Sakura Nakamaru March 24th, 2011 7th Period Osaka-Style Okonomiyaki 1.

Okonomiyaki is eaten throughout the country of Japan, but has variations depending on which prefecture or area of Japan it is being made in. Osaka's okonomiyaki is most common in the country. Japan's region is in Northeastern Asia. The language spoken in Japan is Japanese. Japanese is said to be a subfamily of the Altaic language family. Although this dish has nothing to do with religion, most of the population of Japan practices Shintoism. 2. The ingredients used for Okonomiyaki in the order of use are (enough for one serving): Water- Enough for it to look like a pancake batter Cup of Flour One pinch Dashi (Fish-based to add flavour to okonomiyaki) 1 Egg Baking Powder 1 Cup of Sliced or Shredded Cabbage 1 or 2 Bushels ofScallion Frozen Seafood mix (Can include shrimp, squid, etc.) Frozen Vegetable mix (Not needed, but if preferred, can add to cabbage and scallion) Oil (Doesn't matter what kind as long as it's for cooking- olive oil, grape seed oil, vegetable oil, and canola oil are fine examples) Katsuobushi flakes (Dried fish flakes) Aonori flakes (Dried seaweed flakes) Mayonnaise and cheese (Only if wanted) The directions for making okonomiyaki are: Put flour, baking powder, dashi, water, egg into a bowl. Mix, make a batter. Slice cabbage into thin slices. Cut scallions in lengths of two inches Cut meat, other vegetables in small pieces about one inch or less Mix vegetables and meat in with batter Pour oil in fry pan. Pour batter onto fry pan, let it fill whole pan, like pancakes, but a little thicker, like a half inch in thickness. Flip when bottom is light brown, crispy, or just generally looks cooked. Repeat with other side While other side is getting cooked, drizzle okonomi sauce on top, spread it When it's done, take it out of pan, and out it on any plate. Sprinkle katsuobushi and aonori You can add mayonnaise if you want, just adds more flavour and cools it down a little. 3. Cabbage was first domesticated in the Upper Southeast Asian Mainlands; seaweed was first domesticated in northeastern Asia (Korea and Japan); and I usually use olive

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oil, which comes from olives, which were first domesticated in the Mediterranean Basin (Classical near Eastern Europe). Since this is a Japanese dish, the ingredients used for the making of it are Japanese as well. These are kind of hard to find at big-box stores such as Target, so the ingredients come from Asian supermarkets, and often times, I have family in Japan send it to the United States by air mail. The water, flour, eggs, baking powder, cabbage, oil, mayonnaise, and cheese come from Publix, a local supermarket. The scallion, dashi, seafood mix, and vegetable mix come from the 1st Oriental Supermarket. The katsuobushi and aonori flakes were sent straight from family that shop at typical Japanese supermarkets, and were able to be sent because they are dry foods. Organic agriculture is the approach to farming and ranching that avoids the use of herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, and other similar synthetic inputs. GMOs, also known as genetically modified organisms are crops that carry new traits that have been inserted through advanced genetic engineering methods. I did not use organic ingredients the last time I made okonomiyaki, but I could've. I didn't the last time because it was what was left in my house. In Japanese, okonomi means something like have it your way and yaki means fried, so all these ingredients fried together make it. Most of the Japanese just use cabbage, scallion, and shrimp as their main ingredients and add in whatever they have left in their fridge or feel like eating with it. Therefore, having organic ingredients does not really matter, but would make the food somewhat healthier. I did use GMOs in my ingredients. Scallion has a similar genetic buildup as onion. The aonori flakes are also most definitely GMOs. In Japan, they are trying to improve forms of seaweed because it is good for hair, skin, and has many vitamins such as A, B1, B2, C, and also is filled with protein. I used ingredients that are GMOs because they are very common in places with high technology, especially Japan, besides the fact that they just went through another natural disaster. Scientists have been researching how to make seaweed grow more efficiently and how to keep it from being polluted since it's being grown in the ocean. The hierarchy of economic activities impacts my dish, for example, in seaweed production. The people in getting the seaweed, such as the fishermen or divers or people that get it when it comes up to shore are all part of the primary economic activity because they are physically extracting the resources from their natural habitats. The secondary economic activity includes the people that dry the seaweed, process it so that it has a salty-soy saucy flavour, and shred it, then pack it. The people that advertise the seaweed in a company are part of the tertiary economic activity. Also included in the tertiary economic activities are the lawyers that would probably try and promote the sales, or defend a lawsuit against the company, and the doctors and nurses that are involved in the research. The quaternary economic activity is represented by people that buy the seaweed from the companies or sell it to other companies. It could also include store owners that hold a stock of seaweed from multiple companies, such as the Whole Foods Market or the 1st Oriental Market. In the quinary economic activity are the people that research either the business made out of the seaweed production such as people with stock markets, or the legitimate scientists that are researching the food to make more GMOs out of it, and be able to enhance the quality and possibly quantity of the organism's growth. The Green Revolution is the recently successful development of higher-yield, fast-

growing varieties of rice and other cereals in certain developing countries, which led to increased production per unit area and a dramatic narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs. Since Japan is already a developed country, it did not impact one of its own traditional dishes, but Japan has helped make a new kind of wheat in other developing countries. For example, a type of wheat in Japan was take to Washington D.C., US because so that scientists could further improve the growth of it in a country with a higher population density. 8. Colonialism does not at all impact this dish because Japan was never a colony of a nation, nor did it ever have a colony. Although some of these ingredients came from other regions, their hearths have spread naturally, without colonialism affecting its food transportation. 9. This dish is not affected by religion. Although the majority of Japan's people are Shintoists, this dish does not honour anything. There is another Japanese recipe in Japan that is affected by its religion, though. It is called shoujinryri, which means devotion food in Japanese. Since this is a Buddhist food that also many Buddhist people in Japan eat, it is not only popular in Japan, but other countries where Buddhism is practiced, such as India, Korea, and Vietnam. 10. There are many other ways my dish relates to Human Geography. One way I think is most important to the making of okonomiyaki is migration. Okonomiyaki is mainly from Hiroshima, a prefecture of Japan that is part of the Kansai region of Japan. As it started in Hiroshima, it apparently spread to the areas around it. Osaka is another prefecture in the Kansai region, so it must've come from Hiroshima.