Griddle & dumplings ── Konamono (flour-based griddle dishes)
Hirayachi
Hirayachi — an Okinawan wheat-flour pancake scattered with garlic chives
A home dish from Okinawa: wheat flour loosened with egg and dashi, scattered with garlic chives and pan-fried — sometimes called "Okinawan-style okonomiyaki," said to be a go-to dish for days when a typhoon keeps everyone indoors.
What it's made of
Wheat flour is loosened with egg and dashi, or just water, then mixed with chopped garlic chives or scallion and pan-fried. Finished with just salt, it's said to come out close to Korean-style jeon in texture; more people now eat it with sauce or mayonnaise, and it's sometimes called "Okinawan-style okonomiyaki." The name Hirayachi is said to come from "hira," flat, describing how it's cooked, and being thin lets the outside turn crisp.
How it's made
Flour, water, egg, and dashi are mixed together, and garlic chives cut into bite-sized pieces are folded in. Oil goes into a hot frying pan, the batter is poured in, and both sides are cooked until golden. Leaving out the egg is said to make for a lighter taste, and ingredients already in the fridge — mozuku seaweed, sea lettuce, canned tuna — are often added too, so there's no fixed rule and the taste differs household to household.
Why it took this shape
In Okinawa, where typhoons are frequent and power outages common, it's thought to have become a familiar dish for days when going out isn't an option, made from whatever is already in the house. That it's also made as an everyday snack, not just in emergencies, is said to reflect how well its simplicity — flour and whatever vegetables are on hand, no special equipment — suited daily life on the islands. That everyday wisdom is said to still carry on in Okinawan home cooking.
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.
- 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.
- Fuchu-yakiA 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.