There's a lot that can potentially be said about making okonomiyaki. On the one hand, it's an iconic and classic dish, meaning that there are expectations for how it should look, taste, and feel. On the other hand, it's meant to be personalized and modified to individual and regional tastes. With that in mind, some of the note in this section deal with the basics of this recipe, while others are focused on the specifics of this okonomiyaki variation.

If you're looking for more information and not finding it here, feel free to jump down to the comments to leave your questions!

As always, I've tried to make sure that the recipe card itself is thorough and self-sufficient, but I do want to take a moment here to explain how exactly the cabbage gets used in this okonomoyaki variation (and in okonomiyaki in general).

I use leafy Asian (napa) cabbage - hakusai (白菜) in Japanese.  Green cabbage is more commonly used, but I prefer making the swap for a couple of reasons.  First, the leaves of green cabbage (the type that forms round, dense heads) are often very thick - especially near the base.  These thick sections take longer to cook, and release more water.  The second reason is related - napa cabbage, with it's relatively more delicate leaves - browns and gets crispy faster on the griddle.  All that being said, green cabbage is perfectly tasty and traditional.  If you are planning to use it, I recommend slicing it very thin.

Secondly, it's worth noting that there are two different approaches to incorporating the cabbage into your okonomiyaki.  I like to put a handful of cabbage directly onto the griddle, then pour batter over the top.  This lets some of the cabbage crisp up a bit (which I like), and lets you control how much cabbage you're using.  Many recipes call for you to add diced cabbage directly to the batter, and you can certainly do this instead if you prefer.  If you are going to stir the cabbage in, however, I would encourage you to take note of the third point below....

Third, and finally, the actual quantity of cabbage can be a little difficult to pinpoint.  I've given 200 grams in the recipe card, which works out to about 3 cups - but it's really tricky to consistently measure the volume of something like chopped napa cabbage.  Okonomiyaki should have a quite a lot of cabbage in it.  The interior shouldn't be overly bready, with just a few bits of veg here and there.  The relatively large quantity of cooked cabbage plays a big roll in the flavour and texture of the finished okonomiyaki.  There's some wiggle room of course, and this is where you'll want to experiment on your own.  If you're planning to mix cabbage into the batter, I would start out by adding about three cups, then stir and see where you're at.  You want plenty of cabbage, but still enough batter to fill all the gaps and connect the whole thing together.

Okonomiyaki is generally made with a very important ingredient that might be unfamiliar to many non-Japanese readers: yam. Now when I say yam, I'm not referring to any of the many colourful sweet potato varieties in the world.  I'm referring to the true yams - long, tan-brown, white-fleshed tubers produced by plants in the genus Dioscorea.

The Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya), called nagaimo (長芋 - literally 'long yam') in Japanese, is typically the yam species used to make okonomiyaki, but the Japanese yam (Dioscorea japonica), called yamaimo (literally "mountain yam") is sometimes used as well.  Regardless of the species, the yam is used in a fascinating way.  The tubers are shredded (e.g. with a grater), resulting in... well, slime.  These yams become a thick, whitish, and rather slimy goop when thus treated.  It's honestly a fascinating transformation.  The resulting goop is added to the okonomiyaki batter, where it contributes both airy lightness and a soft, spongy texture to the finished pancake.

I've made okonomiyaki with nagaimo many times, and it really is a cool ingredient to work with.  But unless you have a well-stocked Japanese or Chinese grocery store nearby, it can be tricky to find.  And even if you do have access to these, nagaimo might be seasonally hit and miss - I couldn't find any on my last trip to my local stores.  Fortunately, there's an effective and accessible alternative: whipped egg whites.

I had always relied on nagaimo before developing this recipe, so I wasn't sure what to expect going in.  I'm delighted to say that the whipped egg whites deliver big.  They provide an airiness to the batter that really makes the recipe work.  The finished okonomiyaki, while not entirely identical to those made with nagaimo, were airy, soft, and chewy on the inside, yet crisp on the outside.  I do find the egg whites makes the batter just a little more 'cake-like' after cooking - a small step closer to the texture of an American-style pancake, to give you an idea.

If you're familiar with making okonomiyaki with nagaimo, it is worth noting that the batter itself seems very different - at least initially.  Batter made with nagaimo is very thick, and very sticky, while whipped-egg-white versions are much thinner and runnier.  Despite this marked difference at the raw stage, the finished okonomiyaki isn't all that different!

While the egg white swap does require that you have a hand- or stand-mixer (or very good endurance with a hand whisk), the substitution is otherwise quite straight-forward.  I won't duplicate the contents of the recipe card itself here, but I will reiterate that it's important to fold the whipped egg whites in fairly gently.  As with any recipe that calls for whipped egg whites, we're trying to capture some of that air and bring it into the batter.  Over-mixing will just deflate the foam and defeat the purpose.

Time to put my money where my mouth is. Or... where my keyboard is.  Where my fingers are?  Never mind, that sounds weird.

It's always easy to slap a couple of ingredients onto (or into) something and call it fusion.  Sometimes that's tasty.  Sometimes it's just dumb. But let me assure you that the two main ingredients that make this a Pacific Northwest Okonomiyaki recipe were carefully chosen.

Osaka- style okonomiyaki frequently uses thinly sliced pork belly.  This is laid out on the griddle and covered in cabbage and batter, allowing it to cook directly against the hot surface.  It's very tasty.  You'll sometimes find Western variations that substitute bacon - which is also tasty, but different.  Bacon is smoked and generally quite salty, whereas pork belly is more neutral.  I quite like the idea of some smoke in the protein though, which is why I brought smoked salmon into play.  It's bold and distinctive, but it doesn't overwhelm anything.  Importantly, however, the salmon goes on top of the okonomiyaki, and only makes contact with the grill when the pancake is flipped.

The pickled chanterelles are, admittedly, a more complex aspect of this recipe - but they're worth it!  My recipe for these mushrooms can be found here, and you'll find them quite simple to make (assuming you have access to chanterelles, of course).  They taste great, and in this specific situation they act as bright, slightly sour agent, somewhat analogous to beni shoga (red pickled ginger).  To clarify though, the mushrooms don't taste like pickled ginger, but rather serve a similar textural and sweetly acidic role.

Why do I bring all this up? Well, because you might want or need to partially or completely change up these add-ins, and I want you to understand how you might best go about that.

Substitution Ideas

The pickled chanterelles are an awesome DIY ingredient, but admittedly a tricky one to swap out.  Other pickled mushrooms would work nicely, though this is a pretty literal swap.  If you're looking for something that achieves a similar effect in the okonomiyaki (namely something tangy, slightly sweet, and somewhat crunchy), you could explore any number of crunchy, tangy pickled foods.  Beni shoga (red pickled ginger) would be traditional and delicious.  Kimchi would be awesome.  Actually that would be so good that I think I might have to come up with a kimchi okonomiyaki recipe.  To be continued.

If you want to swap out smoked salmon, I think that any other smoked fish would be fantastic.  I frequently get the smoked tuna from Skipper Otto (a fantastic community-supported fishery organization here in Canada), and it would be amazing in okonomiyaki.  Moving away from seafood, bacon is a great salty/smoky ingredient to use in okonomiyaki, and generally quite easy for most Western cooks to find.  If you do use bacon, I would use a lower sodium type so that your finished dish isn't overly salty.  If you're keeping it vegetarian, there are some fascinating smoked salmon swaps out there in the world, including vegan carrot 'lox.'  I haven't tested any of these myself, so I can't recommend any recipe in particular, but I'd encourage you to do a little web-sleuthing if you're into this idea.  For another vegetarian idea, check out the section below.