![Takoyaki, Pizza Ball Restaurant, Osaka, 23 Mar 2010 web](https://www.fermatainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Takoyaki-Pizza-Ball-Restaurant-Osaka-23-Mar-2010-web.jpg)
How often do you cook with a blowtorch? Not canned heat (the fondue pot type), but an industrial grade blowtorch? We have now eaten our way across half of Japan, but tonight we witnessed a new style of Japanese cooking – flame thrower.
We left Nara around 11 AM, and arrived in Osaka in the early afternoon. I am behind in my accounts, but I must again take a side track and tell you about the food. Cassady has a good friend in Osaka, Besu, and we met her for dinner. She wanted us to go to a local takoyaki restaurant, the Pizza Ball House (Takonotetsu). The translation is loose. Trust me, there is no pizza in this cuisine other than melted cheese.
![Okinomiyayaki blowtorch, Pizza Ball Restaurant, Osaka, 23 Mar 2010 web](https://www.fermatainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Okinomiyayaki-blowtorch-Pizza-Ball-Restaurant-Osaka-23-Mar-2010-web.jpg)
Takoyaki is similar to okonomiyaki in that both consist of mixed vegetables fried in a milk-light batter. Okonomiyaki is a fritter or patty, while the takoyaki is a similar mix molded in a ping pong-sized ball. We cooked these dough balls at our table, carefully turning them in their cast iron mold with a stiletto-like pick. The end result is a crisp doughy outside protecting a moist, vegetable and/or meat laden interior. Scrumptious.
![Takoyaki (2), Pizza Ball Restaurant, Osaka, 23 Mar 2010 web](https://www.fermatainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Takoyaki-2-Pizza-Ball-Restaurant-Osaka-23-Mar-2010-web.jpg)
The restaurant also served okonomiyaki, and I ordered the version with mountain vegetables. I absolutely love mountain vegetables. For those in the U.S. that have not had the pleasure, mountain vegetables consist of the fiddle leaves of ferns, mountain potatoes, wild mushrooms, and a variety of forest stems and leaves that defy description. Cassady and Besu finished off with a pizza okonomiyaki, which is the standard patty drowned in mayonnaise and cheese and then crisped by blowtorch.
![Cassady and Besu, Pizza Ball Restaurant, Osaka, 23 Mar 2010 web](https://www.fermatainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Cassady-and-Besu-Pizza-Ball-Restaurant-Osaka-23-Mar-2010-web.jpg)
Of all of the Japanese cuisine that I have experienced, I like this style the best. Okonomiyaki, like soba and udon, is Japanese soul food. I am not a fan of Japanese curry (another soul food favorite), but otherwise I can’t think of a more satisfying way to spend a relaxing evening than with friends and family, a bottle of cold sake, and okonomiyaki.
Ted
23 Mar 2010
I really think Okonomiyaki could be popular in Texas