First Taste of Fuchu-yaki at Pukuichi

Salut! It's Yoko, your food blogger.

Have you heard of Fuchu-yaki?
It's a type of okonomiyaki (savory pancake), but it's so good it overturns everything you thought you knew about okonomiyaki.

I went to Pukuichi, a restaurant where you can try it!

What is Fuchu-yaki?

Some of you may wonder how it differs from regular okonomiyaki, so I'll borrow Pukuichi's own explanation.

An okonomiyaki from the Fuchu area of Hiroshima, using fish powder as a secret ingredient and a layer of ground beef under the noodles so that the noodles come out crispy.

Okay, this will be on the test!
The biggest difference from ordinary okonomiyaki is that the noodles are fried until crispy!

Okonomiyaki with noodles in it is called Hiroshima-yaki, but in Hiroshima-yaki the noodles are soft.

In Fuchu-yaki, the noodles are crunchy.

Why are they crunchy? The secret is in the pork.

Hiroshima-yaki uses thinly sliced pork belly, but
Fuchu-yaki uses ground pork with a lot of fat. One theory says ground meat was used because it was cheaper than sliced meat.

The fat from the ground pork melts out and fries the noodles until they turn crisp.

Okay, it already sounds delicious.

The other key point is the sauce.
Fuchu-yaki uses Carp sauce, a sauce that isn't sweet.

Carp sauce is what defines the flavor.
Compared with Otafuku sauce, it's spicier and more grown-up!

My Fuchu-yaki debut at Pukuichi

At first I thought Pukuichi was a regular okonomiyaki restaurant, but it turned out to be a Fuchu-yaki specialist.

You can find okonomiyaki almost anywhere, but there aren't many Hiroshima-yaki places, right?
Fuchu-yaki seems to be even harder to find.

Pukuichi is the only place I know in Tokyo where you can eat it.
(Besides Toritsudaigaku, there's also a Pukuichi in Sangenjaya.)

The Sangenjaya branch has even been featured on the TV show Moyamoya Sammazu, so Fuchu-yaki might be about to become a trend!

First up, chilled tomato!

Chilled tomato is just sliced tomato, but I love tomatoes so I always order it.
It's a must especially when you're eating something strongly flavored like this, because it works as a palate cleanser.
It refreshes your mouth.

Next, grilled tofu with grated mountain yam (yamaimo).

Silky grated yam on fluffy tofu makes a soft, creamy combination. It looks light, but it's well seasoned underneath and delicious.

And here's the Fuchu-yaki with pork and egg (butatama)!

At the counter it's served right on the griddle, and at a table it comes on an iron plate.

I lift out one piece with a spatula...

The fun mealtime starts right here, when you put it on your plate.

It's nice that the iron plate keeps it piping hot, but what makes me happiest is that it keeps the noodles crunchy, lol.

The edges are crazy crispy.
The sauce poured on just before serving sizzles and reduces on the hot plate, and that concentrated sauce clings to the crisp noodles.

As someone who loves crunchy textures, I just want to eat only the crispy noodle parts!
This alone goes with a drink, lol!
It's junky in the best possible way.

And maybe because Carp sauce isn't sweet, I never got tired of it halfway, and it vanished in a flash... Ah, I'm going to gain weight...

If you want to ignore the calories and eat something junky, please go to Pukuichi for Fuchu-yaki!

Pukuichi, Toritsudaigaku

Pukuichi, Toritsudaigaku
1-26-6 Taira-machi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-0032
03-3717-4386
17:00-23:30
Closed Mondays