Okonomiyaki

Lest you think that I had utterly neglected this blog, I am not.

Hiroshima is getting preposterously cold. It snows again tonight!

There wasn't as much snow two years ago. Now I completely believe what the scientists had predicted about the coldest winter was true. It is so irritatingly cold that you just wanna stay indoor, curl up in bed with a book, some good music and, as a friend suggested, some good wine to keep warm.

But not this weekend. This weekend, like it or not, I have to brace through the nut-shrinking weather to attend a workshop organized every year by the university. The Biodentist Workshop aims at providing graduate students from the university with an opportunity to present their studies in English.

You only need to sit through one to know why, in addition to the lack of sleep and interests, I was cockeyed, literally, for most of the presentations in that optimally heated room. If any of you have had any experience, you'll know how I feel. And so today, I absconded the later half of the session after lunch.

The pictures above depicts my lunch (to say it in the way scientists do all the time) . It is called the Okonomiyaki or Japanese pancakes. It is very much like pizza with its flour base and assorted toppings like bacons, seafoods or some other more exotic ones like rice cakes, cheese and mayonnaise. But what separates it from the regular pizza is the special sweet and slightly tangy sauce that makes it delicious if you (or me) only eat Okonomiyaki twice a year. What you see here is also unique and can only be found in Hiroshima because, unlike the one in Osaka, you can add either soba or udon in it. Hiroshima Okonomiyaki is something that you must have if you visit. But I will leave the rest of the review of it to you if you have had it before.

LiteFM has begun to roll out many Chinese New Year tunes these few days. Just in case I am not in the right mood to write (so much for wanting to be a writer, huh?!), I wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year. Have a great time shopping for it. Go to Petaling Street and rub your shoulders with the crowd. Immerse yourself totally in the festive ambiance -- something I miss most terribly this year in this harsh cold winter.