Okonomiyaki: It's the ultimate street food, stomach-filling, easy to prepare and just as fast to consume. Born amid the rubble of postwar Osaka (according to one version of the legend) but rapidly embraced by the entire nation, no other style of Japanese cooking comes close in terms of being so cheap, hearty and fun.

In fact, those Frisbee-sized savory pancakes of "fried whatever-you-like" are so basic and uncomplicated anyone can make them -- or that at least is the thinking behind the 50 percent of the nation's okonomiyaki joints where they make you sit around your own griddle and pretend you're playing with mud pies.

Hiroshi Ebihara, the genial master of Otafuku, takes the opposite position. No less than any form of cooking, okonomiyaki requires the skill born from experience to ensure that everything comes together perfectly. After more than two decades behind the grill, Ebihara has accrued such an easy expertise in his humble craft, that his friendly little eatery in Shimokitazawa is now considered by many in Tokyo as a classic example of the genre.