Ah street fare. Is there a more simpler or honest way to sample the local flavours of a place? In countries like Singapore, I often prefer the street and hawker foods to cafes and restaurants, for the price but also for the fantastic flavours and lively atmosphere that such food is cooked and eaten in.
When we visited Osaka, we stayed in Dotonbori, a busy and touristy shopping/eating street next to a rather stinky canal. Movies like Blade Runner were inspired by the sci-fi-esque neon signs of Dotonbori, where spruikers loudly attempt to lure passerbys into blaring pachinko parlours, amusement centres and any one of the seemingly endless number of eating establishments. Despite the gaudiness of it all, there was a certain charm to this mad and chaotic scene.
Street fare also caught our eye, particularly the stall in the picture above (if someone can translate the name, that would be ace!) selling Osaka’s famed street snack of takoyaki, or octopus balls. No, these aren’t octopus testicles but rather a dumpling-like snack consisting of batter with a filling of diced octopus, which are fried in a special cast iron takoyaki pan that has hemispherical molds which produces the takoyaki‘s ball shape. After frying, the takoyaki are topped with a moreish combination of okonomiyaki sauce, green laver (aonori), mayonnaise and katsuobushi (fish shavings). The fish shavings have an interesting, if somewhat freaky effect, as they “wilt” from the heat of the balls and look as if they’ve come alive!
We bought ten or so of the tasty treats and enjoyed them on the Nipponbashi Bridge, as many of the locals did. They were heaven – hot, chewy and doughy on the outside before one reaches the smokey octopus within. The toppings provided a melding of sweet, salty and creamy flavours that went perfectly with the takoyaki. It was so wonderful tucking into these snacks with toothpicks whilst looking out at the neon glare over the bridge. Man I love street food!
Written by Elegant Gourmand
wheres the guiness pie?????? and why cant i log in to leave a comment except as anon.
well I’ll be blown it now works for the first time but dont ask me what i did different. It didn’t work before on slow food
I think you’d be hard pressed to find Guiness Pie in Japan. Though we did go to an Irish Pub in Osaka one night and got fairly tanked on the brown stuff
So I gather you were responsible for the comment re: snails being slow food?
mmm, that takoyaki looks so good! I love the dried fish shavings too!
I absolutely love Takoyaki! I’ve had a few good ones in Bangkok, but haven’t found good ones here in Melbourne yet. Any recommendations?
I really want to visit Japan now!
Hey foodhoe – yes, the bonito shavings are very tasty. I’ll actually be writing a post about them soon, as it is interesting how they make them.
Hiya hungry hamster – unfortunately I haven’t found any good ones in Melbourne (well, not to the level of the ones I’ve had in Japan). Aka Tombo does them, but they braise them (which is a lil’ weird). Yamato on Russell Street does them on the cast iron (traditional), but whenever I look at how dirty their takoyaki grill plate is, I can’t fathom it
i have had the takoyaki from that stall in dotonbori, oishiii! and yes there are none that compare in melbourne restaurants. cafe meiji on lt bourke comes close.
Thanks for the tip solomission23. I’ve been to Cafe Meiji a few times. Love the food, but hate the half hour wait to get it!
Love takoyaki too. When we were in Sapporp, we came across a store with quite a unique marketing strategy. Every so often the novice chefs had to run out of the store and do a chant and a lil song and dance. This was in -6 celcius and all they had on were tshirts. Nevertheless they got a lot of attention.
Yes.. if anyone knows a good place for takoyaki, please enligthen, as I suspect most places use frozen packet takoyakis.
I can translate most of the sign on the stall….
to the left of the red thing, the first character I don’t know, but the second is “house”
to the right of the red bit, it reads “Nihon dai tako” which translates to “Japan’s big octopus”
Hope this helped!
Thanks for that tako lover! They really were exceptional takoyaki. Are you from Japan yourself?
Yum! Takoyaki! Uzu in Caulfield East next to the Monash uni do decent takoyaki with a choice of sauces. Apparently the chef brought an authentic takoyaki-grill home from Japan. About
Otherwise Misuzu in Albert Park do them and apparently they are good although I haven’t tried them myself.
Hey there Katie – thanks for that great heads up! Uzu (after a bit of research on the net) sounds interesting, so I’ll certainly have to make my way over there. I love watching them make takoyaki with those deft flicks of the skewers to turn them over. Does he put shaved bonito on top too?
I have been to Misuzu’s for dinner, but didn’t try the takoyaki. Will have to do so on the next visit.
Indeed Uzu does have shaved bonito on the takoyaki.
I went to Kenzan @GPO for dinner sadly the takoyaki were soggy adn very disappointing. My friend hadn’t had them before and now I have to take him out to Uzu to regain my reputation and the reputation of takoyaki.
As i was eating my Takoyaki on the bridge in Osaka, some nuffer tried to kill himself by jumping off the bridge into the river. I managed to pull him off the bridge and hold him down until the Coban came. But unfortunately, my takoyaki got soaked in the rain. I didn’t feel so much like octopus balls after all that, anyway.
Hey Adski – oh dear! I wouldn’t have had stomach for much either!
Try this new Japanese cafe Heavenly Delish near Glenferrie train station Hawthorn. They did a killer takoyaki. Best ones I have tasted so far!