Making Hiyayakko at Home in Germany

In Berlin, it is very straight forward. You go to your local AsiaMarkt, you choose the tofu that looks the smoothest, maybe you already have soy sauce at home, and you buy spring onions, which are available basically everywhere. You try to cut nice squares from your tofu, pour soy sauce over it, chop up the spring onions and put them on top. If you want to have it more fancy add some bonito flakes.

Making Hiyayakko at Home in Japan

In Japan, it is much more difficult. Because standing in front of the tofu section there is a dozen options too choose from. Equally, after locating the soy sauce section in the meters of dark sauces, such as okonomiyaki sauce, worcester sauce, oister sauce, again you have dozens to choose from.

I decided for tofu which is already portioned and the home brand soy sauce in our supermarket. Preparation was hindered by the blunt knife we have in our flat. However, it was delicious. With the right tofu the texture is much better, and thus, the overall experience.