LOCATION: 350 E 1ST ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
My first go at takoyaki comes from our dire need for food. Christel and I spent the morning at The Broad and it was a fantastic morning at that; very lucky meeting super nice women in line and an incredible experience with The Broad architecture. We finished up at the museum earlier than we expected because things went so smoothly and went to get lunch but our wait in line was an estimated 40minutes so we decided to go get an appetizer ASAP while we waited! Luckily Japanese Village Plaza was right across the street from us so we ran over to TaNoTa.
I've never been to TaNoTa before nor have I heard about it but they had a perfect 'to-go' walk up window and you could see a worked making takoyaki in the window as you order on their take out iPad right outside. Visually, this is a great thing to see to get people hungry and ready to order. I'm always fascinated by open kitchens and I love watching people cook in windows.
Since I've never had Takoyaki before, Christel decided it would just be best for us to order and original so I knew what the basics were and next time around I can order fun fusions like Parmesan. Takoyaki is a light batter thats cooked into a little ball form with other ingredients mixed in. Original comes with octopus, green onion, and some crunchies mixed in the batter. It's topped with bonito flakes, seaweed, kewpie mayo and tanota sauce.
It came out pretty quickly (5mins) after ordering so we didn't have to wait out in the sun too long and was ready to travel in this little boat. TaNoTa gives you chopsticks instead of skewers which I enjoy cuz I have more control. These suckers are HOT too. Takoyaki teaches you that looks can be deceiving because the outsides look great and ready to eat but as soon as you bite into them, hot lava octopus scorches your mouth and you can't feel anything for days. However, we were prepared for this and poked holes into all of our takoyaki balls to air them out and took turns passing the boat back and forth to give our selves a rest in between steaming hot batter. I honestly am in love with Takoyaki now though. I'm already craving it and can't wait for my next chance to eat some more of these guys.