takoyaki

Takoyaki at the Richmond Night Market. Photos by David Lansing.

Back to the Richmond Night Market where Mijune took me to the Daikichi Bakudanyaki stall. These guys specialize in giant takoyaki balls. Takoyaki us a ball-shaped dumpling (or fritter) and is usually sold in Japan at yatais, which are small, mobile food stalls (the word literally means “shop stand”).

They say the first guy to make takoyaki came from Osaka and they’re still considered something of a regional specialty there (you can find them in Tokyo, just not as easily; in Osaka they’re everywhere).

Daikichi Bakudanyaki at the Richmond Night Market.

So here’s how you make a takoyaki: You make a sort of pancake batter from rice flour and wheat flour and cook it in a special mold and then stuff it with squid or octopus (originally in Osaka it was just octopus) and then maybe some cabbage, pickled ginger, rice, and green onion. At Bakudanyaki, they also put a quail egg in it, which is kind of interesting.

So the inside of the takoyaki is pretty much the same. What differentiates one takoyaki from another is the sauce that goes on top. Each yatai vendor will usually make his own sauces and they can be as creative as the cook. At Bakudanyaki you had your choice of curry, chili mayo, wasabi mayo, original, and the special of the day was pizza. I don’t know why you’d want to put a pizza flavoring on your seafood fish ball, but there you go.

Mijune and I ordered several different takoyaki balls just so we could taste the different flavor toppings. I’m not a big curry guy so that definitely wasn’t my favorite. I liked the original, though I’m not sure what was in that. But my favorite was the wasabi. The cream sauce really cut the bite of the wasabi so it didn’t blast your mouth but definitely added a little kick to savory innards of the takoyaki ball. Good stuff.

Here’s a short video I took of them explaining what takoyaki is and how they make them.