Gaja is a remote outpost. A mile or two beyond the docks, it sits in a featureless non-space. Just north of the refinery-stripclub-truckstop district and just east of the Redondo piers, with its slatted, pastel houses, home to middle-managers and antique collectors, the city of Lomita itself is a thoroughfare, a means of getting up the coast line, going where you want to go, to the beaches, the sun, the water. Gaja is sequestered away in this gray, odd, land-locked bedroom community in an unremembered corner of LA county. Which is why this spot is so remarkable; somewhere in this stretch of liquor stores, car dealerships and disreputable sandwich counters is this welcome surprise: the only make-your-own okonomiyaki in town.
Okonomiyaki translates literally into “what you want” (okonomi) “grilled” (yaki). Sometimes, okonomiyaki is described on English menus as a Japanese “pancake", but there is really no Western analog. What goes in a proper okonomiyaki? It depends. The variations on the basic setup are as numerous as the number of grains of sand in a good sized sandbox. There is the original Osaka-style okonomiyaki (kansai), which has a basic batter comprised of rice flour, mountain yam, water, egg, and shredded cabbage. On top of that goes any combination of pork, bacon, mochi, cheese, seafood, vegetables. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is layered, piled high and pushed flat, with extra cabbage and a handful of soba noodles thrown on top. Tokyo-style okonomiyaki (also known as manjayaki) is a runny, viscous and slightly unappetizing regional variant that is worthwhile only because you eat it with a tiny spatula the size of a coffee spoon, scrapping bits of burned rice-flour batter off the teppan like a jolly giant taking paint off the side of a barn. The first time this asian couple visited Gaja solo, we ordered the modan mix you see below:
That’s pork, squid, octopus, scallop on top. Flip this thing over twice and top it off with okonomiyaki sauce, benito flakes, Japanese mayonnaise and pulverized nori or do whatever the fuck you want with it, that’s the point. Ultimately, this is what I like about Gaja. Okonomiyaki itself is a simple affair, a peasant dish made with whatever leftovers can be scrounged up around a Japanese kitchen; it is a dense, substantial all-in-one meal. What I like about Gaja, what I think sets this place apart from any other kind of restaurant you care to think of, is that it never serves the same meal twice. Each okonomiyaki is as special and individual as a melting snowflake. Sure, we all have our own way of handling a hot bowl of pho; and we’ve all experienced the uniquely delicious anxiety of checking a piece of ribeye at the Korean BBQ, but Gaja’s infinitely tweakable offerings is the king of DIY asian foods. Their menu, at somewhere around 100 pages, would make an excellent doorstop. In addition to three regional variants of okonomiyaki, Gaja also offers Japanese soup style spaghettis, risottos, teppanyaki, and intricately layered skyscraper parfaits (another post all to itself).
2383 Lomita St, Suite 102 Lomita, CA 90717
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