Takoyaki
July 17, 2006
I celebrated my 26th making a kansai classic: takoyaki.
These grilled octopus ball-shaped edible is renown in Osaka. You can’t go 10 minutes in Osaka without running into a takoyaki shop. It’s also a fun party idea as they’re fairly easy to make and are bite-sized morsels perfect for beer guzzling. We bought our own takoyaki gas oven and a few useful utensils (the toothpick like metal bit is needed to flip the damn things). We bought a few ingredients and some octopus. We were on our way to takoyaki mastery.
We made 3 batches of 15. The first batch sad to say was a complete learning experience. The octopus wasn’t fully enclosed and they weren’t even ball shaped. Still with a bit of okonomiyaki sauce and some cold oolong tea to wash it down, the taste was great. The second batch was much better – we tried adding extra batter to make it rounder. The third batch was slightly worse than the second as we tried another technique.
The second batch
I will walk through the covered shopping areas and watch the takoyaki shop owners with much more intensely now. I will steal their secret techniques and make perfectly spherical takoyaki.
Extras:
Wiki entry for takoyaki
Cooking Instructions (Japanese)
Videos on making takoyaki
July 18th, 2006 at 11:03
Happy birthday! May you spend another 26 years in Internet cafes.
Thanks for finally writing some updates in english! It was hard reading updates that consisted of lines of question marks.
July 18th, 2006 at 20:08
Those questions marks were English! I was just struck with strong bouts of confusion and uncertainty, that’s all. I’ll do some exclamation mark updates more often.
July 18th, 2006 at 22:39
Happy birthday!
July 19th, 2006 at 06:05
Thanks yall. Do you guys feel old like me? Not that I mind. I think I like being old.
July 19th, 2006 at 16:59
I feel old every time I kneel down and my knees pop loudly. I feel old every time I lean over to grab something and I hear a quiet “pop” in my back. Getting old sucks.
July 19th, 2006 at 17:22
Better to hear a pop than a snap or crackle though. Getting old is great. You suddenly develop an ability to criticize everything unfamiliar, like Nintendo WII, or deodorant.