First and foremost, gather the takoyaki batter ingredients: all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, kosher salt, eggs, soy sauce, and dashi (Japanese soup stock). You can make dashi from scratch using and kombu or simply mix instant dashi granules with water.
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You’ll also want to have all of the classic toppings on hand: takoyaki sauce, , aonori (seaweed flakes), and katsuobushi. Specifically, you’ll want the finely shaved usukezuri or hanakatsuo variety of bonito flakes, which are used as toppings for takoyaki and okonomiyaki, rather than the thickly shaved atsukezuri flakes. These finely shaved katsuobushi flakes will be fluffy, feather-light, and translucent in appearance.
For fillings, we suggest seafood such as boiled octopus or “tako” (the dish’s namesake), shrimp, mentaiko or tarako (cured pollock roe), sausages (or your choice of meat), scallions, kimchi, tenkasu (which can be substituted with puffed rice), beni shoga (pickled red ginger), shredded cheese, and kirimochi (shelf-stable blocks of hard mochi that become chewy and elastic when warmed).