Udon to Takoyaki!

I found a rare specie to study: my roommate Stacy! Look at that hairdo (O.O)
Too bad Stacy doesn't wear it outside cuz if style it up a little bit, she would totally blend in with other Japanese don't you think?
(picture on right is from Cute Easy Hairstyles)
Anyways, I haven't been able to post any new blogs lately cuz I'm busy with school and blogging takes a lot of time. Thus, I'll try my best to update it whenever I have time.




For the first few weekends when school starts, Stacy and I got involved in making Udon and Takoyaki. I can't guarantee that I will be able to make the same dish when I return home.
All you need is love!...but here in Japan all you need is peace ;) The two girls on the right are the ones teaching us how to make udon.
There's Stacy strangling that dough!
And there's me trying to save it :p

















We have to let the dough ferment for 30 minutes (I think...it was a long time and everyone was starving cuz no one ate before they came here) and then roll it out into a thin layer.

Then we fold 'em together in layers so we can cut it into long strands of noodles! Our group's dough was soggy and sticky due to too much water...everyone in the group knew it was too much water except the person who measured the water and instruct us to put it in sooo.......

Our udon looks like this! It looks good in the photo right?! Wait til you see it in the water (ha!).
That's us cooking! The udon looks yummy right? Unfortunately that pot on the right isn't ours....it's somebody's else perfect noodles (>.<) Ready to see my group's noodles?Ta-da!!! I think my group broke the world's record for most hideous udon! Now...everyone knows that you should never judge a book by its cover and this is one of those cases. This noodle is yummylicious! especially to a pack of hungry hippos (^0^)/
I would show you the pictures of what it looks like in a bowl but was too hungry to take a picture of it lol...Stacy did but she's out partying... Ahem! Correction. I meant she's out enjoying the time of her life!

Next is Takoyaki!!So making takoyaki isn't as hard as I thought...I might say it is easier than making udon and taste so much better! If you have never eat takoyaki before, you must try it because only then will you know you like it or not. If you do, then you'll get addicted to it. But if you don't, then you got nothing to worry about right?


That's the batter being mixed at super speed!
There were only four international students and five Japanese students (^0^)



















There's Stacy help diluting the batter. We learned that the batter should be quite watery...These are fillings for the takoyaki: ham, chese, tako (octopus), corn, red ginger, scallion, tuna, and kim chi.








There's Stacy trying hard to pour the batter correctly into the takoyaki slots without making a mess...but the truth is, we're supposed to make a mess (-_-)Doesn't that looks yummy?!! This is the first batch with octopus fillings cuz everybody loves octopus (despite the fact that they can hard to digest if not chewed completely).

After outer layer of the batter is cooked, we use a long skewer to turn the top part toward the bottom so the batter gets cooked all around and also the takoyaki turns into a round ball.
This is part of the group taking a break while waiting for the takoyaki to be cooked...everyone was starving because no one eat breakfast again! (x_x)














This time Stacy and I attempted to make it extra messy like how the pros do it (^_~)/
It turns out...the batter was really hard to separate into individual balls. The pros make it looks so easy on youtube (T_T)
This is the 2nd batch and we put in tuna, corn, kim chi, ham, and cheese as the main fillings.














You can tell that Stacy is frustrated with the stubborn takoyaki refusing to turn upside down.
We (the whole big group) end up making about 6 batches total!

Hmmm...this picture should belong in a food magazine!

So does this one! I'm such an elite photographer )^0^(

This is a nice picture of Stacy finally gotten her food.



















As you noticed, there aren't a lot of photos of me because obviously who else can take beautiful pictures this but me? (just kiddin...sort of)
I just prefer to be the photographer and when participating, other people are too. Also I can't be natural if I know other people are taking pictures of me.
Anyways, after eating those lovely takoyaki, we attempt to make pancake using the same takoyaki mold....it didn't turn out so well....
This is our new creation! Kuroi pancake! (literally means "black pancake") Be forewarned, it has a burnt bitter taste but the chocolate syrup helps somewhat.

Here is the takoyaki gang! No need to look far, peace is all around us!

Stacy eventually emerges into the Japanese culture don'cha think?


Oh yes, if you want to learn how to make takoyaki, here's a video explanation on youtube from Cooking with dog: