What You Need to Know About the Scrapple Waffle

I've been seeing mention of the scrapple waffle popping up around the internet. My first instinct was that it might look something like this. (Side note: #nomnomnom) In other words, I thought we'd be looking at a piece of scrapple on top of a waffle.

In reality, the scrapple waffle is much more complicated than that.

What Scrapple Lovers Need to Know About the Scrapple Waffle

There's a lot of talk about the chef who created this, the buzz around his new restaurant in NYC and blah blah blah. None of that matters.

What you need to know: some dude had the amazing idea of sticking a slice of scrapple into a waffle maker to cook it. AND IT WORKS!

According to LA Times food reporter Jonathan Gold, "The waffle is crisp." And yet, I imagine, kind of soft and gooey on the inside, as scrapple is meant to be. There's a whole bunch of other stuff thrown on top of this brilliance (shredded cabbage and pickled apple, plus two condiments called "Kewpie mayo" and "Bulldog sauce").

Before you roll your eyes, note that the dish is served in a ramen shop and this is Chef Ivan Orkin's Japanese twist to scrapple. It's named Lancaster Okonomiyaki, where okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake of sorts. In this case, the scrapple plays the pancake...err waffle.

I know this isn't traditional scrapple. But the dish is getting a lot of attention, and in the process, opening up more eyes to the possibility that scrapple might not actually be disgusting. You don't have to love it (though I totally need to try this), but this can only mean good things for scrapple lovers around the world!

So I say, welcome to Scrapple Nation, Chef Ivan! Bring your friends!