Today was the Japanese Cultural Center’s New Year’s Ohana Festival, just down the street from where I live. We can hear some of the performances from our lanai. I had read that they would be serving Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki and I wanted to try this other style from the two okonomiyaki places in town (Kansai).

By far the longest line at the food booths was for the okonomiyaki. The line moved at a good pace and someone came through and gave us the recipe. The booth was being run by the company that makes the sauce. I asked about MSG, based on my other two experiences and was told it was only in the sauce. The two grills they had were pumping out 6 okonomiyaki at a time, each. Pretty impressive. I waited about 10 minutes and they cost $7 in scrip.

This style of okonomiyaki has noodles inside as the main difference from the Kansai style. I was in such a hurry to taste I didn’t get a picture of it in the styrofoam carryout box. You can see them sauceless in the picture. It had the same flavors as the others I’ve had, but not as complex and delicious as at Chibo. I liked the noodles in there too.

We watched some taiko drumming while we ate and then walked around the rest of the festival. Little girls dancing ending our trip to the Ohana Festival. I had a little bit of an MSG reaction, but it wasn’t too bad.

Comment from old site:

alan

Somehow I totally missed that this event was happening until it was already over.  Too bad too, as I've wanted to try Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki for some time, having only ever tried Osaka style at Chibo or from my mother-in-law.  Maybe next year...

Monday, January 14, 2008 - 09:28 PM