One of our goals is to persuade our Goddess friend doing the overworked I-banker thing in Tokyo to move back Stateside. Not having gotten around to taking her up on her invite to visit her there and have her take us around on a glutonnous fest, we can't comment on how Otafuku stacks up, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't at least be a reasonable substitute for Osakan street food.
Otafuku is an East Village take-out joint that serves okonomiyake and takoyaki. While we had been meaning to try it for a while, it was my cousin Colin who first tried it and came back to urge us to stop procrastinating and give it a shot. Then he made me go there with him. This weekend, I took the wife.
Okonomiyake is a sort of a cross between a pancake, fritter and hash browns. It's a patty of shredded cabbage, seafood (shrimp is our choice), held together with a mysterious white batter that is then fried on a griddle and served hot with various sauces on top and bonito flakes on top. It's crunchy, gingery, hot and satisfying -- yet seems fairly healthy.
Takoyaki are most generally described as octopus balls. Finely chopped bits of octopus are mixed with a liquidy batter (we believe dairy is involved, but who knows?) then put into hot greased versions of mini muffin tins and cooked at high heat. The outside sears and solidifies, then a worcestershire-ish sauce and a Japanese version of mayonnaise are applied on top. The inside is a scalding mix of creamy cheesy goodness with little chunks of delicious chewy octopus, while the outside is slightly crunchy. Awesome.
Though neither the wife nor I are of Japanese descent and thus did not grow up with these two things, they easily fit into the category of comfort food, delicious on a warm day like today but also satisfying on a chilly spring/fall day that has some winter in the air.
You all should try it. Oh, and we hope this makes it easier for our Goddess to give up Tokyo and Japan.
