Japanese festival food: Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is one of my favourite Japanese festival foods.  Of course, it can be prepared or eaten at any time, but it is particularly synonymous with festivals.  Okonomi means "what you like" and "yaki" means fried or grilled. "What you like fried"! And as this English translation implies, the ingredients of okonomiyaki differ depending on the cook, all cooked in a batter of flour, grated yam, water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage.

Above, a photo of a man preparing okonomiyaki en masse at a food stall at a traditional festival. This was taken at the Kawagoe festival, one of the largest and best autumn festivals in Japan! The food stalls have special trays, like the one pictured, so they can prepare several okonomiyaki at once. It was served with pickles on the side.

They are served in plastic containers and you are given wooden chopsticks for free, which is not very eco-friendly. But at a festival it is currently hard for them to be eco friendly with nowhere for people to sit and nowhere for them to wash dishes. I wonder if in the future people will carry around their own chopsticks and plates! Like they do with eco friendly shopping bags these days. 

Have you ever tried okonomiyaki at a festival? Did you like it?