Takoyaki

★★★★4.5· 243 ratings

·Serves 4

About this Dish

Osaka's iconic street food — crispy golden balls of batter filled with diced octopus, topped with bonito flakes, mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce.

History & Origin

Takoyaki — octopus balls — is the defining street food of Osaka, a city that takes enormous pride in its food culture to the point where Osakans have a phrase, kuidaore, meaning eat until you drop. The dish was invented in 1935 by a street vendor named Tomekichi Endo in the Shinsekai district. The special cast-iron pan with hemispherical moulds is essential — there is no substitute. Osaka has thousands of takoyaki stalls and the dish is eaten standing up, still burning hot, straight from the pan. The toppings — takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes and aonori — were established by the 1960s and have barely changed since.

IngredientsServes 4

🐙Cooked octopus, diced into 1cm cubes, 200g

🌾Takoyaki flour (or plain flour), 200g

🥚Eggs, 2

🫙Dashi stock, 600ml

🫙Soy sauce, 1 tbsp

🧅Spring onions, finely sliced, 4

🌿Pickled red ginger (beni shoga), 2 tbsp

🫙Takoyaki sauce, to drizzle

🥬Kewpie mayonnaise, to drizzle

🐟Bonito flakes (katsuobushi), to garnish

Method

Make the batter by whisking together the takoyaki flour, dashi, soy sauce and eggs until smooth. The batter should be quite thin and pourable.

Heat the takoyaki pan over medium-high heat and brush generously with oil, making sure each hole is well coated.

Pour the batter into each hole until it overflows slightly. Add a piece of octopus, some pickled ginger and spring onion to each hole.

When the edges start to set and the bottom is golden, use a takoyaki pick or skewer to rotate each ball 90 degrees. The uncooked batter will flow down to form the new bottom.

Keep rotating every minute or so, adding a little more batter if needed, until you have perfectly round golden balls on all sides. This takes patience and practice.

Transfer to a plate and immediately top with takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes and aonori seaweed powder. Serve piping hot.

What Makes it Authentic

The takoyaki pan must be very hot and well oiled. Turn them constantly and quickly to get a perfectly round shape. The inside should still be slightly molten.

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