One of the things I hate the most of going to the dentist is not them picking away at my teeth, or the fact I always think the flouride is actually going to taste like bubblegum (it will one day!), it's listening to my dentist....my god it's the most boring stuff EVER! Â I'm forced to listen to it, and not say anything....I feel so helpless....Anyhow, the other day while I was sitting there trying to think of anything but what her and the dental assistant were talking about, I couldn't help but overhear them talking about one of my favourite things....takoyaki.
Takoyaki is sort of like a Japanese fritter, they use a pancake like batter and pour it into a small round mold which acts sort of like a waffle iron, and then octopus is added. Â They are then flavoured w. mayo and a teriyaki type sauce. Â
The most common place to get it is at the night market or the Powell Street festival. Â There are a few restaurants which serve it but I think most places they are previously frozen, Zippang on Main I think is one of the few that serves it fresh. Â
So finding takoyaki is no easy feat in Vancouver, although I'm sure in most of North America it's non-existent, but to hear my dentist talk about it like it was a kiwi fruit or something had me going. Â
Of course I couldn't say anything, so I had to patiently wait, until she was done, nope...flouride tasted like someone puked up a bunch of bubble gum and the popped it in my mouth so I could suck on it for 5 minutes....
 To my surprise she said the place was in the adjacent parking lot, in a trailer?
Now in Vancouver, unless it's a fair or a festival or a movie catering service, you pretty much can't run anything out of a truck or a trailer, Richmond however is obviously more lax.  Somewhere between Rona, the hospital, Worker's Comp and the number 2 road bridge lies a  completely useless parking lot, until now. Â
Now what I found is that this is not quite takoyaki, it's next level type stuff, it's actually called Bakudanyaki which means "Bomb"-yaki.  Instead of serving up  4 to 6 little balls as usual, this place serves one big honking one.  Also instead of just octopus, there's a bit of everything in it, octopus, shrimp, mochi, cabbage, sausage, and quail's egg.  You do get a choice of toppings but yeah, other than that, it's all the above.  Which weirded me out at first but ultimately I'm glad it has all that stuff in it, I actually quite liked the quail's egg. Â
I was glad to see it was pretty steady and I think it does a decent lunch crowd with all those places nearby, I hope it becomes Richmond's Japa-dog.
