Department Store Snack · Pressed Squid Pancake
Ikayaki (Osaka-Style Grilled Squid)
Photo: User TY, Japanese Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Outside Osaka, ikayaki usually means a whole squid grilled on a stick at festival stalls; Osaka's pressed pancake is a different snack that shares the same name.
Chopped squid is mixed into a thin flour batter and pressed between two scorching iron plates for about a minute, cooking into a thin, chewy pancake that's brushed with sauce and folded in paper, hot enough to eat while walking.
Why it's made this way: It grew out of Osaka's konamon (flour-based) food culture, and the pressed version is best known from the food hall of the Hanshin Department Store in Umeda, which has sold it since the 1950s and still draws long queues.
More from Japan
Ramune
Takoyaki (Octopus Balls)
Yakitori (Skewered Chicken)
Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き)
Taiyaki (たい焼き)
Sapporo Miso Ramen
Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.