🍱 Tarashi-Yaki

This is a local dish eaten during break time from farm work mainly in the eastern low land like Chichibu area and Kazo City. Producing wheat flour is very active in Saitama and this dish is really Saitama snack. It's easy to make and doesn't take time like making ‘udon' thick wheat noodle or ‘manjyu' dumpling, so it's handy to prepare. Basically, just make dough with wheat and water then bake. The ingredients vary depending on family or season; sometimes finely minced vegetables or left-over rice are mixed with dough. Especially in Chichibu area, they put fried pickles of ‘Shakushi-na' (kind of Chinese bok-choy) in the dough. It is popular to mix miso in the dough, or to put sauce with sugar and soy sauce, but you can enjoy the dish with Tonkatsu sauce or mayo on it. They ‘tarasu' (meaning dribble in Japanese) the dough when they bake the dish. That's why they call this pancake ‘Tarashi-yaki'.