Chinchikurin Hiroshima Okonomiyaki

Sure, being a jack-of-all-trades sounds nice in theory, but have you ever tried looking for a meme on your phone while pretending to work while also driving? It’s a bad time. Focusing on one thing and mastering it, that’s what Chinchikurin does best. It’s a small Japanese shop in Little Tokyo that serves one dish: Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. Although usually translated to “savory pancake,” okonomiyaki is more than that: a base of yakisoba noodles are thick and chewy and covered in a wonderful, molasses-like sauce. A giant egg blankets the entire thing, and the pork is crispy. Really, it’s a perfect dish, something we’d happily eat on hot days, freezing days, days when we have tons of work and need a reprieve, and other days when we’ve got nothing to do at all. In other words, all the damn time.