HOVER (OR TAP) AROUND — WHEN YOUR CURSOR TURNS INTO AN OCTOPUS, CLICK IT!
🏆 ONLY 5 FREE TAKOYAKI PER DROP — FIRST HUNTERS WIN!
WELCOME!!! ようこそ NEW!
AMERICA'S TAKOYAKI AUTHORITY — RECOGNIZED BY THE JAPAN KONAMON ASSOCIATION, OSAKA, AS THEIR OFFICIAL NYC/AMERICA BRANCH.
Despite the funny business name, karlsballs takoyaki is on a mission to provide you the customer premium, authentic takoyaki using carefully selected imported ingredients, prepared fresh for each event. osaka comes to you in every fresh bite of what is considered the quintessential soul food of osaka, japan. but first, why don't you tour the site a bit?
ふざけた名前に見えるかもしれませんが、KARLSBALLSは本気です。厳選した材料を使い、イベントごとに仕込む本場大阪スタイルのたこ焼き。ひと口ごとに大阪がやって来ます。
★ TEPPAN KAIGI 2024 ★
BUILD THE BALLMOBILE!!
karl has a food truck!
the only of its kind in usa!
a Kei tora 軽トラ kitchen truck!
it is going to take some time and financial help to build it the right way. so please go to the karlsballs gofundme by clicking below and donating!
1994 Daihatsu HiJet S100
Osaka, Japan
cook all year round
bright Yellow KARLSBALLS Tent Theme
new grills! stainless steel counter! solar generator! hand wash sink! water system! wheels that can survive NYC potholes!!
UPDATE! THE ROOF IS LEAKING AND I NEED SOME HELP WITH THE REPAIRS!!!
★ HELP BUILD THE BALLMOBILE ★GO TO GOFUNDME
KARLS TAKOYAKI MISSION カールのたこ焼きミッション
| TAKO たこ | = OCTOPUS タコ |
|---|---|
| YAKI 焼き | = baked, broiled, fried, grilled, or roasteD 焼く・炒める・あぶる |
since the flour boom after world war 2, japan became creative using flour instead of rice as a means to eat. takoyaki is relatively a new thing. this savory crepe ball filled with octopus became the quintessential street food, soulful snack of osaka japan.
I can go more into this later...maybe in the blog section. lets move on.
たこ焼きは、小麦粉の生地にタコを入れて丸く焼く、大阪を代表するソウルフードです。外側は焼けて、中はふわトロ。だしの味、材料、技術、タイミングが大事です。
Ah yes. Takoyaki. If you're new here and looking at this page, you either been to japan, are Japanese, love japanese food and or culture, or just maybe...are truly curious of what takoyaki is. but lets hold that thought for a second, as there is something that is always on my mind.
if you been to a japanese izakaya, takoyaki is usually on the menu, in the appetizer section. this is how takoyaki got popular in the west.
it is takoyaki
but it's not.
What if i told you that your favorite pizza or hamburger restaurant served you pre made frozen cheeseburgers or pizza? you'd be pretty upset right? well, thats how i feel about takoyaki too in the west.
so this is where my mission came to fruition . how can i represent takoyaki and Japanese culture correctly? i had to do justice and, learn, research, ask questions, and go to japan...
it took me a long time to really get it right, and i am on and endless pursuit to give you the customer real authentic takoyaki using the same 3 methods jiro ono ( star michelin sushi chef) uses approaching his sushi. after all, jiro knows what he's doing, and since he inspires me so much, i will take his approach and use it for takoyaki. those three factors/methods are:
1. ingredients 2. technique 3. timing
1. ingredients.
i am always in pursuit of the best ingredients to be used for takoyaki. it took me awhile to really figure it out but after getting a lot of advice from a buddhist priest who had training in shojin ryori (japanese monastic cooking), there was really only one way to do it.
the old school way.
once you do it right, there is no going back to other ways. for takoyaki, the biggest factors are dashi, and octopus.
dashi--most takoyaki stores use instant dashi. i tried them too. japan makes great instant dashi, but after research and curiosity, i decided to make my own from the best ingredients i could find. after many many iterations and experimenting. i settled on a staple recipe.
from scratch. ma konbu from hokkaido, and katsuobushi from kyoto. the konbu is soaked for 24 hours then the katsuobushi is added, simmered. it is then balanced for a tri-fecta of umami with usukuchi shoyu (light soy sauce) from hyogo prefecture. a special mirin (cooking wine) sourced from kumamoto is added to balance the sweet and salt taste. it really becomes a trifecta of umami and taste. when i add the flour and egg to the batter i make sure that just enough added to the dashi so my batter is still dashi forward in taste. I don't want to have too much flour because it gets too dry, and too much egg, will make it too.....eggy.
octopus--i realized that in order to improve takoyaki, i had to learn how to boil octopus. most takoyaki stores have pre-cut boiled octopus, eigher cut in pieces already, or whole for the staff to cut. for me, it ended up too chewy when i tried using pre-boiled/cut octopus. i wanted everything to be in harmony.
realizing this, i decided to research how to prepare octopuses just like the best sushi restaurants do here in america and japan. after 7 years since the opening of my business, i came up with a 3 day process to prepare octopus. centered around the preparation is a 1 hour massage, kneading the octopus to make it soft and tender. other elements are an 8 hour brine as well as refreezing the octopus to tenderize it even more.
the prep is very extensive, but the end product becomes 'sashimi' ready and also in a perfect state for the batter since the octopus gets re-cooked and shrinks in the batter. the second end process still achieves what I want, a large but tender piece of octopus inside the takoyaki ball. if you had takoyaki before, the biggest complaint is the tiny bite size of octopus that is so small and chewy to eat.
