Japanese Food Journal: Monjayaki

Maybe it's not the most disgusting-looking food on the planet, but neither is it the most attractive-looking food. It's monjayaki: hard to pronounce, fun to eat. (Seriously, it took me forever to figure out what they were saying when they told me what it was called. I had to go to google and try random spellings until I found the right one. "yaki" was the easy part, because that basically means "grill.")

Benni-sensei and a couple of her students (Akiko, who is hilarious and awesome and is going on a homestay to Canada this month, and Kazuhiro, who has served as my personal translator at times and is thus very helpful) invited me out to a tiny monjayaki restaurant near a high school close to GEOS. I had no idea what we were doing or what we about to eat, but given the option of spicy or sweet, I chose sweet. Everyone else had spicy, so my little monjayaki was over in a corner all by itself.

Monjayaki is very much like okonomiyaki, in that it is a batter filled with all kinds of yummy things. However, it's much runnier, so that when you pour it out onto the grill, it runs all over the place. You have to use little metal spatulas to keep it all together and form it into a pancake so it cooks evenly. When you first pour it out, it looks exactly like a mess of puke, and it is possibly the most least appetizing site ever. Fortunately, it tastes way better than it looks, and it starts to look edible after its cooked a while. You eat it as it cooks, straight off the grill. It's kind of fun, chasing the batter around on the grill and fighting with the others to get at a good piece. The best parts are the burnt bits, they get all crunchy and yummy.

So, moral of the story? Even if it looks gross, it might still be yummy. I have no idea what went into it, but it sure did taste good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monjayaki