Another neighborhood shop closes...

This is was a tako yaki shop that was open for 23 years. The owner turned 80 and seemed to be having health problems. I went there a couple of times. During the summers there was always a group of regulars watching the Hanshin Tigers' baseball game on TV with the door open. Passing by after work I always took a peek so I could know the score before I got home. The shop definitely had personality. Sad that it closed.

“A new wave of hard-boiled eggs has arrived.”

Text and image from Japan Today, June 4, 2022.

Imitation octopus balls are Japan’s newest pseudo-gourmet recipe for boiled eggs

Takoyaki are one of Japan’s best snack foods. The savory spherical seafood dumplings are inexpensive, tasty, and filling, which is pretty much the holy triumvirate of good munchie criteria.

There is, however, one potential drawback to takoyaki. The tako part means “octopus,” and while the oceanic octopod is commonly eaten in Japan, it might not be something you’re accustomed to, or even able to easily find at the supermarket, depending on what part of the world you’re living in.

But we recently came across a way to get most of the takoyaki flavor without any tako, thanks to a recipe for takoyaki-style eggs.

The recipe comes from the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives Group’s National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, which, thankfully, abbreviates down to Zen-Noh due to how those terms are rendered in Japanese. The recipe is incredibly simple, and has only a handful of necessary ingredients:

Eggs, Takoyaki sauce, Mayonnaise, Aonori (powdered seaweed), Katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

And as short as the ingredient list is, the number of cooking steps is even smaller.

Step 1: Boil the eggs.

Step 2: Pour on the takoyaki sauce and mayo.

Step 3: Sprinkle on the aonori and katsuobushi.

That’s all there is to it. Zen-Noh recommends whipping up some takoyaki-style eggs when you’re feeling like you could use just one more side dish for a fully satisfying dinner, and if you happen to be in the habit of keeping a batch of hard-boiled eggs in your fridge, the rest of the prep work only takes a few seconds.

Taste-testing duties/privileges fell to our Japanese-language reporter Ahiru Neko, and he says if you’ve ever eaten takoyaki, the takoyaki-style eggs will taste exactly like you’d imagine they would: a mix of sweet and savory flavors, with a dash of tartness from the mayo and a bit of mature bitterness from the aonori.

Zen-Noh’s tweet about the takoyaki-style eggs, in which they declare “A new wave of hard-boiled eggs has arrived.”

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/imitation-octopus-balls-are-japan%E2%80%99s-newest-pseudo-gourmet-recipe-for-boiled-eggs-2

Tanabata: Japan's New Summer Valentine's Day

I saw this sign at a local sweets shop on my way from home last night. July 7 is Tanabata in Japan and celebrates a romantic tale of two star-crossed lovers who can only meet once a year. So the Valentine's Day connection kinda makes sense (although Valentine's Day in Japan is more about giri choco and reciprocity than romantic love). At first I thought that the photo was of tako yaki and I wondered why a sweets shop would be selling tako yaki? But then I remembered an article from last year about a study that suggests being able to make tako yaki gives one an advantage in being attractive and more successful in the game of love.

"Want to be popular with the ladies/men? Be good at making takoyaki, study says"

URL: https://soranews24.com/2019/01/08/want-to-be-popular-with-the-ladies-men-be-good-at-making-takoyaki-study-says/

However, a closer inspection of the of the product in the photo shows that it is a sweet egg tart. Oh well. Another lesson about rushing into assumptions in anthropological research...

For more on the celebration of Tanabata in Japan, see "七夕 @ 機物神社 (Tanabata Festival at Hatamono Shrine)" @ VAOJ.

URL: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2012/07/tanabata-festival-at-hatamono-shrine.html