Griddle & dumplings ── Konamono (flour-based griddle dishes)
Onomichi-yaki
Onomichi-yaki — Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki with chicken gizzard and fried squid cake
An Onomichi, Hiroshima okonomiyaki that adds chicken gizzard and a fried squid-paste cake to the usual fillings — a port town's mix of poultry offal and a seafood product, said to reflect what was close at hand.
- Origin: Hiroshima Onomichi
- About 610 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Onomichi-yaki adds chewy chicken gizzard and a fried squid-paste cake to the standard layers of cabbage, pork, and noodles. The gizzard's springy bite and the squid cake's soft, fried texture stack on top of the cabbage's sweetness and the noodles' chew, adding another layer of texture to the usual stack. Digging through the layers, textures from the sea and from land alternate bite after bite.
How it's made
Layering batter, cabbage, pork, and noodles matches Hiroshima city's method, but Onomichi-yaki adds bite-sized gizzard and pre-fried squid cake on top of the noodles before steaming. Gizzard is slow to cook through, so it's usually trimmed and sliced thin beforehand. Egg and sauce finish it the same way as standard Hiroshima okonomiyaki.
Why it took this shape
Onomichi grew as a Seto Inland Sea shipping and shipbuilding port, and a processed seafood product like squid cake is thought to have been close at hand as an ingredient. Why gizzard was added is less settled, with one account pointing to the town's trade routes inland, which are said to have kept poultry offal within easy reach too. Seafood and chicken offal landing on the same batter is said to reflect just how much a port town had passing through it. Even within Hiroshima, this pairing is still seen as distinctly Onomichi's own.
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 Yakiniku, Shabu-Shabu, and Hot PotGrilling your own meat at yakiniku, swishing thin slices at shabu-shabu, and sharing from the pot — the customs behind each.
- 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 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.