red pepper) and mochi.
- Add toppings. It’s popular to top monjayaki with cheese.
- Your patience will pay off! Even though monjayaki looks a lot like an omelet, you shouldn’t treat it like one. You have to patiently stir it thoroughly and not turn it into a soft-boiled egg by slacking off since the only way to eat monjayaki is by eating it while it’s still gooey or viscous. It’s no fun if you overcook it!
The proper way to eat monjayaki
There’s only one way to eat monjayaki and that’s hot right off the grill! You wouldn’t want it any other way, because eating it cold would feel a little off.
The hera is once again used to scoop up the monjayaki from the teppanyaki grill and serve it. Do be careful though because the hera is sharp, especially at the edges, so it’s best to enjoy your monjayaki by eating it slowly.
You may use the same drinks to pair with the monjayaki as with the okonomiyaki, which is sake (or any other liquor or beer), soda, or fruit juice.
You could also make the monjayaki as bread filling and eat it with bread, but some Japanese folks might frown upon it. So if you must, do it at home where there are no judging eyes staring at you.
The teppanyaki connection
By now, you must’ve realized that both okonomiyaki and monjayaki are often cooked on top of the teppanyaki grill, which should be the preferred way to cook them if you ask tenured Japanese chefs.
There simply isn’t enough room to maneuver on a frying pan or skillet (even the biggest ones!) while holding two heras in both hands, chopping and stirring the okonomiyaki or monjayaki.
The teppanyaki grill has enough space for the chef and/or you to even cook multiple okonomiyaki and monjayaki pancakes all at the same time!
That’s the efficiency you don’t get from any other kitchen utensils and as such, exemplifies Japanese ingenuity in creating items to satisfy the need for cooking extravagant and exotic food recipes.
More okonomiyaki recipe examples
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (Layered okonomiyaki)
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups of flour (187g)
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1¼ cups water (300ml)
- 4 tsp of katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
- 1 package of yakisoba noodles, about 17 oz/480g
- 6 oz of shrimp (170g)
- 8 strips of bacon, usually halved to fit on top of the pancake
- 4 large eggs
- 4 green onions (thinly sliced)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 lb cabbage (thinly sliced) (450g)
- 4 tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine)
- Aonori or furikake for on top (crunchy seaweed seasoning)
- 1 cup of okonomiyaki sauce (240ml)
Cooking directions
- Mix the all-purpose flour in a large bowl with 300ml of water and mix thoroughly.
- Turn on the teppanyaki grill and set to medium heat. Spread the oil evenly across the iron griddle with a brush. Also, spread the batter using a ladle and then drizzle a teaspoon full of katsuobushi on it as well.
- Pour in the batter and add the shredded cabbage on top (don’t use all the cabbage at once), then start adding the 4 bacon slices on top of the cabbage as well. Cook it for roughly 5 minutes.
- Once the one side is cooked (with a brownish color), flip it over with the hera to allow for the other side where the bacon is to cook (do it for 4 – 5 minutes).
- While the okonomiyaki is being cooked on a certain spot in the teppanyaki grill, try cooking the yakisoba on another space and add the okonomiyaki sauce and mirin.
- Find another empty space and cook 5 or 6 pieces of shrimp there. Then mix it together with the fried yakisoba as well.
- This time, flip the okonomiyaki pancake once more onto the yakisoba, covering them.
- Fry a scrambled egg on another unused space on the teppanyaki grill and then flip the pancake again on top of it once it’s cooked (the egg should be cooked in just about 1 – 2 minutes).
- Flip the pancake one last time and sprinkle it with okonomiyaki sauce.
- Now transfer it onto a large plate and drizzle it with aonori and green onions.
- Serve immediately.
Monjayaki recipe examples
Monjayaki recipe #1
Ingredients
• 500 ml water
• 3 tbsp flour
• 4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 300 g (10.6 oz) cabbage
• 10 g (0.36 oz) of sakuraebi, a small shrimp that’s been dried
• 50 g (1.8 oz) of tenkasu, the tempura bits you can buy pre-packaged
• Some additional toppings, like kimchi if you like it spicy, some cheese, of course, mochi, and even some noodles to make it a full meal
For the batter
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 cup flour
Cooking directions
- Get a medium-sized bowl and pour in the flour, water, and Worchestershire sauce simultaneously. Mix thoroughly until the flour has dissolved.
- Turn on the teppanyaki griddle, set the temperature to medium-high, and pour the oil on it.
- Put the shredded cabbage and other ingredients in a small separate bowl.
- This time, pour the cabbage mix onto the grill, make it into a circle, and start frying it.
- Remove some of the cabbage mix from the center and push it to the sides to form a donut shape.
- Pour the batter onto the center of the cabbage mix where you just made a hole earlier and then mix and chop it even more while you cook it.
- Continue pouring the remaining batter and the other ingredients until they’re all used up. Keep chopping and stirring the monjayaki until it looks runny and viscous.
- Cook for up to 5 minutes and then serve hot off the grill right away.
Monjayaki recipe #2
Ingredients
• 75 g pork offcuts
• 1/8 head cabbage
• 3 pieces mochi rice cakes
• 150 g frozen corn
• 30 g pizza cheese
• 1 tsp curry powder
•400 ml of dashi stock
• 50 ml of Japanese Worcestershire sauce
• 100 ml of flour
• 1 cup of Japanese Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup of water
Cooking directions
- To make the monjayaki batter, mix the flour, dashi stock, and Japanese Worcestershire sauce in a medium-sized bowl.
- Chop the cabbage finely.
- Cut the pork meat into 2 cm cubes.
- Spread vegetable oil on the teppanyaki grill and heat it up as you sauté the pork.
- Check to see if the pork becomes brown in color. Then toss in the cabbage and keep cooking.
- Make a hole in the middle of the pork and cabbage and form a ring out of it.
- Pour in the batter mix in the center hole you’ve just made. Then mix and chop them together with the heras (2 spatula-like spoons) and repeat the process until you’ve used up all the batter.
- Add the mochi and corn, and stir.
- Mix until the mochi melts.
- If you see the mochi melting, then add the curry powder and cheese to complete the recipe and mix and chop them some more for about 2 – 3 minutes.
- Serve hot off the grill.
Cooking okonomiyaki and oonjayaki at home
Preparing these Japanese savory pancakes at home isn’t that complicated and because you can create your own okonomiyaki and monjayaki, you can’t make a mistake if you already know the basics!
This is an amazing cuisine to make an impression on your guests or just to enjoy yourself while enjoying some leisure time.
However, you may need to buy a teppanyaki grill to create the best okonomiyaki and monjayaki pancakes at home.
Check out these Robata grills for Japanese cuisine
Top okonomiyaki and monjayaki restaurants in Japan
Okonomiyaki and monjayaki had become a national craze across Japan since WWII ended. Not only did people set up restaurant businesses offering exclusive okonomiyaki and monjayaki food services, but in some areas, they also developed their own unique style of cooking the okonomiyaki recipe too!
If you’re planning to visit Japan any time soon and you want to try these Japanese pancakes, then check out these awesome okonomiyaki and monjayaki restaurants:
1. Mizuno Restaurant, Osaka
2. Tengu, Osaka
3. Kuro-Chan, Osaka
4. Okonomiyaki Kiji Restaurant, Tokyo
5. ZEN Restaurant, Shinjuku District
6. Okonomiyaki Sometaro, Asakusa District
7. Okonomimura Restaurant, Hiroshima
8. Lopez Okonomiyaki Restaurant, Hiroshima
9. Okonomiyaki Sakura Tei, Harajuku
Enjoy some tasty okonomiyaki and monjayaki
Now you know all about the types of okonomiyaki and monjayaki. Not only that, but you’ve also got some fantastic recipes to try! If you don’t already have a Japanese grill, consider getting one so you can enjoy the full experience.
Check out our teppanyaki buying guide for home grill plates and accessories.
Ever had trouble finding Japanese recipes that were easy to make?
We now have "cooking Japanese with ease", our full recipe book and video course with step-by-step tutorials on your favorite recipes.
