Takoyaki: Japanese octopus balls (たこ焼き)

ried octopus balls and fried ram balls may sound similar but there's a world of difference between the two. Despite its English name, there is nothing testicular about takoyaki. In fact, they are pieces of octopus deep-fried in a ball of batter.

A highly popular street food, they are as indispensible to Japanese innumerable and ubiquitous local festivals as candy floss to British fun fairs. Osaka, Japan's second largest city, is the country's takoyaki capital to the point where the takoyaki grill pan (takoyaki-teppan or takoyaki-ki) is said to be a part of every Osaka bride's dowry.

These days every fishmonger seems to carry octopus and the rest of takoyaki ingredients can be easily procured in your local Asian grocer.

1. Mix 2 cups of flour, 2 and half cups of dashi, and 2 eggs in a bowl. The flour/dashi proportion may vary depending on what kind of flour you use but the resulting batter should be as thick as drinking yoghurt.
   
2. Heat a takoyaki grill pan real well and brush every cup with a bit of vegetable oil (it should start giving out some smoke).
   
3. Fill the cups with batter to the brim. Put bite-size pieces of pre-boiled octopus, red ginger, dried shrimp (sakura-ebi) and come chopped green onion in each hole.
   
4. When the bottom half of each ball is nice and brown, turn it over with a toothpick and grill until the other half is the same colour.
5. Takoyaki are not supposed to be cooked till hard, a degree of softness (called torori in Japanese) is normally sought after.
   
6. Serve with takoyaki sauce (okonomiyaki sauce is an permissible substitute), a wee bti of mayonnaise (the lusciously unctuous Kewpie brand is the best)Top with a sprinkle of bonito flakes (katsuobushi) and ao-nori.

Xiao chi: yet another Chinese secret revealed (小吃)

onsidering the amounts of food the Chinese consume daily, it is amazing how they never get fat. The secret may be down to the fact that in China you graze on small pieces every day instead of stuffing your face full 2 or 3 times a day.

In China as well as throughout Pacific Asia there is a culture of xiao chi (小吃), street food that you can buy at any time of the day.

In London's Chinatown you may be pressed to find a decent restaurant (most of them churn out shameless muck) but the xiao chi is as good as in China. This vegetarian baozi tided me over until dinner. It is steamed and full of veggies: mostly pak choy. Try to grab these babies instead if burgers and chips for lunch, cycle around everywhere and you'll be as slim as Chinese!

By the way, Americans spend 100 times as much money per capita on healthcare than the Chinese but their average lifespan is about the same.

Let my people have some beef: Jewish bagels in London

Before Brick Lane became Little Bangladesh it was a Jewish territory. Little remains from that time but two bagel shops. They both are extremely popular. I went today to Beigel Bake where authentic Jewish mommas dispense plain and stuffed bagels at very attractive prices.


Bagel with smoked salmon is just £1.30 while when stuffed with salty beef it will set you back to the tune of £3.30. Add extra 20p for a slice of gherkin. Mustard comes free.




I find these bagels taste more British than Jewish, that is like they have been boiled for a couple of days with no salt or spices. Hundred and fifty years of catering to Cockney tastes do rub off on you. I really missed the smokiness of Jewish bagels in Montreal.

Nando's Portuguese peri-peri chicken

Nando's is Portuguese chain restaurant in the UK serving mostly chicken. It is said to be quite good so I decided to see what the hype is about. I was on my own so I got a takeaway.

Well, it is not bad at all. They mixed up my order so I ended up with plain chicken instead of hot so I yet to find out what peri-peri is all about but it was not bad anyway: flavourful, smoky and not greasy. They use fresh, unfrozen chicken and you can taste that, espeically if you've ever tried Tesco's fried chicken that tastes like chicken-flavoured toilet paper.

What you see on the picture minus the salad, which I added myself, set me back £6.10, which is very good for London.

Curiously enough, in Japanese piri-piri stand for spicy, could there be a connection? After all the Portuguese are responsible for introducing chilis to Japan.