Dave had gotten the sudden mysterious urge for okonomiyaki, I guess that happens to all of us. We know Okonomiyaki Chibo in Waikiki, and excellent as it is, we decided to look into alternatives. But where? One place Derek knew of is closed. I learned of a small place in Waikiki next to a shop I did some work for, but there’s no parking. Then Derek mentioned a new place, Shouchan, in Puck’s Alley. Isn’t that near Kohnotori that we reviewed a few weeks back? Yes, and it’s not really an accident that a lot of places we go to are in this general area, it’s where we are at this time of the day. Anyway, we decide to check it out. It’s located on University, across from what used to be Varsity Theaters, up a few shops from Cocoichiban. I find Derek waiting outside. I look at the cloth banner and the first thing that comes out of my mouth is “Hiroshi”! It takes a while to realize it’s not Hiroshi Mayaki. Hiroshimayaki is the style of okonomiyaki served here.
Dave arrives and we go in and am greeted by a friendly Japanese accent. Quite pleasant. The bright interior and open tables gives it a bit of a cafeteria feel. The A/C seems to be not working so it’s a bit stuffy. Eventually it does kick in and it gets better.
It’s BYOB here and we came prepared with our own six pack. The menu is fairly small, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They do have a small selection of otsumami-ish sides and at the urging of our waitress ordered the “Tendon Stew” and also ordered the Karaage chicken. 
The stew was chunks of konyaku and beef tendon stewed in a savory clear broth, topped with a generous heap of green onions and dash of red pepper. Delicious! The karaage arrived tongue searingly hot. The verdict, after we were done juggling the hot tidbits around on our tongues, yummy! Very tasty, garlicy, peppery and other flavors hard to identify individually, but yummy all together! So it was on to the main order of business, the okonomiyaki.
My family being from Osaka, I’m familiar with the Osaka style okonimyaki, which is how Chibo’s is. The ingredients are all mixed into the batter and cooked on the griddle. I’m envious of my uncle who has a counter in their house that has a iron topped griddle with gas burner under expressly for this. But this is my first time with the Hiroshima style, which is layered. 
We caught a peek at someone else’s order and saw that it’s a sizeable portion. We decide to order two to split between the three of us. 
One was the Shochan Hiroshimayaki which comes with pork, squid, shrimp, green onion and we elected for soba. The second one we decided to build our own and selected beef, kim chee, and green onion, with udon noodles. They arrive sizzling on round cast iron skillets. We dig in. It’s different from the style I’m used to, but still yummy. It’s a little bit more like a stir fry since the ingredients are more discrete and the amount of cabage is higher, as opposed to Osaka style where it’s like a pancake.
Between the two, I keep going back in forth in trying to decide which I like more. At first I prefer the soba, which is more common, but then the udon is pretty good too. And eventually I start to lean toward our own creation. The Shochan combo is a good deal though, you’d pay more if you built the same thing specifying the ingredients. I finish satisfied. There is room for desert, which they offer is mochi icecream. Bubbies across the street is pretty tempting too, but we decide to call it a night. And what an affordable night too, we get away with about $20 each including the cost of the six pack of beer!
Contrary to what it might look in these pics, I’d say an easy 3, maybe 3.5 smiling Hiroshima macaques out of 5. Perhaps I should make my system out of 4, because it seems 5 is a mythical ranking of perfection that is not achievable.
0 Responses to “Hiroshi Mayaki, Shochan”