For Valentine’s weekend, my boyfriend Eddy and I decided to cook delicious food all weekend. He suggested takoyaki. For the wiki phobic, these are fried dumplings filled with octopus and veggies, covered in a sweet sauce. I had enjoyed this Japanese treat once before – during my one trip to Japan in 2003, at a huge flea market. It is a popular food for street vendors to sell.
Eddy actually had cooked takoyaki with friends before and knew it to be fun for the communal aspect. He purchased the special pan and researched recipes. It was a wonderful thing to make the dish together! We poured oil into each of the hollows, followed by batter, octopus bits, ginger, and scallions, and then more batter on top. I’m not usually a fan of ginger but it was perfect in this flavor combination. We unfortunately forgot the fish flakes, but had takoyaki sauce and Japanese mayonnaise (mmm, MSG!). I definitely want to make this again with friends. The amount of food is substantial and it is fun and different.
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the whole process, but I did take a whole lot of pictures of the octopus tentacles. These were purchased pre-steamed, and tasted wonderful by themselves. I do feel a bit of ambivalence since octopi are pretty intelligent, but they are delicious, tasty intelligence.
The rest of these pretties can be found on my flickr.
Tags: cooking, food, japanese cuisine, octopus, photos, takoyaki