Okonomiyaki --- Savory pancakes

The most popular snack among the French children has got to be crepes. Here in Paris, after school many children eat their moms' hand-made crepes, spread with chocolate paste or simply with butter and sugar.
In France, February 2nd is "Crepe Day." I don't know why, but in France this is the day to eat crepes! On that day, in schools that have cafeterias, crepes are offered to the children as dessert.
We might say that okonomiyaki is a Japanese-style crepe. In France there are two types of crepes: sweet, with jam or sugar, and savory, with ham and cheese and so on. But of okonomiyaki there is only one type --- the savory one. In that sense, we might say that "okonomiyaki is a Japanese style pizza."
Okonomiyaki is a very popular dish among the Japanese people. It's a very practical dish and one that can be made easily by anyone. It's also a very healthy dish, with lots of vegetables -- yet despite its appearance, it's relatively low in calories .
Japan has many local ways of making okonomiyaki, the most famous being the Hiroshima way and the Osaka way. Those cities have many restaurants specializing in okonomiyaki, so if you have chance to go there, please try the different tastes! In the Hiroshima way, the dough is very thin and they put the mixture of cabbage, noodles, eggs and sauce between two sheets of dough. Here, I'd like to present the Osaka way, in which all the ingredients are mixed into the dough.
In Japanese, yaki means "to cook" and okonomi means "your favorites". As the word suggests, you can make your own okonomiyaki , using your favorite ingredients. Try it!

Written by Mami Miyagawa
A member of TranNet and freelance translator based in Paris

♦ INGREDIENTS
(serves 2)

g   = gram (about 0.035ounces)
cc   = cubic centimeters (about 0.034ounces)

100& g  wheat flour
grated yam (or 8.5-g package of yam powder)
1 egg
150-200 cc   water
100-120 g   cabbage, cut into small pieces
Some tempura scum
20 g   squid, cut into small pieces
30 g   pork, thinly sliced
tenkasu (tempura crumbs)*
Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise
nori* seaweed (green laver), dried and chopped
katsuobushi* (dried bonito shavings)

*Tenkasu is crumbs of deep-fried tempura batter. Look for it and green laver and dried bonito shavings at Asian grocery shops.

♦ How to make Okonomiyaki

1. Put wheat flour, grated yam, egg and water in a bowl and mix with a whisk.
2. Into this, mix cabbage, tempura crumb, squid, and any other favorite foods.
3. Set an electric hotplate to High (200 degrees C). When the plate gets hot, grease it thinly and immediately pour the mixture onto it. Put pork slices on top.
4. When the mixture turns a golden color, turn it upside down to cook the other side. Add dollops of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and mayonnaise, and sprinkle chopped dry green laver and dried bonito shavings on top, if you like. Serve immediately.

Fish species are written using a variety of kanji. Each epecies has its own kanji name. It's said that not all such kanji names originated in China: many were created in Japan. Let's study the origins and meanings of fish names.