Octopus Balls

you can now find this in Servay Penampang - i'm so happy! don't need to drive into town when the urge to eat takoyaki hits me. the first time i bought this the kids were screaming "what is that smell?! roll down the windows, Mummy brought something icky into the car!" yes, the smell of the katsuobushi (fish shavings) is rather overpowering - ha ha ha. i always ask for wasabi for that extra kick.

tako means octopus in Japanese, yaki is derived from "yaku" which simply means "to fry or grill" in Japanese. first popularised in Osaka where a street vendor named Endo Tomekichi is credited with its invention in 1935. to make takoyaki, a grill pan that has many small cups to pour the batter is used. thus takoyaki is also known as octopus balls.



i feel cheated after watching this video as there's a lot more ingredients that are not added over here. and did you see the size of the octopus pieces the guy put in? i want to go to Japan and try the original!