RECIPE

TAKOYAKI RECIPE

Do you like Japanese Cuisine? Normally people think that Japanese food is hard to make, actually it is easy to cook Japanese food even in home. Here is an easy recipe of Takoyaki, that can easy making by youself at home.Takoyaki literally translated means octopus fried, but takoyaki isn’t just fried octopus – it’s a tiny, piping hot ball of batter filled with green onions, ginger, crispy tempura bits and octopus. It’s crisp, it’s gooey, it’s delicious.

Takoyaki is one of Osaka’s quintessential street foods. Now, you don’t have to travel to Osaka for takoyaki – they’re basically found everywhere in Japan and it also quite popular in Malaysia too. If you ever come across a takoyaki stand stay awhile and check out the takoyaki makers. They’re mesmerizing, when the bottom of the balls are cooked, they’re flipped with skewers so that the inside batter flows out to create the other side of the ball. It’s amazing to watch a real takoyaki maker. They’re fast, furious and churn out the little balls like there’s no tomorrow.

Takoyaki need quite a few ingredients and a specialized pan, but I think it’s worth it. You can find a takoyaki pan on amazon.com or a cast iron with many half-spherical molds. As for the insides, octopus is classic, but feel free to put in shrimp, chicken, or whatever savoury filling you like. I like to do a combo of octopus, squid and shrimp. I also throw in some mozzarella cheese to get an crispy toasted cheese outside with an extra gooey cheesy inside. If you’ve never seen takoyaki being made, do a youtube search, it’ll give a good starting point for how to flip the little balls around. 

Takoyaki Recipe

from justhungry.com yield: approximately 60 balls

*Batter:

• 300g all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 liter (4 1/4 cups) of cold water
• 3 grams salt
• 1 teaspoon dashi powder or chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce

Fillings:

• cubes of boiled octopus, or your choice of cooked, cubed protein (you could use shrimp, squid, chicken, hot dogs, etc)
• sliced green onions
• tempura bits or rice krispies
• shredded cheese

Toppings:

• Japanese mayonaise
• Takoyaki sauce (you can buy this in a bottle at most Japnese groceries,Daiso)
• bonito flakes
• aonori (powdered seaweed) or seaweed strips

Beat the eggs and add the water, and stock . Add the egg-water mixture to the flour and salt and mix well. Heat up your pan and oil the individual compartments with a oil brush or use a paper towel dipped in oil.

Pour the batter into the individual compartments up to the top. Don’t worry if the batter over flows a bit. Add green onions, your protein, tempura bits or rice krispies, and shredded cheese (is using).

After a while, the bottom of the takoyakis will be cooked through. At this point, you can use a skewer to turn them over 90 degrees. If you can’t turn the takoyaki easily, it probably needs to cook for a bit longer. Wait a minute or so and then do another 90 degree turn. The balls will become easier to turn the more they cook.

The takoyaki are done when they’re lightly brown and crispy on the outside and they turn easily in their holes. Overall I’d say it takes about 10 minutes per batch, from start to finish.

To serve, place the takoyaki on a plate and drizzle with Japanese mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce. Genrously sprinkle on the bonito flakes and aonori. Enjoy, but be careful, the insides are hot!

*If you’re feeling lazy, just go ahead and buy the prepackaged takoyaki flour at supermarket or Daiso. All you need to do is add water and eggs.

 

Review 1: Restaurant

CAFE des ARTS

When I think of France Cuisine the notion of expensive restaurants and French fries will come to my mind. At my first visit in France, I have discovered a lot of nice food and good restaurant serving traditional France cuisine and its change my mind of France cuisine. 

During my trip in France, among the entire restaurant I had ate, this restaurant ‘Café des Arts’ give me the strongest impression. Restaurant Café des Arts is the restaurant that I have my first dinner in the city of love, Paris. The restaurant is located in St. Micheal and not too far from the transit station. The place is also near to the city of the Paris. Unlike the other restaurants, restaurant Café des Arts served reasonable price yet delicious traditional France Cuisine. 

The first look at the outside of the restaurant has two floors and the restaurant gives a vintage feel that attract me to dine in. When I step in the restaurant I was surprise of the amused by the decoration. The wall is made wood which made a ancient feel, plus with the black and white picture and poster which symbolize the past of France which made me like traveling back into the olden time of France. Besides that, the interior of the restaurant made the customer feel comfortable as they were in their own home, as the dining table, table cloth and crockery the restaurant were home style. The restaurant also has a classic bar which decorated with a lot of old world wine bottles which made it more interesting.

The restaurant was serve a la carte menu that categorize into 5 parts which is appetizer, soup, seafood, main course and dessert. The menu was written in French but the restaurant also provides an English version menu to the foreign customer who does not know French. Restaurant Café des Arts also provided a set menu of the day with cheaper price called ‘Formula’. One set of Formula menu was sold for 13£ which included an appetizer, main course and dessert. The dished their sell is quick, delicious and satisfied. The restaurant also selling soft drink and various type of wine, such as red wine, white wine and rose wine from every part of the world. It also sells some of the old world wine with higher price compare with the table wine. If the customer don’t want spend a lot of money can only order sky juices, it is free of charge. 

Even though this Café des Arts is only a casual dining restaurant, the staffs still offer the patrons a warm greeting and a friendly smile. They also are attentive to customer and each of them shows their sincerity to their guest, this can be prove with their serving, although their English is not good but they still try their best to communicate with foreigner like me. Besides that, there are willing to top up the bread with their smile. 

As a conclusion the restaurant Café des Arts give me an exciting dining experience. The food in restaurant Café des Arts has an extremely unique good taste that I have never experienced. Besides that, constituting the food quality and service, the price of the food and beverage in Café des Arts is fairly priced. I will recommend this restaurant to my friend as the restaurant were worth of mouth.

 

French Trip Task - Food with Photo

I’m looking forward to taste the French cuisine as I having my first trip to France. During my journey in France there were three common French dishes which serve normally in most of the restaurant in France. 

Appertizer: Salade de Gésiers

First, let me introduce the appetizer that I have discovered. Salade de Gésiers, the name of the appetizer in French, in English I was called chicken gizzards salad serve with crouton. As a Malaysian this dish was quite interesting as normally we cook gizzards for our main course or side dish, it was new to me for a ingredient like gizzard are served in a light dishes as salad. 

The first impression of this dish to me was a weird combination as the colour was not catchy to the eye of customer, and it is weird to serve a sauté gizzard with fresh salad. As the 1st mouth that I ate the dish, I was shocked!! The gizzard was cooked so soft and slowly melts in my mouth like a soft ice cream, as I thought gizzard should be chewy. It taste different from what I imagine, I taste of fresh, and full with aromatic flavour such as thyme, garlic and much more. As I ate my second mouth of the dish, I ate the gizzard with the salad and crouton, I was impressed with this dish once again as the only weakness of the gizzard which is oily was covered by the taste of fresh romaine lettuce and the combination of these who different ingredient was balanced by the French dressing, besides that the crispy homemade crouton gives a crispiness to the dish which make it interesting.

Main Course: Entrecôte Steak serve with French Fries and Onion Sauce

For the main course, I would like to introduce the Entrecôte Steak serve with French Fries and Onion Sauce. The word Entrecôte in French denotes a premium cut of beef used for steak.  This dish I ate in one of the small restaurant beside the road in Paris. Although the restaurant is small but the steak their serve are really delicious and the ingredient used are fresh and the price was reasonable. 

At the moment the waiter serves the dish to me, I could smell a strong savoury smell from the dish. I could felt my mouth watering of the thought of it. At the first sight, I could saw the lines of grilling on the surface of the steak and it makes me imagine the sizzling sound of the steak on top of the griller. I can saw the steak is shinning and it is coat by its own juice. As my first slice on the beef, the juice of the meat flowing out and the steak was juicy pink in centre. That word that I only can use for described this steak are tender, moist, juicy and bouncy. As my first bite of the steak, my mouth was filled up with a strong aroma taste and the meat melts in my mouth. Another interesting point in this dish is the sauce. The sweet, savoury smell of the caramelized onion sauce is perfectly matched with the steak and increase the flavour of the steak. The French fries served in this dish, the outer layer of the fries is crispy and inter layer is soft, and it was not greasy.

Dessert: Mascarpone Cheese with Summer Berries

Finally for the dessert, I tried one of the simple but a delicious dessert in Toulouse, France, which is Mascarpone Cheese with Summer Berries. The dessert consists of three layers, first layer was lightly sweetened, rich and creamy topping made with fresh Mascarpone Cheese and heavy whipping cream. The second layer is full of the raspberries and the last layer was short crust.

 

The dessert has a catchy sight as they are three striking colours and each different layer has different of the texture. The first layer of the Mascarpone Cheese is very smooth and it is melts very fast in mouth like an ice cream. As I eat the three layers together, the smoothness of the Mascarpone goes well with the bursting juice from the berry and crispiness from the last layer which is the short crust. This dessert has a strong cheese taste and it goes well with raspberries which brings a taste of sweetness and sour.