Robot chef whips up delicacies we wouldn't dare touch
By Darren Murph 
posted Feb 17th 2008 6:05AM
posted Feb 17th 2008 6:05AM
[Via Live Science]
posted Feb 17th 2008 6:05AM
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But will it blend?
No way. This thing does the blending.
You do realise of course, that 'octopus balls' are actually just a little piece of octopus (nothing special) in a ball of fried dough, to make a round ball-shaped dumpling...perhaps not what the phase 'octopus balls' suggests, but rather more appetising
Also, it's an extremely common and quite easy-to-do dish in Japan, so it's not a very strange choice of food.
Octopus have BALLS! how many?...8?!
i cant imagine what intercourse would be like especially for the females
*couldnt resist the ball-joke* :)
engadget you made it sounds like it was some disgusting food. it's call Takoyaki, look it up.
I wonder how this would fair against Elzar...?
@Romesh - thanks for killing the hilarity of "octopus balls" man...
@Romesh
I so stand corrected (and thus apologize)...I didn't realize that EVERYONE was going to bother explaining what octopus balls are (for the record I love them)...
Takoyaki or grilled octopus are absolutely delicious (if made right) and as Romesh says have nothing to do with octopus testicles... if it actually has any. They are an Osaka specialty and virtually impossible to find in the US, or at least in California... which is kind of annoying.
@Snakuza
just to clear up a few points.
They are an Osaka specialty and virtually impossible to find in the US, or at least in California... which is kind of annoying.
1. At least some of us in the US are relieved by the lack of ready to buy Octopus balls.
2. California is ALWAYS annoying.
Come to NYC, then. In the East Village, we have several restaurants that serve yakisoba, okonomiyaki and takoyaki.The stand on 9th Street is the best, though, and you can get combos to take home!
Hey! Takoyaki (たこ焼き, fried octopus nuggets) is delicious. Get down off your high horse. You can buy that stuff anywhere in Japan, from street-side vendors to the 7-11. It's kind of like hot dogs in the US. They come out as little balls with a tough skin, gooey on the inside, and with strips of octopus meat tangled throughout. Typically, you cover them in mayonnaise and sprinkle them with bonito flakes and maybe add some herbs and teriyaki sauce.
In any case, it's an extremely common food. "Extreme", my foot.
I love takoyaki, but is that thing putting nori on there, or bonito flakes? I prefer bonito with a little mayonnaise on the side. Seriously though, Osaka? I'm just 30 minutes away in Kyoto, but does it really compare with the stand you'll find outside a major temple? With the grill all greased up and a friendly vendor, who's got a cold beer to go with with it, and understands that you don't want sauce on your octopus?
I'm fine with the machines outside where you pay first and get your ticket for your food of choice and even the coffee machines that have a video screen, so you can watch it being ground and poured into your cup, but call me old fashioned, I still like the interaction of patron and vendor.
Does anyone else hate it when someone starts talking about octopus balls while you're having breakfast?
It happens WAY too often :(
mmm... takoyaki! yeah, it spill quite a lot but tokayaki is sooo good, I would eat them without an hesitation!
im writing this from Osaka... the human made takoyaki kingdom!
weird we cant see any comments... engadget always broken... snif!
Hey, Engadget, just wanted to say thanks very much for making it easy for us Mac users to watch the .wmv video.....
ThinkMark
hey i have a mac and i watched it fine... looks like someone doesnt know about flip4mac. makes .wmv work great in quicktime
Hey, Engadget, just wanted to say thanks very much for making it easy
for us Mac users to watch the .wmv video.....
ThinkMark
Hey, ThinkMark, I appreciate it how easy you make it to not comment on the topic at hand.
Oh engadget annexed japan and runs it now? I guess I should watch the news more often.
And I didn't even know that octopuses HAD balls!
Oh, and by the way if you want to watch the horrible .wmv on you Mac go to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/flip4mac.mspx and download the free flip4mac - works a treat for me!
17 comments?
where?
?
While those aren't the best takoyaki I've ever seen, I don't know why it would make me lose my appetite...
The dish is called Taco Yaki and it is the bomb! This robot, however, has mutilated what is otherwise a fairly interesting dish to watch cooked. The human variety of chef will pour the egg batter into the cast iron egg crate and then add the piece of taco (i.e. octopus) and using two sticks start twirling the mixture in the egg crate until a perfect little ball of yummy goodness is perfectly golden in color. The vendor serves up the taco yaki with your choice of toppings; but let me suggest brown sauce, mayonnaise, and fish flakes for the perfect Japanese fast food meal.
Takoyaki/tako, not 'taco' (which is a Mexican dish consisting of bround beef, usually tomato and onion, occasionally sour cream, and sometimes a salsa or a hot sauce, on a tortilla shell).
@my last comment: 'ground' beef, even.
octopus balls are quite popular here in japan, I really don't lik'em but if a robot is cooking Ill have to try some
Oh, man, don't bag on the tako-yaki! It's good stuff! You barely notice the octopus, anyway - just think of it as the chewy center. I lived off that stuff.
This is similar to the chef robot created by Chinese professor Liu Changfa.
http://www.robotliving.com/2007/09/12/the-real-iron-chef/
Doesn't really make me hungry. How can they taste it to see if it is seasoned correctly?
WOW!
A takoyaki making robot!
That'll take the fun out of takoyaki parties though...
hehe... lots of takoyaki lovers here on engadget! to all of you I raise my hat!
to ThinkMark; it would be fun too if apple would let us watch quicktime movies on anything else than safari without crashing... oh, but maybe safari crash too, dont know! You can watch wmv on apple, just google it!
I watch Quicktime movies on Opera and Firefox with no problems at all; what browser are you using?
Firefox... really? what version of QT are you using? firefox crash with quicktime for the vast majority of users. me im using 7.1 cause 7.4 was killing After Effects render until last week... maybe its time to get it now.
I agree, takoyaki is the bomb (almost as good as okonomiyaki - Hiroshima style, of course) and I wouldn't hesitate to eat the ones in the video. I don't think the robot was sprinkling aonori on it because the tops would turn green (which is actually the way I prefer it) so it's probably katuobushi (bonito, fish flakes, whatever you want to call it). At any rate, the robot wasn't very good a "sprinkling" at all.
@ the paranoid Engadget guys: at least when our soon-to-be robot overlords are taking over the world they'll be feeding us! It could be worse.
I guess you all already know that it's actually not octopus testicles, but it's called Octopus Ball because it's made from octopus rolled up in a ball shape, kinda like meat ball.
I guess you all already know that it's actually not octopus testicles, but it's called Octopus Ball because it's made from octopus rolled up in a ball shape, kinda like meat ball.
Oops, sorry for the duplicate on the last comment.
Robots cannot cook. Has Futurama taught us nothing?!
Judging by all the comments about Takoyaki it shows that the readers of engadget are more open to other types of fast foods that the writers of engadget. Sorry not all fast food involves running to the border, finger lickin good or having your burger your way. :)
I can understand that there was a time the japs were forced to eat all the junk of the sea because they were an island, but why do they keep it up now that they don't have to I wonder, geez.
It's stupidity like this that was made possible, thanks to America Online.
Never had AOL, and I'm not american, and how is it stupid? squid is rubber-like, and it's not pleasant even though some try to impress us here by pretending they are so exotic and debonair that they like it.
Still, it's better the japs eat squid than their other diet of whale and dolphin I guess.
Is it just me, or does that controller look like a massive gameboy?
Try losing that remote...
If you've played Katamari Damacy you've picked up Takoyaki and maybe even the Takoyaki Hotplate!
Seriously if they could figure out how to integrate a refrigeration unit that could keep a number of basic ingredients fresh and in the right amounts...then give it a decent menu I'd be crazy happy. No, not because I'm too lazy to cook, but I've spent so much time cooking lately I ended up having to study like 20 hours in a row yesterday (sadly, not an exaggeration).
"I personalized each of your meals. For example, Amy, you're cute, so I baked
you a pony!"