Otafuku Okonomi Sauce (オタフク お好みソース)

The story behind it

You cannot talk about Hiroshima's okonomiyaki culture without this sauce.

Otafuku Sauce began in 1922 as Sasaki Shoten, a dealer in sake and shoyu (soy sauce). During the postwar recovery, when street-stall okonomiyaki was feeding the city, the company started making sauce. In 1957 it released Okonomi Sauce, with its viscosity and sweetness designed specifically for okonomiyaki.

That distinctive sweetness comes from dates, a Middle Eastern fruit. They were adopted around 1975 when the oil shock sent sugar prices up, and they are still used today, long after sugar got cheap again, for the depth of their sweetness. From a griddle at a street stall to more than 50 countries. This is a flavor that traveled with the city.