This is the front entrance to a tiny (and I mean TINY) Japanese take-out restaurant called Otafuku in the East Village. There are only three items on the menu: okonomiyaki (Japanese style savory pancake), takoyaki (octopus balls) and yakisoba (stir-fried noodles). Customers can mix and match any combination of two of the above items for less than $5. Now, that's cheap eats.So have you eaten octopus before?
26 comments:
Good food and good buy. Like the red banners in your photo.
Pancake with squid, whaddayaknow...
If I ever tried octopus, the last thing I would touch would be their balls.
I'll take the savory pancake please.
Ming, I am not even going there regarding the octopus item on the menu!
Tastes like chicken, or so I'm told.
j'avoue ne pas être un fan des restaurants japonais.
I admit to not being a fan of Japanese restaurants.
Octopus is very common i Italy, especially on the coasts. I come from southern Tuscany, a little town on the sea and my mummy makes a lovely octopus salad, "insalata di polpo", very simply: just boiled and seasoned with garlic, parsley, lemon, salt and pepper. YUMMY
I think this is the most common italian recipe for polpo.
I may have already mentioned it that the last time I saw octopus was dried hanging on a bamboo pole on something like a screened-in patio. It looked like a piece of old leather with fingers.
No way I'm a veggie.
Mind you, I'm not averse to a bit of to eating humans though. Just the ones that annoy me.
Ming...I love this photo...a lot going on there..my eye caught the lovely vines behind the bright red banners...never had octopus... hmmmm and not so sure I want to :)
Thanks, Ming -- I'm gonna go there and get some takoyaki! (No, it isn't, uselaine ;~} —though I did see some actual mule testicles hanging in the window of a butcher shop in Rome last summer, and they weren't cheap either!)
Can't even imagine it, won't try it! I love small little places like this restaurant you've pictured.
What a neat little hole-in-the-wall place! I've never had octopus, but I'd try it given the opportunity.
About your yesterday post and mind:
Please,Ming,havent'you something
about"Flushing Meadow"? Thanks in
advance
octopus balls.....EEEWWWW
Makes you wonder how little places like this can survive with such a limited menu...
I think you mentioned this place the day we walked around lower Manhattan last month. Okonomiyaki and yakisoba and yummy but IMHO takoyaki, at least what I've tasted in Japan, are just awful.
Who can make any money in NYC selling meals for five bucks?
my brother-in-law makes it all the time like valeria describes. it starts out frozen. it's always good. & it's always chewy. yummm. i must admit i didn't like it at first. but he kept making. & i kept trying.
Octupus is delicious, but I prefer it dead. They eat it live both in Japan and Italy. I had it served to me live in Japan and the little pieces were holding onto the plate with their tentacles for dear life! No thank you! Cooked it's delicious!
Now,that's really cheap eats!
I love okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba!
Love octopus. Often eat it here as a first course salad.
During my many years in Japan I have eaten tako many times. On sushi it is quite delicious, even if it wiggles a bit as it goes down. Dried, it is good and chewy, but a little bit smelly. Because it takes so long to chew and digest, we used to call tako "Japanese chewing gum."
-rick whitman
Yum! These are definitely three of my favourite Japanese foods. And no, USelaine, "octopus balls" are not what you're thinking ;-) They are fried balls of dough with octopus pieces inside (a lot like "clam cakes").
I'm definitely going to have to check this place out, thanks for the tip and the beautiful picture, Ming!
I would like to eat there someday, nice of you to capture this little restaurant!
/D
Luv that shirt too.
B.
i love otafuku! they have the best takoyaki in the city.
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