TAKOYAKI Nonstick Grill Pan / Cooking Plate

This works with those tabletop gas stoves you can pick up at the Asian markets. I also have one of those electric takoyaki makers, but they have hotspots, and you have to manage a lot more takoyaki at one time. When it's just my wife and I, 16 takoyaki is more than enough. I've made a few batches with this nonstick pan, and so far it works better than using the electric type. I just use bamboo skewers as my flipping tools. : ) Takoyaki batter should be more watery than you would think. Also, make sure to use Hondashi dashi powder instead of messing with making your own dashi broth. This creates the same flavor in a faster, cheaper and more repeatable way, and it's what most restaurants use anyway - even in Japan. For recipes, look up the 'Just One Cookbook' website - they have reliable guides for Japanese home cooking that have never let me down. Yes, the site has a lot of ads, but your dinner guests will be impressed, and you'll be supporting small business owners who were among the first to give westerners this kind of insights into non-Americanized Japanese cooking. Takoyaki doesn't have to be strictly tako (octopus) - you can use bacon, hotdogs, sausage, ham... even bits of shrimp tempura!

I'm a big fan of Techef's Teflon Platinum products, I just wish I could afford them all - LOL. I seem to have accumulated a lot of Chinese friends of late, so I thought it would be fun to impress them with salmon skin filled takoyaki balls. this pan is a good value for beginners like me as it's small to cover a typical 8" gas oven burner square and easy to clean. if you make Takoyaki and Aebleskiver balls often enough, you may want to invest in a larger high side guard iron pan, instead of this shallow non-stick thick aluminium alloy pan. I was surprised Techef didn't file down the 6 pan contact points under the pan during the non stick coating dip added during manufacture, as there were many sharp edges (see bottom left and bottom right circle marks of photo) there I had to file down so I deducted a star out of quality control concern.

I've made more than 10 batches of takoyaki on this and this is my review. Pro: 1.Non-stick surface works well, use bamboo skewers or wooden skewers only, dont scratch the surface. 2. economical, and good size for a small party. 3. heats up fast, takes a few goes to get used to what heat temp you need for your stove. Cons: 1. too light weight, moves around when you cook, especially when you try to seperate the batters 2. the size overspill is too shallow, so the takoyaki ends up being too small or you will overspill your batter. 3. doesn't sit well with your portable stove, slides around. overall, if you are planning on using this every now and then for home use, i would recommend this plate, if you are a serious takoyaki enthusiast or want to use it for a takoyaki party, I would look at something thats better

The pan is non-stick, great size and fits perfectly on a large stove top range. It heats up well, has good weight and gets even heat so each takoyaki cooks at the same pace. A couple of notes on needed improvements. The holes are very close together and it made it slightly difficult to run a pick across each row and column to separate the batter before turning each takoyaki. Not the end of the world. The big concern is that I've used the pan twice now and just noticed the coating on the bottom of the pan is already starting to wear off. I have a coil electric stove top so not sure if it contributed to this but regardless am disappointed wear and tear is already occurring. The top of the pan seems to be fine so far but I'm debating returning it.

If you like takoyaki or just want to try making some, buy this grill pan and give it a shot. Takoyaki are really easy to make and there are a ton of simple batter recipes out there so you will need a pan like this and green onions, octopus, tempura chips and shoga pickled ginger to make authentic takoyaki. You don't really need the shoga since it's hard to find that flavor when eating the takoyaki. BTW, I almost immediately switched from octopus to canned smoked oysters for the main "meat" in my takoyaki. Octopus have been shown to be highly intelligent and after watching several youtube and netflix videos I can't bring myself to kill these creatures. I'm pretty sure that oysters don't have a high IQ and they taste great.