When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosts leaders of the G7 richest nations in Hiroshima this week, restaurants in the city hope to put a local specialty on the map, with a choice of fillings to cater for foreign tastes.
A gateway to tourism on the western side of Japan’s main island, Hiroshima’s name is forever carved in history as the first city to suffer the horror of a nuclear attack nearly 78 years ago.
Kishida’s parliamentary constituency covers part of Hiroshima, a city that is home to more than 1 million people, and also about 800 restaurants specializing in okonomiyaki, a savory pancake whose name means “cooked as you like.”
Photo: Reuters
The ingredients of the signature dish typically include noodles, cabbage, batter and meat fried on a hot metal plate, but for the G7, the Oconomiyaki Academy, a local restaurant trade group, has dreamed up variations incorporating favorite foods from each nation.
“You could say that okonomiyaki is the number one most popular soul food among people from Hiroshima,” said Atsuki Kitaura, the citywide manager of the Chinchikurin chain.
“We thought a lot of customers from various countries overseas would come here, so we wanted to offer various flavors of okonomiyaki to match their taste,” Kitaura said.
They include German sauerkraut, as well as a maple syrup-infused Canadian version and a carbonara style for Italy. For American tastes there is burger meat, while the French version contains cabbage, bean sprouts, bacon, cheese, okonomiyaki sauce and a fried egg, all wrapped in a crepe.
Some locals were not so 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, but I don’t think I can eat it served this way,” office worker Shinya Otsuki said.
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