Takoyaki - Octopus Balls!
About the size of a golf ball, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. Typical garnishing is mayonaise, brown sauce, katsuobushi (dried then shaved bonito flakes) and powdered nori (a kind of seaweed). It is a very tasty dish, decidedly not diet food though; and available almost anywhere in Osaka.
The traditional reciped calls for chopped octopus in each takoyaki ball, though Japanese for octopus is "tako" that is not where the name of the dish comes from! Rather the name comes from the griddle where the takoyaki is fried.
The special griddle has many cup like depressions reminicent of the suckers on the arms of the octopus and that is where the name actually comes from!
It is said that every home in Osaka has a takoyaki griddle and so far I have not seen that put to a lie, I in fact have at least one cast iron griddle, somewhere in the kitchen.
As the name of the dish is from the griddle, you can have takoyaki without the tako(octopus) and it is still takoyaki!
Hence, at a takopa (takoyaki party) often held at someone's home other foods are often used in place of octopus, things such as: chocolate, tomatoes, cheese, anything really; there's no rules!
It's also one of the easiest ways to try octopus if you have some adversion to eating it, much more palletable than octopus sushi or sashimi.
Cooking involves the use of chopsticks to turn the balls as the outer edge is cooked, the constant turning renders each into a perfect sphere, depending on how long they've been on the griddle, the takoyaki could be stiff and very spherical or softer and more like an over ripe tomato (tastes much better though!)
In the above picture we can see some that are ready to be served and closer to the camera others that have just been set to cooking, with the chunks of octopus still sticking out!
If you have the chance to try it, please do!
Be careful though, the outside may be cool but the inside often retains quite a bit of heat!
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I'm always so amazed whenever I see those being cooked. The thing is, I always get excited to eat them, my tongue gets burned every single time. Tastes great though! Definitely worth the pain haha!
Lol, I know exactly how that goes! It's difficult to wait long enough for them to cool down though!
my lady likes this stuff. I try not to let her eat them too often:-)
In moderation it's fine! :)
I, my friend, am the moderator. Haha
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