Monja World Cup

Yesterday my friend from class and I went to a free Monjayaki Cooking Class through our ward office. The area of town we live in, Tsukishima, is known for this food called Monjayaki. It is said that Monjayaki originated as a snack for children. However, Kan was told it also became popular during WWII when food and money was scarce and they needed cheaper meals to eat. It it like a pancake type food and you can put whatever you like in it. It is cooked on a special skillet, like a griddle, and eaten with these tiny little spoons/scrapers. You literally eat it off the skillet and everyone at the same table shares the meal together. Some typical ingredients included in the pancake are cabbage, shrimp or squid, dried fish flakes, seaweed...really whatever you like. From our apartment we can walk to what is called "Monja Street" where you will find tons of restaurants serving this special Tsukishima dish. People come from all over to eat this food in our neighborhood. Pretty fun.

So, I went to a class to learn how to make Monjayaki. It was sponsored by "Bulldog", a company that makes a special sauce served here in Japan. They also make packets where you can prepare Monjayaki right from your home. When the class first started, I thought it was going to be a long day as we had to watch a 15 minute video from our sponsors showing us how Bulldog is made. But once we started cooking, it turned into a lot of fun.

We were divided into groups and each group had a country assigned to it. The first Monjayaki we made was a typical Japanese kind. After cooking, we sampled! Then the "Monja World Cup" began. You were supposed to make Monjayaki specific to your country. I was assigned to the Ghana group. We added chickpeas, couscous, tomatoes and a chili type powder to our Monja to make it Ghana-like. The other countries represented were Italy, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, and Australia. After you made your country Monjayaki, you were supposed to go to the different tables and try the different kinds of dishes. At the end, everyone voted on their top two. Obviously I voted for Ghana...how can you not vote for your own group? I also voted for Korea - I liked the spicy Monjayaki. Third place went to Italy, second place went to Japan, and first place went to Mexico. I was a bit surprised. I was not too crazy about the Mexican Monjayaki as I typically do not eat hot avocado, but they took home the grand prize. As we walked out, we received a packet of Bulldog Monjayaki to take home and fix on our own. I think I will try it with our friends who come visit next week as it appears to be much easier to cook it at home than eat it at a small restaurant in front of a very hot table (they cook it at your table in the restaurants) with two toddlers!