Griddle & dumplings ── Konamono (flour-based griddle dishes)
Fuchu-yaki
Fuchu-yaki — Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki with ground meat worked into the batter
A Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- Origin: Hiroshima Fuchu
- About 610 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Like standard Hiroshima okonomiyaki, it layers cabbage and steamed noodles, but Fuchu-yaki's mark is ground beef or pork used instead of sliced pork belly. Scattered through the batter and cabbage layers, the ground meat is said to let its juices soak into the whole stack, so the fat's richness and the cabbage's sweetness come through together. The way the meat's fibers give way with each bite is also said to feel different from sliced pork.
How it's made
The ground meat is spread over the thin batter before the cabbage, bean sprouts, and noodles go on top — different from the Hiroshima city method of simply laying sliced pork on the cabbage. Ground meat cooks faster than sliced meat, which is also said to make for an easier, crisper sear. The finishing sauce and green laver match standard Hiroshima okonomiyaki.
Why it took this shape
Fuchu is said to have long had many butcher shops, which put ground meat within easy reach and is thought to explain the switch from sliced meat. Where Hiroshima city's okonomiyaki grew from stall to shop alongside the spread of steelworks, Fuchu's butcher-shop culture is said to have shaped a different choice of filling within the same layered format. Each butcher shop is said to blend its own ratio of meat even today, one reason the taste still differs shop to shop.
Before you go
- Tanabata and festival food stallsA guide to the somen said to be eaten on Tanabata, and to festival-stall staples like yakisoba, takoyaki, candy apples, and shaved ice.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
- At yatai food stalls and while eating on the streetPaying and ordering at a yatai food stall, handling your trash, the etiquette of eating as you walk, and how to step into a Hakata yatai.
Dishes in the same style
- AkashiyakiOctopus folded into a batter of wheat flour, jin-ko starch, egg, and dashi, cooked and dipped in a warm broth — Akashi's own take on the round batter-and-octopus dish, distinguished from takoyaki by that broth in place of sauce.
- Funayaki"Funayaki," from the Chikugo region of Fukuoka, is a thin round of flour-and-water batter folded around either brown sugar or pickled takana greens — a snack whose name is said to come from the boat shape it takes once folded.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.
- GyohanFlaked grilled white fish, egg crepe, and shrimp are arranged over rice, then doused in a broth made from the fish's own bones—a dish from Takehara, a town once wealthy on salt production. Nearly lost, it was reconstructed decades later from an old newspaper clipping after salt farming ended.