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24 March, 2016

Vegan in Hiroshima, Osaka, and Takayama + Vegan Okonomiyaki Recipe

When I landed in Japan I knew I had no concrete plans save my initial nights booked at a hostel in Kyoto. Hiroshima, Osaka, and Takayama were all last minute, uncoordinated decisions that were erratic at best.

Much like this blog post, which winds all over the road before ending with a recipe for vegan okonomiyaki.

Osaka

Osaka wasn’t high on my priority list, but I was keen to try Oribio restaurant, a tiny affair on the outskirts of the city. After an exchange of confusing hand gestures with locals, I boarded a bus upon which two Japanese women enlisted all passengers in aiding my quest to find this restaurant. Of course, because this is my life, one of them was heading to Oribio as well!

Vegan food and travel in Osaka

Osaka: Fresh yuba and kitsune udon from ORIBIO restaurant | Doria from Le Coccole | Downtown and Umeda Sky Building

For lunch I enjoyed kitsune udon with a light dashi broth (thick, slippery udon noodles with sweet fried aburaage tofu) and the one thing I will always order from any menu offering it: fresh yuba.

If you have ever slowly heated milk over time you doubtlessly noticed a thin film forming on the surface of the liquid. Yuba is the soya equivalent, formed by simmering concentrated soy milk over low heat until a skin forms across the surface. This film is gently lifted off and put aside while another layer forms. It’s a frustratingly slow process with high reward; fresh yuba has a delicate melt in your mouth texture and a subtle sweetness that makes it the closest vegan approximation to fresh cream I have ever tasted.

Space is tight, with only eight 2 person tables in a narrow room, so it is advisable to book ahead or show up with really sad eyes (and a man who can speak Japanese and presumably explain your ordeal finding the place).

My only evening in Osaka was spent engaging in my favourite pastime in any big city: wandering aimlessly and finding myself hopelessly lost. Thankfully that lead me to Le Coccole for dinner. My meal was doria, a Japanese gratin made with rice and white sauce. What makes Le Coccole’s variation stand out is not that it’s 100% vegan, but that alongside a rainbow of vegetables it also utilises subtly sweet sake lees (a byproduct of sake production). The umami-rich flavour characteristics of this ingredient are brought about by a combination of exhausted yeast and leftover sugar and starch from rice fermentation.

Hiroshima

If you go to Hiroshima, I suggest two activities: eat vegan okonomiyaki at Nagataya restaurant and picnic at nearby Miyajima Island, where incredibly cute and also very tame deer will unnerve you.

Hiroshima: Nagataya Okonomiyaki, Miyajima Island, Art Elk Coffee Salad

Hiroshima: Nagataya okonomiyaki, Miyajima Island, tofu salad from Art Elk Cafe

The menu at Nagataya makes it clear which okonomiyaki are suitable for vegans, but specify anyway so they bring you vegan otafuku sauce. Thin crepes are fried on a full counter flat grill, topped with noodles and cabbage, and pushed toward you to eat off the cooler edge of the same heated surface. Your utensil is a miniature okonomiyaki spatula, and if you are like me you will try to copy how other people eat but will fail. Surprisingly I did not burn myself. The mind boggles. Vegan okonomiyaki isn’t common at restaurants in Japan, so I think Hiroshima is worthwhile if only to try it once.

Miyajima island is a popular tourist destination known for its floating torii shrine just offshore, stunning scenery, and fearless wild deer population that run the land. You know the weeping angels from Doctor Who? The Miyajima deer are like pleasant, starving versions that aren’t deadly. If you so much as blink then it is guaranteed that whatever it is you’re eating, holding, wearing, whatever, will be in a deer’s mouth when you open your eyes. The most creepy lunch experience of my life was eating onigiri while maintaining constant eye contact with one of these creatures. I can’t even maintain eye contact with a human being for longer than 9 seconds. Awkward.

Takayama & Kamikochi

Fresh produce at Takayama morning market

Fresh produce ar Takayama morning market (Gifu prefecture), self catering, sake

Hida-Takayama, a rural mountain city known for its preserved old town and annual Takayama Festival, was my last stop before ending my trip in Tokyo. My couple of days there were appreciatively slow, with simple meals prepared in my hostel kitchen. Steamed pumpkin, fried shiitake mushrooms and tofu with mirin and soy sauce, rice and pickles. The unmissable morning market, backed by the river and facing other curio shops and sake outlets, is full of spectacular seasonal produce.

One morning I took a bus to nearby Kamikochi National Park, where I spent a few hours hiking before ending my afternoon at a nearby onsen. This was my first Japanese onsen experience, and it mostly consisted of a bunch of women asking me if I liked natto and squealing with delight when I said yes.

Fall foliage (koyo) in Kamikochi National Park

Koyo in Kamikochi National Park, Japan

Vegan okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a combination of two words: Okonomi, meaning what you want or as you like and yaki, meaning grilled. Widely available throughout Japan, Okonomiyaki is strongly associated with the Kansai and Hiroshima regions, each distinct in style. Despite this, toppings and preparations vary across the board and this Japanese soul food comes in many varieties.

Kansai style vegan okonomiyaki

In Hiroshima okonomiyaki is prepared in layers – first a thin pancake and then a heap of shredded cabbage and other ingredients. Fried noodles are a common layer in Hiroshima. This pancake is then often flipped on one or both sides onto fried eggs.

Osaka (Kansai) style okonomiyaki is different in that the ingredients are mixed into a batter before being fried, and noodles are an unlikely component. The recipe below is in this style, and is both simple and quick to make.

Vegan Okara Okonomiyaki

vegan okonomiyaki

This vegan variation on batter fried Osaka style okonomiyaki uses fresh okara, the byproduct of tofu production, as well as chickpea aquafaba, the cooking liquid from chickpeas. If you don’t have okara, double the quantity of cabbage (the dough will be a little runnier but will work nevertheless). Slather the finished pancake with otafuku sauce and mayo and you’ll be hooked.

Okonomiyaki Ingredients

  • ¼ cup chickpea aquafaba (egg white consistency)
  • 125 millilitres (½ cup) water or dashi
  • 70 grams (½ packed cup) potato flour
  • 50 grams (⅓ cup) all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Couple pinches of salt
  • 100 grams cabbage, finely chopped or shredded (that’s about 1 ¼ cups finely sliced)
  • 100 grams (½ packed cup) okara
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
  • Simple otafuku sauce (below)
  • Vegan mayonnaise
  • Aonori or shredded toasted nori
  • Chopped spring onion
Otafuku Ingredients

  • ¼ cup ketchup
  • 4 teaspoons vegan worcestershire sauce
  • 4 teaspoons soy sauce
Directions/Method

  1. Add the aquafaba to a medium bowl and whisk for 1 minute until foamy and increased in volume. Add water and whisk for another minute. Sift the potato starch, flour, baking powder, and salt into the bowl and whisk just to combine – a few light stirs should do.
  2. Add the cabbage and crumble in the okara and fold to combine.
  3. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a frying pan and bring the heat to medium. Add half of the okonomiyaki mix and use a spoon or spatula to spread a circle approximately 6 inches in diameter.
  4. Cook for 3-5 minutes until browning lightly at the edges. Flip and cook for a similar time. To cook the second okonomiyaki, add the other tablespoon of oil and repeat.
  5. Make the simple otafuku sauce by mixing the ketchup, worcestershire, and soy sauce.
  6. Serve okonomiyaki immediately topped with generous lashings of otafuku sauce, mayo, aonori, and chopped spring onion.
  • Author: Kip Dorrell
  • Serves: 2
  • Cuisine: Japanese

Filed Under: Food and Travel Tagged With: Hiroshima, Japan, Kamikochi, Okara Recipes, Osaka, Takayama, Vegan Travel

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Abigail Murdock says

    1 April, 2016 at 5:03 am

    I wish I had enough money to to Japan immediately after reading your story of a journey to Japan. But I should start my visit to japan by learning your recipe of okonomiyaki, I think this is not easy for me and not sure about the success of the last product I make, but I wanna try. Thanks KIP for your interesting sharing about Japan. I love it.

    Reply

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  • Discover a sliver of the world of Thai noodles beyond pat thai and pat see ew at my Thai vegan noodle supper club on February 23. The meal begins with kuay teow reua, or boat noodles, a bold noodle soup fragrant with cinnamon, pandan, and star anise. The main course will be coils of kanom jeen noodles served with two different types of curry. Nam Ya is a rich, bright, spicy red curry aromatic with the rhizome krachai, which has a pleasant eucalyptus-like flavour. Nam prik, on the other hand, is a sweet, sour, smoky, and salty curry with nutty richness from toasted mung beans. These curries will be served with heaps of fresh herbs, vegetables, and condiments. Finally, for dessert, is salim. These are homemade jasmine and pandan scented mung bean noodles served in sweet iced coconut milk.

To book tickets see the link in my bio.

#vegansupperclub #vegan #veganthaifood #vegansofldn #veganlondoner #londonvegan #londonvegancommunity #eatwith #vegansoflondon #veganfoodlondon #londonveganfood #londonsupperclub #londonveganevents #noodlestagram #kanomjeen #boatnoodles #vegan #vegannoodles #salim #ขนมจีน #น้ำยา #ขนมจีน้ำพริก #ซ่าหริ่ม #อาหารไทย #วีแกน  #veganfoodspot #bestofvegan #feedfeedvegan #thaifoodlondon #veganfoodshare
  • I forgot to share this vegan fried egg recipe I posted last week. As I mention in my post, which you can find on messyvegancook.com, Rocky Shepheard of @thevegg deserves credit for so much of the groundwork laid for making vegan eggs, full stop. And the fried egg recipe in his 2012 book is still the best Western style version I've seen and tried to date (hint: the yolk is properly runny and tastes of yolk). These eggs, however, are based on Thai style fried eggs, or kai dao. Kai dao are cooked in more oil on high heat until crispy and lightly browned around the edges, the antithesis to their Western counterpart. The internet features a shedload of recipes in Thai for vegan kai dao using a number of ingredient combinations. I have seen recipes where the whites are more starch based than tofu, but I prefer the texture of a bean curd based vegan egg. The outer layer is made of yuba, which helps the eggs crisp up upon frying.

#veganegg #kaidao #feedfeedvegan #bestofvegan #veganfriedegg #letscookvegan #veganfoodspot #veganfoodlovers #veganshare #ไข่ดาวเจ #ไข่ดาว #yuba #pumpkin #veganeggs #ฟองเต้าหู้ #veganthaifood #veganrecipeshare #veganrecipe #thaifoodstagram #วีแกน #อาหารเจ #มังสวิรัติ #vegan #vegansofinsta #veganbreakfast #veganfood #veganeats
  • 🇰🇷 Among the previously unknown to me dishes I enjoyed in South Korea last fall is Kongbiji-jjigae. Perfect for winter, this warming stew is made with aged kimchi and fresh okara. Okara is a byproduct of soy milk production. To make soy milk the beans are soaked and then blended with water. The pulpy liquid is then cooked and strained, leaving you with fresh soy milk. The leftover lees is the okara. To make kongbiji-jjigae, however, there is no need to get caught up in the process of making soy milk since the beans are soaked, blended with a little dashi, and tossed into the pot without straining.
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#kongbijijjigae #vegankoreanfood #koreanfood #okara #koreanvegan #kimchi #kfood #okararecipes #koreancuisine #bestofvegan #feedfeedvegan #vegantravel #letscookvegan #veganfoodspot #veganfoodisnotboring #thevegansclub #feedfeedvegan #letscookvegan #vegan #veganstew
  • 🇹🇭Sai ua are grilled Northern Thai herbal sausages made with bold spicing and aromatics. Grilling in near freezing temperatures (or any digits below, say, 22) is trialing, but nippy or not I've been keen to share these at recent supper clubs. Stay tuned for the next date!
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#ไส้อั่ว #อาหารไทย #อร่อย #thaifood #eatandshout #มังสวิรัติ #วีแกน #veganthaifood #thaifoodstagram #northernthaifood #saiua #vegansausage #aroisnap #chasingdelicious #veganlondon #londonvegan #feedfeedvegan #veganfoodisnotboring #londonvegancommunity #vegansupperclub #veganfoodspot #vegan
  • One culinary item I always have to the ready, in one form or another, is homemade stock. This takes various forms depending on what vegetables I have laying about or on what kind of flavour profile I'm seeking. This noodle soup stock is made with corn and shiitakes mushrooms. The toppings are deep fried yuba, spring onion, and citrus chili oil with black beans from Chinese food scholar @therealmadamehuang's gorgeous tome All Under Heaven. 
#chilioil #noodlesoup #allunderheaven #homecooking #asianfood #comfortfood #yuba #thekitchen #noodlesfordays #noodleslover #noodlesarelife #noodlestagram #vegan #todayfood #veganeats #vegansofinstagram #feedfeedvegan #bestofvegan #veganfoodisnotboring #thevegansclub #veganeatsplease #letscookvegan #veganfoodspot #cuisine_captures #vegannoodles #cookbooklover
  • 🇹🇭 Kway teow pat/pad kee mao, otherwise known as drunken noodles. Many menus incorrectly label this dish as simply pad kee mao, which roughly translates to drunkard's stir fry. Prepend this with kway teow and you have a drunkard's noodle stir fry. For the recipe and more on the etymology, you can find the recipe on messyvegancook.com (link in bio). #อาหารไทย #อร่อย #thaifood #veganthaifood #thaifoodstagram #วีแกน #อาหาร #มังสวิรัติ #noodles #noodleslover #noodlesfordays #noodlesarelife #noodlestagram #padkeemao #ก๋วยเตี๋ยวผัดขี้เมา #ก๋วยเตี๋ยว #vegan #veganfoodspot #vegannoodles #veganfoodshare
  • From my last visit to the US over the holidays. My parents live in Maryland and I always try to get into DC for a day by myself to visit a museum or two and grab a bite to eat. Because of the government shutdown I couldn't get to the National Gallery to revisit my favourite ever painting, but I made it to the National Building Museum (which is privately run and hence open). Should you find yourself in DC I highly recommend prioritising this museum. Anyway, the food. This is the potato pierogi with sauerkraut and sour cream from @eatfarewell near Union Station. Also the pain au chocolat and coffee. One aspect of US food and drink culture I love and miss is how it's virtually impossible to find bad drip coffee (except at Starbucks, who make vile drip coffee). #veganDC #vegandc #yesthisisvegan #vegan #veganfoodspot #veganDC #DCveganlife #DCvegan #vegantravel #veganwashingtonDC #veganlunch 
#veganpainauchocolat #veganpierogi #sauerkraut #pierogi #dceats

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