Osaka Original · Green Onion Griddle Cake
Negiyaki
Photo: Lombroso / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Negiyaki actually predates okonomiyaki sauce — it was originally eaten with plain soy sauce because the thick, sweet-savory sauce now smothering most Osaka griddle food hadn't been invented yet.
A thin batter loaded with a heap of sliced green onion instead of cabbage is grilled on a teppan into a lacy, light pancake, then finished with soy sauce or a dashi-soy dip rather than the thick brown sauce used on okonomiyaki.
Why it's made this way: The dish began at an Osaka okonomiyaki restaurant when the owner made a green-onion version to feed her own children after school; customers noticed and asked for it, and by 1994 the restaurant, Negiyaki Yamamoto, had trademarked the name "Negiyaki" for what regulars already treated as its own dish.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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