TW 2010 TENYA – Taipei City, Taipei
I am pretty sure everyone is familiar with the tasty okonomiyaki but its’ close relative may not be as well-known, the monjayaki. Very similar in the sense they are both cooked on a hot teppan but their texture and flavours and hence the whole eating experience is different. This is also enhanced by the fact that you can choose to cook your monjayaki yourself or get one of the wait staff to cook it for you. Back to Taiwan we go where I popped my monjayaki cherry.
Happy condiments make tasty condiments
We are wondering around the food court of the Sogo department building (I love the food courts in Japan/Taiwan because they have set up proper restaurants as well as the quick storefronts). My uncle recommended this place and even though we had just finished other snacks (oh mai gawd I love bakeries over there) we were always up for more food heh. Here Comes the Food
Firing up the okonomiyaki
Hiroshima style beef combination okonomiyaki
There was quite a variety of styles of okonomiyaki we could choose from: modernyaki, Hiroshima style and Osaka style. Going with the classic Hiroshima style my eye lit up as we watched the ingredients pile up and up on top of the initial pancake. Finally topping it off were these beautiful ribboned slices of beef, now I was getting really excited.
Monjayaki ingredients
The cute little spatula you use to slice up and eat the monjayaki with
Cooking of the monjayaki. We ended up getting the staff to do it as we were too lazy to haha
Pouring on the batter to make it a pancake of awesome
Pork potato butter and cheese monjayaki
The serene sound of the pancake sizzling away on the teppan combined with the aromatics of the ingredients really gets the salivary glands going. It was quite hard waiting for the pancake to get a good charred on the bottom but it was well worth the wait. The extra crispy/crunchy charred texture added so much more to the pancake. The monjayaki is different to the okonomiyaki in that it was much runnier and spread to a nice thin layer to maximize the surface area for charring. I really really wish a monjayaki shop would open in Sydney or if there is already one please let me know!
Adding the final touches to the okonomiyaki – mayonnaise!
Bonitoed and Lavered okonomiyaki
I like the Hiroshima style as they also add noodles (in this case yakisoba) into their okonomiyaki. Cutting through the thick jumble of ingredients and deliciousness we could see all parts of the pancake cooked perfectly. The harmony of the flavours and with the sauces we added (garlic and chilli) caused flavour explosions in my mouth. I love the teppan and its power of cooking foods at high temps. Although the okonomiyaki here may not match the ones in Japan it was still very good.
Bulgolgi
We also gave this side dish a try but it was not what we expected of bulgolgi. Taiwanese-trying-to-be-Japanese-doing-a-Korean-dish would naturally result in a non authentic dish but the twist they gave to it still made it quite tasty. It ended up nice and sweet with a slight hint of chilli with tender and tasty slices of beef.
I love the model food hee hee. Always makes me hungry
I want to go back to Japan!
TENYA
SOGO basement No. 300
Chunghsiao E. Road
Taipei City
FFichiban
July 26th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
oh yum mamamamamaaaaa i LOVE okonomiyakiiii (looks so hard to “imitate” at home) heheheh
July 26th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Will you take me to pop my monjayaki cherry too one day good sir
July 26th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Um woah!
July 26th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Oh how I love finding new ways to eat! Any restaurant entrepreneurs willing to open one of these shops in Sydney?
July 26th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
What on Earth?! I’ve never seen anything like this. What an experience… I would love to have wider food experiences like this one.
July 26th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I love monjayaki!
“The harmony of the flavours and with the sauces we added (garlic and chilli) caused flavour explosions in my mouth.”
Does it cause mouth-covering giggles too? lol
July 26th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
What a great idea. You should totally start up a restaurant like this so Sydney siders can get their Japanese pancake skillz on.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:55 am
Oh man I love the restaurants I Taiwanese malls. The food is so good and not all of it is fast food! This looks soooo good up to the point where they pile in the may… Ugh. Sorry.
Wei Wei
July 27th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Mochachocolatarita – Yeah I know! Was looking at kitchens recently and saw a home-sized teppan on sale but at 4G+ AUD… hmmm
The Ninja – I’ll pop your cherry anytime my good man
Laura(Starloz) – Indeed!
Moya – I agree! Anybody at all please
Anita – Check out Okonomiyaki at Shimbashi/Ju Ge Mu but for monjayaki I don’t know anywhere in Sydney yet
Helen(GYF) – Maybe some mouth-covering moans but giggles are reserved for popping candy!
Mark@CafeCampana – Haha if only I could I probably would!
Wei Wei – Ahhh I miss it… hopefully go back for more fooding soon mmm
August 31st, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Not long ago I found Monjayaki at Izakaya Kasumi in Darling Harbour (Harbour Street).
While it is nowhere near as good as those fantastic Monjayaki shops in Tokyo it’s a lot closer and brings back memories of those smoke filled feasts