I'm pretty sure you all know Okonomiyaki. Or do you? If you don't, it's completely okay! I have actually shared what Okonomiyaki is in this previous post of mine and where to find them in Osaka.
Osaka's pride is Okonomiyaki while Tokyo has Monjayaki.
I just recently heard of Monjayaki so maybe you are also not familiar with it. It is somewhat similar to Okonomiyaki, but the way they are cooked is different. You'll also need to pour liquid when cooking so it's really a different dish. You can read more about it in Wikipedia.
The restaurant I will be introducing is named Sakura Tei. It is located a few minutes walk from the famous Harajuku Station. The restaurant is kinda hard to find and if you are not good with directions, I'm pretty sure you'll be lost. π
Sakura Tei has a lot of tables but I didn't know about that so I made sure to make a reservation prior to coming. Maybe because this restaurant is kinda hidden that there were a few vacant tables.
This restaurant has an English menu and they welcome tourists. I'm pretty sure tourists would like to cook their own Okonomiyaki and Monjayaki for the experience.
Actually, this is not my first time cooking these foods in a restaurant. Prior to coming here, a week ago, my partner and I went to a similar restaurant but it's kinda hard to recommend that restaurant because their menu is only in Japanese and they didn't even tell us what to do or maybe give a hint of how to cook these. My partner who's Japanese doesn't even know how to cook so we just kinda relied on how we remember it and Google. π
Okay, back to Sakura Tei.
We ordered Okonomiyaki and Monjayaki of course. We're a group of 5 so we ordered 2 of each. Usually 1 Okonomiyaki is good for one person but if you're on diet not a big eater, you can share it with another person.
It kinda takes time to cook these 2 so we also ordered side dishes. We ordered buttered corn, kimchi and cabbage with spicy vinegar. The corn came with butter actually so we still gotta cook it. π
In Japanese restaurants like this (Izakaya), drinks are usually ordered first. We had alcoholic beverages of course!
If you wanna know what my drink is, it's Oolong Highball. My friends got Coke Highball and Lemonade (one friend not drinking alcohol tonight).
We're welcoming a friend coming from Singapore so we let him order Nihonshu (ζ₯ζ¬ι ) or what people commonly refer to as Sake (ι ). Nihonshu can be warm or cold but we think it's best for him to try the warm sake so we ordered that.
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After a while our orders arrived. We cooked Okonomiyaki first because that's what everyone is familiar of.
Cooking Okonomiyaki is easy. Since they prepared the ingredients for us, we just need to mix them all. After, pour the batter in the pan. Make sure to form it like an Okonomiyaki. If you have different toppings, you can cook it separately before mixing it with the batter.
After the bottom part is cooked, you can flip it. Make sure to do it right. π You can add the toppings at the bottom or at the top. Since we cooked it separately, we added ours on top. You can have other toppings too, it's not just limited to eggs and pork.
If it's cooked, you can add your Okonomiyaki sauce, mayo and aonori (dried seaweed powder).
After finishing the 2 Okonomiyakis we ordered, we started cooking Monja.
How to cook Monjayaki? TBH I am also not sure because we didn't religiously followed what was in the instructions (the restaurant has printed instructions and is found in their menu). So what we did was to cook the dried ingredients first in the pan and mix it there. Don't forget the oil.
Then make a hole in the middle, just enough to put the remaining liquid in it.
The liquid will find its way out so this time you can mix it well.
Then after mixing, flatten it. Unlike Okonomiyaki, Monjayaki is flat, as in super flat. You can add the sauce here if you want.
It's actually better if you cut it into thin slices so that's what we did. I saw someone doing this in the other restaurant so I told them we should do the same.
Wait for a while and it will be cooked then you can start eating using the small spatula. It's hard to tell when it's cooked so you can just decide for yourself when to eat. This is great for sharing.
I actually thought we were done eating but my friends still want to eat more so we ordered yakisoba. Again, we need to cook it for ourselves.
I cook yakisoba at home so I'm kinda good at this already. π
How to cook yakisoba? Just cook the meat first, then add the cabbage and lastly add the noodles. Add the yakisoba sauce too, just enough.
We ate a lot of cabbage and flour and drank a lot that day. We rarely see each other these days so it was really a nice conversation with my closest friends. My tummy and my heart were full that I paid for what we ordered. π Maybe if you catch me here in Tokyo, I'll be treating you too
It's really nice to be able to cook our own food. It's unusual but it's also therapeutic and funny because we just kinda made our own version. π
If you happen to come to Tokyo, maybe you can add this restaurant to your list of dining areas.
Thanks for reading!
See you around! γγγγγΎγγοΌ
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.