Try Okonomiyaki, a Savory Japanese Pancake

By Sandy Hu

I’m still reliving my trip to Japan and the wonderful meals we had. Whether an o-bento from the fabulous Japanese department stores that devote their basements to prepared foods and food gifts, to portable eki-ben meals from the train station, to ramen shops and izakaya, to more formal restaurants, our meals in Tokyo and Kyoto were uniformly artfully presented and well-prepared.

In Tokyo’s Asakusa district, after a temple festival, we wandered into an okonomiyaki restaurant. Often called Japanese pancake or Japanese pizza, okonomiyaki more accurately describes a savory, dense pancake filled with such ingredients as chopped cabbage and sliced pork, beef or seafood, then topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and a generous sprinkling of katsuobushi, shaved bonito flakes. The bonito (skipjack mackerel) fillets are steamed, aged, dried and shaved so thinly they look like wood shavings.

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Around the World Breakfast Memories

By Sandy Hu

When Dave was seven and Chris was two, we took them on their first trip to Europe. Since they were so young and likely to forget the experience, I made them a travel scrapbook incorporating a collage of tickets, brochures, daily diary and photos.

And since food can evoke a powerful sensory memory, when we got home, I replicated for the boys breakfasts we had on our vacation, having tucked away appropriate props in my suitcase: chocolate milk packets, little jars of jam, and sugar packets decorated with famous French paintings from our hotel in Paris. From Amsterdam, I had purchased fake Delft egg cups.

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