Today we had lunch at Nozomi’s parents’ house. Yoshio, Tamiko, and one of their neighbors were invited too. When we got there, everything was set up, for the neighbor girl (I do not know how to spell her name but I think it is Leahley) to teach us how to make takoyaki, octopus cooked in a batter and cheese ball. I considered being apprehensive, but then I realized that I was in Japan, and travel is all about adventure. Luckily, the octopus balls were delicious, and very fun to make! First, we oiled the pan.
Then we ladled in the batter, which Nozomi’s mother had prepared in advance. I think the batter only had flour, water, and some green onion in it.
After the batter, we put in each ball a piece of octopus, squid, or shrimp. I can now say that I have eaten octopus, squid, and eel (a previous sushi restaurant experience). Exotic right?
After the seafood, came the cheese. We also put a kind of chip snack in some of them, that Leahley said tasted good. She was right!
We flipped the spheres over with long toothpicks.
When both sides were cooked, we took them out, and let them cool off. They were very hot right out of the pan!
Nozomi’s parents were great hosts, and we had a great time at their house.
Leahley showed us some origami, we played a matching game, Dad and Yoshio played Go (Dad was obliterated), and Bayus and Leahley played table air hockey. Leahley was very nice, and we hope to be able to go to her school to watch her in a school sport event, next week.
BTW, for anyone who is counting (probably none of you) my birthday is next week!
-Hannah
So, how will you be celebrating your birthday in Japan? Is there a special way the Japanese treat birthdays? And..I still want you to bring home the food please ! 🙂
We will be going to a popular sushi restaurant for dinner on my birthday, but will have a full party with my friends back home, in December. So far, it seems that going out with your family for a meal, and keeping it simple, is what the Japanese do as you get older.
We may not be able to bring home the food, but we will definitely be bringing home the recipes!
Thank you for taking pictures all through the process of making the balls. It helps me understand how to make them. Although I think I could eat them better without a close up of the octopus 0.o
The picture’s were great. Yoshio is a champion Go player, the equivalent of a Chess Grand Master, Ed did great. I will have to wish you a happy birthday the day before or I will be late. 😉
I am counting on it 😉
Hannah … you have such a good attitude towards traveling and eating foods that you previously haven’t eaten. You are much braver than I am. I have seen a similar cooking equipment that was used for making the takoyaki being used in making a type of Skandinavian pancake ball … Aebleskivers. I’ve posted a couple of videos below (if it lets me post them), though neither one of these uses the electric Aebleskiver maker. Funny the similarities with differences in International Cuisines! Tell your dad that I have a nice GO game here, but have never played!
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=scandinavian+pancake+ball+vudei#id=13&vid=be8eefa194c703909cedb9bffffb7ca1&action=view
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=scandinavian+pancake+ball+vudei#id=5&vid=96d7d73a2cc585effed32a8f07133638&action=view
Having traveled my whole life, I have encountered multiple food situations that many would have been apprehensive about. However, I would prefer to smile and nod while eating un-refrigerated meat, hanging from a cage in a tree (mission trip to Chile, 2013), than make my hosts feel like I do not appreciate their work, or their culture. While I was not at first excited about eating takoyaki, I know crave it when we pass by takoyaki stalls on the street. Every time I try something new, I become that much more confident to try something even more different from my every day cuisine. The similarities between international cuisines tell me that everybody likes to eat good food, so no one is going to feed me something that they think is disgusting.