Once you get the hang of okonomiyaki, it becomes a pleasure to start riffing on it. The standard gu (aka filling) that we use is frozen cooked shrimp. You can defrost it in hot water for a bit, and then throw in a handful of shrimp. Chunks of chicken or cheese, chopped mushrooms, snow peas, swapping out some bean sprouts for cabbage – pretty much anything goes. You can think of it as Japanese pizza, although it’s somewhere between a pancake and an omelette.

The most difficult part of cooking okonomiyaki is flipping it. We make it in a cast iron pan, and use two spatulas to carefully flip it.

The other great phrase in this recipe is that it is meant to be cooked until it is kitsune iro on each side – “the colour of a fox”.

The final piece of okonomiyaki is having each person dress it with condiments of choice. Okonomiyaki sauce is hard to come by, but you can make it by mixing ketchup, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, and a bit of soy sauce. And you definitely want to have a grid of strands of Japanese mayo criss crossing the top of your okonomiyaki.