Ebi-Ten
Ebi-Ten
4500 Kingsway
388 Robson Street (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC
I seldom snack and, if I do, it tends to be either fruits I can find in my fridge or some cashews/peanuts I have hanging around. Of course, I can do this if I am at home. When I am outside and hunger strikes, almost anything is fair game! However, given the variety of restaurants/ethnic supermarkets here in Vancouver, why would you try to settle for something you can get every other day, almost any time? So, in this case, I took a big detour and stopped by Ebi-Ten.
Located near Vancouver Public Library main location in Robson, Ebi-Ten offers dishes most people associate with Japanese cuisine, like maki/rolls and, now, ramen. Although rolls can be eaten as a snack almost any time, I was not there for that.
If not maki/rolls or noddles, why would I then bothered to go all the way down there for? How about takoyaki?
What is takoyaki? I will just copy-n-paste from Wikipedia: Takoyaki (literally fried or baked octopus) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, green laver (aonori), mayonnaise, and katsuobushi (fish shavings), originating from Osaka.
That purplish item is the octopus!
How was it? Fortunately, since it was made to order, I was still hot. It had a slight crunch outside but, once you go pass it, the texture changes to that of a fluffy batter. The okonomiyaki sauce made it sweet and the mayo gave it a creamy texture. Fortunately (or unfortunately), it was a bit too sweet for my liking.
Overall, it was good for a change. As for the other dishes in Ebi-Ten, I can’t say for certain. I have been there several times and, in every single one of them, I ordered takoyaki. YMMV? ^_^
Interesting dish. It looks very sweet, almost like mini cinnamon dough balls covered in cream cheese.
Did the batter outweigh the squid by quite a bit or did you find it good? As I find deep fried balls of meat (chicken, pork) can sometimes suffer from dough overload.
MMMM Takoyaki! I haven’t had any since nightmarket..
Rare to find this in Vancouver..I only know of one but I still haven’t gone to try it out. Zipang Sushi on Main and 22nd.
Oh wow – baked octopus? I thought it was some type of donut hole!
Raidar, actually, that’s octopus, not squid. I did not overwhelm the octopus but did mask its taste/flavour a littel bit.
Kevin, yup, you can see it in Richmond Night Market (whenever it is open). Unfortunately, I would rather not go there. Personal reasons…
Pearl, if you could have seen how it is make, indeed, you would think they are timbits/doughnut holes!
Reading your post, I realise there is alot more variety in the types of restaurants you have over there compared to in the UK. Perhaps I’m just not finding them!
It is kind of more like a savory Timbit / donut hole than seafood. There’s like maybe a squidge of tentacle in there. The rest is just dough.
I honestly can’t taste the octopus in tako-yaki, especially with all the sauces they throw on there.