​This year I have the honor of being in attendance on stage with the best of the best. These people in the picture below are the legends of Takoyaki, Konamon Culture. Last year I brought my team to Osaka, we sat in audience.

This year I will be traveling alone, while the team holds the fort steady in NYC. Team please do your best!

It's an incredible feeling, the wave of support from Osaka, being recognized for all the hard work.

In a way, Osaka feels like home.

In another way, its also very stressful, trying to figure out how to push KARLSBALLS Takoyaki into a direction that is sustainable and profitable.

I wish recognition here in USA can be just as much, but frozen deep fried takoyaki is still king here.

How to get takoyaki as popular as ramen, yakitori and sushi?

I wouldn't lie, this year has been hard. The sheer volume of events has left my team tired and weary. We keep pushing through setbacks, though we feel a little punch drunk. Imitators and haters increased, as we continue to do the good work.

As my resume gets larger, I cannot defeat time. We will finish 2024 season a little tired and beat up, it's been difficult. We need to re-strategize for 2025.

Osaka I come back 10/1-10/9.

The only USA chef recognized, invited to Osaka Japan to particpate in the Teppan Kaigi (Conference).

As an American, and even, Non-Japanese, this is huge.

I will continue to work hard to cook, promote and spread Takoyaki culture.

10/4/2024 OSAKA TEPPAN CONFERENCE here I come.

Thank you for your support.
いつもよろしくお願いします



​

 As things are opening up, I’m wondering what to do? Do I go back to making 1000 orders for a weekends worth of cooking or do I lean back to more the levels of comfort? As of now I am enjoying cooking slightly less. Not saying I am not cooking with out effort, it’s more or less making a plan in the middle of the city, country re-OPENING PAST A PANDEMIC THAT HAS KILLED A LOT OF PEOPLE.


I got my 2 shots, and sometimes I think I am invincible, but I can tell that my body is much different than how it was in my early 30’s. I’ll turn 40 this July 1st. I have to make a plan...either invest into a brick and mortar or find another alternative. What I do intend on doing is informing the west of what proper takoyaki really IS.  It should not be fried and should not be drowning in oil.  It has to be creamy and the taste of the dashi has to come through in harmony with the rest of the ingredients involved.  It has to be balanced.


From what I learned, Japanese culinary accentuates the ingredients already  present in the recipe.  You need to  enhance the balance of all the ingredients.  I must say this is hard to do, at least for me.  It’s something I think about all the time.  I’m constantly thinking about how to improve, whether I am putting in the work, or sitting in my recliner in my apartment having a beer.


Lately, cooking at Moonrise Izakaya has given me a platform to use the best ingredients possible, and showcase other highlights of my cooking, from boiling the dashi (soup stock) fresh in the tent in preparation for the next bucket of batter….to slicing octopus sashimi as a simple appetizer, highlighting the tenderness of the boiled octopus, painstakingly massaged by hand for 30 minutes to an hour.


There is also Dashi-Tako, which is takoyaki served in a boil of dashi.  It’s one of my favorites honestly.  The battered shell becomes soft and soaks up the soup stock…its almost “soup dumpling” like but with takoyaki.  This is something I want people to try—its so good.


I hope all of you reading this will take the time to come visit my staff and I cook live at our UWS residency pop up.  It’s so much fun.  Take care  everyone. ​

Something big is coming and i can't tell you what.  you'll only have to see it when it comes and I'll  announce it later this week.  all i can think about is the word responsibility.  we have to be responsible for the future for everything.  not just ourselves our families and friends, but the world.  living in nyc, i feel like we're recreating "ghostbusters 2".  the city is feeding on the negative energy of whats happening and that pink goop below the street surface is just amplifying it.  

how to be a light for those who are in darkness?  how to bring such joy and happiness to those who are around you, there is no slight of chance to spread hate?  

yeah yeah yeah i know.  this is. a website about takoyaki.    and i probably should be talking more about it, but hey man, it's my blog and i do what i want!  lol.  

​if you're reading this, try to do your best to be a good person, because bad people don't live long.  

I told myself i'd write more in this blog, kind of like a journal.   write whatever i want to talk about.  so if you're reading, i hope this doesn't bore you  to death. 

the times of now is really crazy, and its been hard for me to think about the food business as it seems like usa is just fallin g apart.  

i always thought that food was something that could break boundaries and connect cultures together.  we don' t need to speak the same language  or know each other's cultural history...through food we can just eat and enjoy.  it goes right to the heart figuratively, and goes into the stomach, literally.  

with so much hate towards asian people...the hate...its been directed at us since this covid started.  kung flu, chy-na virus.  yet...everyone eats chinese take out...makes yo u think.  

insecurities.  we have them all.  yet, how to correct them?  what has caused this explosion of untapped hate towards us?  it's been around certainly.  racism has existed in america for a long long time.   how do we correct this?  

my love for food and cooking was always just another reason to serve and bring happiness to someone.  but now, i feel afraid to cook in this public life.  my staff--as well.  theyre a bit scared too.   i have to make sure its a safe environment if we  re open in 2021.  i can only hope and pray that wherever we c0ok, its a safe and secure environment as things honestly, do not feel safe at all.  

there is not enough takoyaki in the states.  i  can count on one hand the stores in usa which i think are existing and still operating.  i want to instruct how to cook, how to create and how to preserve this konamon culture.  i want to get back to japan and study.  become better, chip away until perfection gets closer.    I want things to become better and "normal" again.  I guess wants and reality is a bit different now. 

i only hope that if and when that day comes, i can cook without fear for my life, or my staff's.