Osaka Typical Foods, Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki
Osaka is famous for eating around foods all over Japan.We say "Kui daore"city for Osaka, which means the city for that "you eat as much as foods until you drop".So there are so many kinds of delicious foods in Osaka, "takoyaki" and "okonomiyaki" are typical foods in Osaka."Tako" means "octopus", "Yaki" means "grilled" or "cooked" and "okonomi" means "what you like" or "what you want". Thus, "Takoyaki" is "grilled octopus", and "Okonomiyaki" means "cook what you like" in Japanese.Takoyaki is kind of a wet round pastry, made from flour, baking powder, egg, ginger, green onion, water and diced octopus.We also put cheese and rice cakes instead of octopus.At first, pour the mixture into a special steel plate, and roll it many times until it's baked well and ball-shaped. Be careful to get burned in your mouth when you eat it.TakoyakiThe mixture before rolling.My friend got an accident just 5 days before his departure to Japan.He has only one hand to use, but he enjoyed and rolled it very much.Okonomiyaki is a kind of Japanese-style pancake of pizza, made from flour, baking powder, egg, water and some toppings like thinly sliced pork, shrimp, or squid. We sometimes put noddles on it, too.The toppings are dried, green laver and mayonnaise.He tried to turned it over with some anxiety, but he did it very well!After his good work, we did high five each other.My Japanese friends came to join us.We had a really good time together.This restaurant is where I used to live when I was little, good staffs and restaurant.私が生まれ育った町にある「キャベツ畑」という店で、たこ焼き、お好み焼きを自分たちで焼かせて貰いました。普段は焼いてから持ってくるお店なんですが・・・。海外からお友達が来るのは、これで２回目なんですが、２回ともここで私の我がままを聞いて貰いました。この日はすごく一杯の人で、お店の人とはあまりゆっくりと話せなかったのですが、私はこの店とおじちゃん、おばちゃん、そしてその孫も好きだなあ。アットホームな雰囲気で、味も美味しいので、どこか分かった人は、是非行ってみて下さい～。ところで、写真を見て気付いた人がいるかもしれません。そう腕のギブス。日本に来る５日前に手首を切ったと連絡があって、変なことを想像してしまいました。何で相談してくれへんかったん？とか・・・ハハハ。じゃあ、仕事中に５０キロの金属板が落ちてきて切ったらしい。当たり所が悪ければ、日本行きどころじゃなく、命も危なかったんでは？まあ、あんな目立つギブスをしているので、それなりに美味しい思いもしたらしいです。いろんな人から暖かい言葉かけや、お慈悲も頂いて、日本や日本人に対して好印象で帰って行きました。良かった、良かった。
