Food Tours · Tour

Twelve Takoyaki Each, on a Shared Griddle in Shinjuku

Takoyaki is the food Osaka is famous for and Tokyo eats anyway, and the reason it belongs at a stall rather than in a home kitchen is the pan: a cast-iron plate of hemispherical wells, and the trick is turning the batter with a skewer at the right moment so that a puddle becomes a sphere. That is what the hour is for. You combine the ingredients, you pour, and then you learn the turn, which takes a few goes and is genuinely satisfying when it starts working. Two people share one cooker, and you make up to twelve each. Then the finishing, which is half of it: the sauce, the mayonnaise in stripes, and the bonito flakes that curl and move in the heat coming off the ball, which is the bit everyone films. One hour in the middle of Kabukicho, six people at most, in English or Japanese, with a translation device on hand. Fees and taxes included. Bottled water, extra food and getting there are not. Under-twenties need a parent or guardian.