Takoyaki night

Another relaxing dinner night with Kei and her family last night. Kei's husband often works late and isn't home for dinner (yes, very much the Japanese way!) and I find myself eating alone with the kids when Matthew is flying. So it is very nice to have such a good friend just a few floors down from us (like having you and the kids over the fence in Brunei Boel!).

Tonight we made Takoyaki which is a popular dish from Osaka. It is cooked in a special takoyaki pan. I used to do them on the gas grill in the kitchen but I recently bought a table gas cooker which made it so much easier and much more fun!

It is made from a wheat flour based batter and filled with cubed octopus (tako - hence the name of the dish), some tempura scraps, pickled ginger and spring onion. Today we also made some with tomatoes and cheese cubes. Basically you can put anything you want in it.

I think Luca and Ayaka enjoyed it the most, especially the cooking part of it.

Mmmmm Yum!