Okonomiyaki means 'a grilled dish of ingredients you like.' So literally, place the ingredients you like in a cabbage batter. I like to use thinly sliced pork belly (or thinly sliced brisket point), shrimp and squid. It is also delicious to put small anchovies or bacon. Corn and shrimp also create quite a tasty combination.

 Okonomiyaki batter is easy to make and grilling it is quite simple, but you may feel that turning it over once while grilling is a bit difficult. Restaurants cook Okonomiyaki on large grill plates. And after cooking for a while, they use two large grill spatulas to flip it from both sides. However, you might not have a grill plate or two spatulas at home. So it is easier to use a small frying pan with a diameter of 20cm. When you turn your Okonomiyaki over, push the frying pan forward with the snap of your wrist to flip the Okonomiyaki over without a spatula. You might think that flipping the Okonomiyaki without a spatula is difficult, but the key is confidence. The batter must completely flip over, so snap your wrist with power.

 It is okay if the batter breaks a little or falls apart when you flip it. You still have two ways to fix it. When you pour the sauce over a fininshed Okonomiyaki on a plate, the breaks in the batter don't show. And small cracks along the surface of your Okonomiyaki will not show when you place Katsuobushi on top. You can't fail this dish, so if you like Okonomiyaki please try this recipe. Cut and prepare all vegetables beforehand, and all you need to do is mix all the ingredients before cooking.

1. You can pre-marinate the pork pieces with mirim and soy sauce.

2. Slice the cabbage using a mandoline slicer. Place the sliced cabbage in cold water and remove the water completely using a sieve.

3. Mix eggs into the potato starch.

4. Add cabbage, meat, shrimp and squid with what you prepared in step 3 and mix well with a spoon.

5. Sprinkle one tablespoon of oil into the bowl and pour half of the batter in together.

6. Gentle shake the frying pan by holding the handle when you start to see steam coming up from the surface of the cabbage batter after about 7 to 8 minutes. If the batter doesn't break and shakes together as one, you can flip it.

7. When you're done, place the Okonomiyaki on a plate. If you think that it might break while moving it onto a plate, place a plate bigger than the frying pan on top and flip it over. Next, pour the sauce you have prepared. You can add the mayonnaise on top and create a marbling pattern by spreading it out using a silicon brush or a spoon. Place a bit of Katsuobushi on top, and it's done.

8. Serve it on a cake server for everyone to share, and it will be easy to scoop without having it falling everywhere.

 Beef Tataki is similar to the Korean dish 'Roseu pyeonchae' or pan-fried beef with vegetables, but it is much easier to make. When I was young, my mother made this dish for guests coming over. So I remembered the dish when I was figuring out what to make for my guests at my second child's 100th day party at home. But there was a lot of food to prepare, and so I chose to make Beef Tataki rather than Roseu pyeonchae, which is easier to make.

 Any meal you prepare when you invite guests over generally includes an appetizer or salad dish, meat or fish main dish, carbohydrate dish such as rice or noodles, and then dessert. You would especially prepare a meat main dish if you invite grown-ups, someone older. Most meat dishes loose taste if you grill them before your guests arrive because the meat looses its juice over time and becomes cold. But Beef Tataki is a cold dish, so it is okay to prepare beforehand. It is also not raw meat, so you don't have to deal with the red hue. I guarantee you it is a tasty dish, so try this recipe if you have the chance to have guests over.

 The two secrets to a great Beef Tataki are creating a maillard reaction by caramelizing the surface of the meat and allowing for the juice to spread evenly during the aging process in the refrigerator. As long as you rememer these two points, you will easily make a delicious dish of Beef Tataki.

 You can use either tenderloin or eye of round, but I prefer sirloin for its flavor and texture. For those of you who like the tender texture, use tenderloin. Or if you like your meat to be lean, use eye of round or chuck tender. Whatever meat you use, try to avoid any area with too much fat. Uncooked fat does not taste good.

1. Prepare your meat that has a consistent shape. If you are using sirloin like I am, ask the butcher to give you something without fat or tendons.

2. I called ahead to place my order, but there must have been some miscommunication, because I went to pick up the meat and found that it had tendons. In this case, you need to remove the parts with fat and tendon at home and shape the entire chunk of meat into one well-formed shape.

3. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat. Don't sprinkle like you would when you marinate the meat. Sprinkle its entire surface with a generous amount of salt and massage it a little. When you grill the meat later, the salt absorbed in the meat will make it dry and therefore create a crispy surface. Use fine salt, not coarse salt.

4. Sprinkle on all four sides of the meat and use your hands to rub it in. Next, leave it out for a minimum of 30 minutes so that it becomes room temperature.

5. Pour oil into a stainless frying pan and set the heat on medium-high heat. Reduce the heat a little when you see small ripples in the oil and place the meat. Grill the meat for 30 seconds for each surface. Grill all six sides of the meat.

6. Once all surfaces have been cooked, place a lid over the pan and leave for 3 minutes. This allows the moisture from the meat create a steam making the meat slightly steamed. This is when the meat will cook into a slightly pink color beneath the surface.

7. Take the meat out of the heat and set it aside for about 2 to 3 minutes. The juices inside the meat will spread to the dry surface. This is called resting.

8. After resting, wrap the steak with tin foil. Put the tin foil-wrapped meat into a Ziploc bag and leave it in the fridge for two days. Put it in the freezer 4 hours before you serve to slightly freeze it. This allows for the meat to have strength and you can slice it nicely without ruining the shape of the slices.

9. Sharpen your knife before slicing the meat into thin slices.

10. Slice the meat into thin slices of 2~3mm in thickness because the meat has to be wrapped with vegetables.

11. This is all from one geun (approximately 600 grams) of sirloin. It is hard to taste the fat or smell the flavor of the meat when it is cold. Leave it out in room temperature for about 30 minutes. When the sliced surface is exposed to air, the color of blood red will return.

12. Now, arrange a beautiful plate and you are ready to serve. Rather than just placing the meat, wrap it together with vegetables or fold it in half. This will allow you to hide any mistakes you made slicing the meat. I placed a row of meat followed by a row of vegetables to make it look more plentiful. Place lemon and lime in between so you can sprinkle them on before eating. After plating, all you have to do is wrap it up and serve when your guests arrive. Of course you can also make your own ponzu sauce, but I buy Kameya Wasabi & Soy Sauce Dressing from the online mall 'Market Kurly.' You can also find vegetables like shiso or lime, which is difficult to get at offline markets, at Market Kurly.