Global Courant 2023-05-15 07:15:00
HIROSHIMA, Japan — When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosts Group of Seven (G-7) leaders in Hiroshima this week, restaurants across the city hope to showcase a local specialty, with a choice of fillings to accommodate to foreign tastes.
A gateway to tourism on the western side of Japan’s main island, Hiroshima’s name is forever etched in history as the first city to suffer the horrors of a nuclear attack nearly 78 years ago.
Mr. Kishida’s parliamentary constituency includes part of Hiroshima, a city of more than a million people, as well as about 800 restaurants specializing in okonomiyaki, a savory pancake whose name means “cooked as you like.”
The ingredients of the signature dish are usually noodles, cabbage, batter, and meat fried on a hot metal plate, but for the G-7, the Oconomiyaki Academy, a local restaurant trade group, has come up with variations featuring favorite dishes from each country.
“You could say that okonomiyaki is the most popular soul food among Hiroshima people,” says Mr. Atsuki Kitaura, the Chinchikurin chain’s citywide manager.
“We thought a lot of customers would come here from different overseas countries, so we wanted to offer different flavors of okonomiyaki to suit their tastes.”
They include German sauerkraut, as well as a maple syrup-infused Canadian version and a carbonara style to honor Italy.
For American tastes, there’s burger meat, while the French version includes cabbage, bean sprouts, bacon, cheese, okonomiyaki sauce, and a fried egg, all wrapped in a crepe.
Some locals weren’t too sure about the new foreign fillings, such as the British-themed version with fried sardines and topped with potato chips.
“If it’s fish and chips with a Coke, that’s okay,” office worker Shinya Otsuki said.
“But I don’t think I can eat it this way.” REUTERS
