When I think of well-known specialties in Hiroshima prefecture, okonomiyaki immediately springs to mind!
The size of okonomiyaki is similar to that of pizza. It is made of flour mixed in water and with shredded cabbage, noodle, meat and seafood added to it. It originates from Hiroshima.
出典：美味しい尾道焼き、広島焼きと少し違うお好み焼き SONY NEX FUJI 50F1.4
When I was a child, children would leave school on Saturdays earlier than weekdays and usually go to okonomiyaki restaurant. They would often take a raw egg from home to the Okonomiyaki restaurant and they would ask the Okonomiyaki chef to put it in their Okonomiyaki. However, since children would sometimes fail to take it to the restaurant, I sometimes saw crushed raw eggs on the street!
By the way, it is really important for you to use Otafuku okonomiyaki sauce for okonomiyaki. Many okonomiyaki restaurants in Hiroshima use this sauce. Since my co-worker from India has become fond of eating Okonomiyaki, as I am a native Hiroshima person, I got her Okonomiyaki sauce as a present. She said “I really like its texture!” A lot of cabbage is steamed between two circular sheets type of baked flour and it makes you feel the good crunchy texture. She hopes that her parents who are visiting Japan soon get to enjoy okonomiyaki.
Did you know that? Okonomiyaki sauce was likely to be unavailable when the Iran-Iraq War occurred. Dates, are in fact one of the most important ingredients for making delicious okonomiyaki sauce, are harvested in Iraq, and when the war occurred, there was a possibility that the base ingredients for okonomiyaki would not be imported to Japan. However, fortunately, a trading company had a lot of dates on hand and okonomiyaki sauce remained available.
Interestingly, restaurants that serve Onomichi ramen, and other restaurants that serve traditional Hiroshima foods, such as Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki, are difficult to find outside Hiroshima.
When you visit Hiroshima, you cannot miss them!
広島名物と言えばプロ野球球団の広島カープ、そしてお好み焼きです！
お好み焼きは、ピザ位の大きさで、小麦粉を溶いたものにキャベツ、そば、肉、魚介類などを混ぜて焼く、広島が発祥の名物料理です。
私が子供の時は土曜日に学校から早く帰った子供が昼食にお好み焼きを食べに行くことが普通で、当時は家から生卵をもっていって、お好み焼き屋さんでその生卵を入れてもらうというシステムがあったのですが、持っていく途中で誰かが落としただろう、卵が道に割れた状態で落ちていることがよくありました。
因みに、この広島風お好み焼きには必須のオタフクお好みソースというものがあり、広島のお好み焼き屋さんではこのソースを使っているお店が多いです。インドから来ている私の同僚は、とてもお好み焼きが気に入ったようなので、尾道出身の私はオタフクおたふくお好みソースをプレゼントしました。彼女いわく、「お好み焼きは食感がすごく良い」との事。溶いた小麦粉を鉄板の上で焼いて、それらに挟まれキャベツが蒸されるようになるので、キャベツのしゃきしゃき感がたまらないようです。来日する両親にも是非食べて欲しいとの事でした。
又、そのお好み焼きソース実は、イランイラク戦争の際、影響を受けそうになったのです。
重要な原料の一つであるDateがイラク産だったために、ソースの生産が困難になる可能性があったとの事で、幸い商社がデーツの在庫を大量に持っていたために事なきを得たとのことです。
尾道ラーメンもそうですが、尾道のこのような名物料理は一旦尾道の外に出ると食べるのが難しくなります。尾道に来たらお見逃しなく！