After sightseeing all day, hitting the pavement hard as Travis likes to say, we got hungry for dinner in Asakusa so we started to walk around the streets to try to find the “perfect spot”. Right off the bat, we found a really unique and interesting little food shop that was selling squid. Travis though that they were selling takoyaki, but it turned out that they were selling flattened octopus. We were gawking at the shop when one of the guys working there noticed my Canon, and invited us inside to see how it’s done. The Japanese guy was actually an American, while the other person, who was not Asian, only spoke Japanese and was from Iran. The Iranian guy made our octopus pancake for us, while a lively conversation kept going between us four. In the end, they gave us our food for free, because the Iranian man thought that Travis was funny and his appearance reminded him of his brother.
So, here is how you make an octopus go from octopus to paper thin: take small octopi, and drench them in flour and seasoning (which ones exactly, who knows but it included some pepper flakes). Place about 4 octopi on the special press, then close and lock the press. This creates steam and makes the octopi scream. Then, open the press, flip the pancake around, fill in any holes with more meat, and close again. When cooked, trim the edged, cut in half and serve! As they say in Japan, oishi!!!
