Tako-yummy, Takoyaki

Takoyaki is a Japanese food which is basically a little bit of octopus (tako) cooked inside of a pancake-like flour based batter (but not sweet) and covered in katsuobushi (the dancing fish flakes) and aonori (seaweed), as well as takoyaki sauce.Takoyaki stalls can be found at food courts in Manila.  I like these balls I do not mind falling in line while they cook. The Manila version of Takoyaki 's sauce has

mayonnaise and mahu-like flakes on top. We hardly  bite into octopus bits!   So when we were booked for a trip to Osaka, one of our must try was Takoyaki- of course, especially that these precious octopus balls are Osaka street food stars.warned to wait 5 minutes before popping these into our mouth.The first genuine Takoyakis that I have tried were the ones sold at the Osaka Castle grounds.  Boy!  They were not cheap at 400-yen for 8 pieces!  But they were good- not too much veggies but instead lots of octopus chunks.  The sauce on top was very different from the Manila Takoyakis and there were covered with bonito flakes and seaweed.  Yummy! The second time we tried these yummy balls was when we were walking towards our hotel in Umeda from a night out in Dotombori. There was a singing Takoyaki-on-wheels vendor and a queue building up leading to his van.  He must be famous for people to queue up at night waiting for their turn to buy the balls.  We waited a while until it was our turn.  The guy cheerfully gave us samples.  Oh boy! His Takoyakis were the best we have tasted. For 400-yen for 8 balls plus a few samples, we were satisfied.  Ahhh!

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