My favorite “you’ve never heard of it, but you have to try it when you’re there” food has been Okonomiyaki, which roughly translates to “pull it out of the fridge & grill it up”. It’s kind of like a layered, stuffed pancake, and it’s a Hiroshima specialty.

Here are the common layers used in Hiroshima (Osaka has they’re own version, but it sucks because it has no noodles, and uses mayo – booo!):

Everybody sits right at & around the grill, and the chef slowly chops, mixes, grills, and builds it right in front of you:

When it’s ready they slide it right to you (you’ll note that my pics are from two different times getting it – I told you it was my favorite):

Like every other place here, you’re given your own setup of everything you need, with the addition here of small spatula:

You use it to chop off a portion to put on your plate (salarymen in a hurry just eat it right off the spatula, chopsticks be damned):

And then you slam & slurp it into your mouth, Western “manners” be damned:

Because everybody sits around the grill & just watches, it’s can be very social thing, especially when paired with a giant Asahi Super “Dry”:

It becomes very very social when your seating is paired with three drunk salarymen:

We became fast friends (though we didn’t really talk about anything other than where we were from). At one point, that rascal sitting directly to my left (and the drunkest), slid that plate in front of him with the brownish piece of food over in front of me, and wildly gesticulated for me to eat it. I should of known. After chomping in to a startling crunch, and about two minutes of tedious, flavorless chewing, he proudly proclaimed “pigs ear!”, the only English he spoke the whole night. Oh boy did the whole place have a laugh at that.

But everybody was now part of the fun, and before you know it, they had me behind the grill (though please notice they didn’t trust me with food):

After more beers (which they bought for me, I think because they felt guilty about the 🐖👂), it was selfie time. We were joined by one of the salaryman’s daughter & her fiancé, who had been sitting quietly next to them most of the time:

Of all the localized foods I’ve had in Japan, Okonomiyaki is the one I think we should bring back to the States – it’s delicious, surprisingly un-heavy, goes well with drinks, and is a social blast!