たこやき！




If you haven't yet tried the fried wonders called Takoyaki (literally octopus cooked), there is hope yet. A Japanese company has plans to bring the spheres of pleasure to the US. Full text of the below article can be found at Japanese look to export octopus dumplings (AP).

"Japanese Look To Export Octopus Dumplings"
By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jun 25, 3:49 PM ET

TOKYO - If Morio Sase has his way, hungry teenagers around the world will soon be snacking on something more exotic than McDonald's hamburgers: takoyaki, or octopus dumplings.

With more than 350 takeout stores in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan already, Sase's Gindaco chain is one of a barrage of fast-food companies bringing lowbrow Japanese chow to overseas markets. Its first U.S. store is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in 2007, and it hopes to open 20 stores in California by 2010.

"When I was a small boy, it was street food that made me feel good and warm inside," Sase said at a recent interview at the Tokyo headquarters of HotLand Corp., which runs Gindaco.

Hand-grilled in iron molds by cooks behind a large display window, the octopus dumplings are made from wheat flour paste mixed with fish stock, spring onions and boiled octopus chunks, and drizzled with a sweet sauce, dried bonito flakes and seaweed.

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A far cry from pricey, elegant sushi, a regular bowl of the grilled beef over rice sells for $3.18 at U.S. stores.

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Other Japanese chains going global include Shigemitsu Industry Co.'s noodles-in-soup restaurant, Ajisen Ramen — whose network now includes stores in China, Southeast Asia, Australia, the U.S. and Canada — and the Japanese beef-and-vegetable dumplings giant Osho Food Service Corp., which opened its first overseas store in China in 2005.

Another is the Tokyo-based Koots Green Tea chain, which opened its first overseas store in Seattle in May, hoping to tap the U.S. cafe market with a lineup that includes green tea lattes and smoothies.

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And Beard Papa, a cream puff store chain run by Japan's Muginoho Corp., has opened popular outlets in New York and San Francisco.

Sase and his staff at Gindaco say they've struck a winning formula with their octopus balls and don't intend to change a single ingredient for their overseas customers. And if overseas expansion goes as planned, HotLand expects its overseas sales to reach $89 million by 2010, about the same as its current domestic sales.

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Some more takoyaki links:
Videos of takoyaki preparation

A gas takoyaki grill: