Japanese Food: Tamagoyaki

Itadakimasu!

Tamagoyaki

Mm! Tamagoyaki has become my new favorite food in Japan and I so totally, completely wish I could make it back home in the US… but we don’t have tamagoyaki pans. 😦 It’s so sad! I might just have to buy one while I’m in Japan so I can make this back home because it’s soooo good! Though, the shape isn’t all that’s amazing about tamagoyaki. The flavoring is important, too, and I’m not sure how I’ll get that in the US.

Oh! What is tamagoyaki, you ask? Why it’s egg! It’s a rectangular omelette, but unlike Western style omelettes where we just pour the egg in the pan and let it sit, tamagoyaki is flipped and wrapped over and over like a roll. :p Okay, that sounds silly. Let me try to explain.

You pour a thin layer of whisked egg (and whatever seasonings you want, even sugar sometimes) into a rectangular tamagoyaki pan. After letting it cook just a little bit (not completely) you roll the egg towards the back of the pan, but make sure you flatten out the layer. Tamagoyaki is meant to be flat on all sides like a rectangle, not round like a circle or log. 
Got your first layer? Now, you slide that to the front of the pan and pour in a little more egg, making sure it touches and connects to the cooked egg layer already in the pan. When that cooks a little, but is still watery on top (so it can adhere to the wrapped egg), you flip the cooked part onto this new layer. This repetition of flipping and wrapping is completed until all the egg is gone and you have a hefty-sized tamagoyaki!

Maybe I’m just being a total fangirl, but I LOVE these things! :p I have been holding off on buying a tamagoyaki pan because it seems silly to buy a pan that you can only make one thing in, but… I just think it’d be so cool to make tamagoyaki back home. Can you imagine walking into a party and being all like: ‘look at me and my mad Japanese cooking skills!’ :p Okay, I kind of broke my first tamagoyaki, but I’ll have plenty of time to practice if I buy a pan, right? Haha!

Gochisousama!