Griddle & dumplings ── Konamono (flour-based griddle dishes)
Monjayaki
Monjayaki — a loose, watery batter scraped hot off the griddle with a spatula
Wheat flour loosened with plenty of water, mixed with toppings and cooked on a griddle, then scooped up hot with a small individual spatula — a Tsukishima, Tokyo dish said to take its name from moji-yaki, a griddle-writing game kids once played with the same batter.
- Origin: Tokyo Chuo (Tsukishima)
Lineage
What it's made of
Cabbage, pickled red ginger, corn, crunchy tenkasu, and dried baby shrimp are folded into a loose, dashi-thinned wheat-flour batter. The batter carries far more water than other okonomiyaki-family dishes, and pouring it into a ring built up on the griddle is said to make it bubble and spread out thin. Scraping it up with the spatula and letting it char a little brings out a contrast between a crisp edge and a runny center.
How it's made
Cabbage and toppings are chopped and kept separate from the batter, then lightly stir-fried on the griddle first. A well is pushed open in the middle with the spatula to form a ring, the reserved batter is poured in and cooked through, and then everything is mixed and spread thin. Once the surface bubbles lightly and the underside chars, green laver and bonito flakes go on top, and the custom is to eat it hot, straight off the griddle, with each diner's own small spatula.
Why it took this shape
In leaner times, the same watery flour batter was spread on a griddle so kids could trace out characters as a way of learning them, and that game is said to be why it was called moji-yaki (character-grilling), a name that slurred into monja. After the war, toppings like cabbage and corn multiplied and the dish shifted from a kids' snack to an adult's drinking food; along the way the candy shops that once served it thinned out, and Tsukishima's cluster of monjayaki-only restaurants is said to be what turned it into the neighborhood's signature dish. That cluster of specialty shops is still going strong today.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."