Griddle & dumplings ── Konamono (flour-based griddle dishes)
Kure-yaki
Kure-yaki — Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki folded into a half-moon
A Kure, Hiroshima specialty that uses the city's thin local udon in an okonomiyaki folded into a half-moon, said to have taken that shape so shipyard workers could eat it quickly on a break.
- Origin: Hiroshima Kure
- About 680 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Kure-yaki layers cabbage and noodles like standard Hiroshima okonomiyaki, but it uses the city's own thin udon and, instead of staying round, gets folded in half into a crescent. Folding it is said to make it easier to hold, and the cut edge shows off the cabbage and noodle layers inside. It runs a size smaller than the round Hiroshima okonomiyaki too, leaning more toward a quick, one-handed bite.
How it's made
Up through layering cabbage, pork, and boiled thin udon on the thin batter and steaming it, the method matches Hiroshima city's okonomiyaki. What's added is a final step of folding the whole thing in half with the spatula. The fold is said to tuck the fillings inside and leave a shape easy to eat even one-handed. Sauce and green laver finish it the same way as standard Hiroshima okonomiyaki.
Why it took this shape
Kure grew up first around a naval arsenal, then postwar shipyards, and the half-fold is said to have taken hold so workers could eat fast during a short break. The thin udon is also said to reflect a noodle the city had long favored. Even within Hiroshima's shared layered format, the working conditions specific to Kure are thought to have produced this fold — round versus half-moon. The half-fold is still carried on in Kure today.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- 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.
- Takeout and convenience store customsHow to answer "Shall I warm it up?", choosing chopsticks and a paid plastic bag, saying whether you'll eat in or take out, handling trash and eating while walking, and the different tax rate for takeout versus eating in.
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.