For those of you who are not familiar with okonomiyaki, it is a type of Japanese pancake/crepe that is made at ennichi in Japan. In Honolulu you can eat it at Chibo's Restaurant at the Royal Hawaiian Center. It is quite filling made with a flour batter, vegetables, meat and seafood. "Okonomi" means "as you like" and "yaki" means fried. So you are able to pick the type of meat or seafood to go into your okomiyaki. The type that was served at Ennichi Corner at the Honolulu Festival is Hiroshima style with plenty of cabbage, green onion, tenkasu (morsels of leftover tempura batter), yakisoba (fried noodles) and thin slices of pork belly. You can't forget the okonomi sauce that is poured over the finished product. Honolulu Festival's was Otafuku okonomi sauce.
Sammy Li, owner of Sammy's Restaurant in Waikiki's Miramar Hotel, was in charge of the okonomiyaki for the Honolulu Festival. He and his staff practiced and prepared to make plenty of okonomiyaki.
The Honolulu Festival was fortunate to have Wanda Adams, Honolulu Advertiser's Food Editor, come to Sammy's and learn about okonomiyaki and its history. Ken Saiki, President of Honolulu Hiroshima Kenjinkai, explained in detail the facts behind making okonomiyaki. We were able to see Chef Winston cook some for us and were even able to sample some. Oishii!
Wanda's article about okonomiyaki was in the Island Life section of the Honolulu Advertiser on March 11th. I'm sure that folks reading the article couldn't wait to taste the okonomiyaki at the Festival. Turns out that there were lines in front of Sammy's booth on both Saturday and Sunday. It was delicious!
Honolulu Festival
Honolulu Advertiser-Island Life
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