No turkey sushi, but plenty of octopus

We woke up Thanksgiving morning with one plan: fly to Osaka. Since it was an American holiday I expected the airport to be packed with travelers. It wasn't because we were at the domestic terminal. From the moment we dropped off our car to the time we sat down on the plane every person we encountered seemed surprise that we weren't flying internationally. Apparently if you are a white American you must return to the States in November.

Instead we did something more exciting and visited the second largest city in Japan. Rainy weather greeted us, but since our hotel was in the heart of the city, there was no time for rest and relaxation. We needed to explore.

There is a Japanese saying: Kyoto kidaore; Osaka kuidaore which means that Kyoto-ites will go bankrupt from buying kimonos; Osakans from eating out too much. To honor this statement, our first stop was a takoyaki restaurant near the subway in the basement of our hotel.

Benny described our love for takoyaki and other foods from Osaka in an anticipation posting about this trip, so I won't go into great detail here. But basically takoyaki is a meatball-sized ball made up of batter, herbs and octopus. Here in Okinawa we can only buy them from street vendors.

In Osaka (the birthplace of takoyaki) you can cook your own at a table, just as we saw on the Travel Channel's No Reservations episode filmed in Osaka.

We excitedly entered the restaurant for an early dinner, but the waiter didn't look as excited to see us. He seated us and handed us an English menu. We ordered and waited for our instructions.

Luckily a couple sat at the table across from us, so we could mimic their movements. They greased their takoyaki grill. We greased ours. They looked through the condiments on the table. We smelled ours. They looked at us annoyed. We glanced in the opposite direction.



Within minutes the waiter dropped our octopus pieces onto the grill and covered the grill with the batter. We were each handed our cooking weapon: a steel pick. We looked at him dumbfounded. He sighed and proceeded to talk in rapid Japanese with lots of gestures. At each pause, Benny replied hai or yes.

Once the waiter left, I asked Benny if he understood him. Not a word, he said. So we returned to our method of stalking the other takoyaki patrons.



As the batter cooks, you must move the pick between the individual ball to break up the batter. You have to pop the bubbles that form in each ball. And at some point flip the balls, again with just your pick. The waiter came back to demonstrate that movement. It looks so much easier on television.



Top with tasty takoyaki sauce, fish flakes and Japanese mayo and serve hot. Take your chopsticks and eat. Mmmmmm.



In the end we had yummy (but not pretty) takoyaki for our Thanksgiving feast.

If you want to watch a takoyaki demostration video I found on YouTube, click here.