Day 75: Warm mouthfuls against the cool rain.

Pictured: A second course of homemade noodle soup. Not pictured: The takoyaki, which had to be devoured much too quickly to pause for posterity.

Today was a tired day of rain and lethargy. The night was interrupted by a series of bizarre yet disturbing nightmares and the morning was dim and dreary. Work passed by in a series of strange vignettes, such as a coworker coming by to "give me E.coli".

Done the workday I decided to ramble round Manhattan for a bit, as I'll be going home for a bit of a vacation and will miss the city I leave behind. Despite the rain the East Village drew me in as it always does, and despite myself I headed back to Otafuku.

Otafuku is a snack counter offering a small menu of Japanese street food, and is the sister resto to our favourite ramen bar Rai Rai Ken. It's a tiny takeout place that only has a few things on the menu. I usually get okonomiyaki (Japanese egg-pancake thing) or takoyaki, or sometimes the combo of both.

So today, in the rain, I scurried outside the restaurant and found a place on the little bench barely covered by an awning. My knees protruded and developed little cold water spots immediately. I could see my breath.

Meanwhile, the takoyaki. Six plump little balls of fried dough each with a sliver of octopus in them. I don't usually eat octopus anymore, after an unfortunate incident where I overidentified with the poor creature and nearly passed out in a Portuguese restaurant. However, in a wholly morally inconsistent move I make an exception for takoyaki. The outside of each ball is very crisp, baked in a muffin-tin-shaped griddle. The inside is still gooey and soft and molten hot, and the centre is a chewy piece of purple octopus. You can get them plain or with cheese, but it's not the same. Atop is a squirt or two of brown sauce, another of mayo, crumpled nori and liberal chopstickfuls of fluffy bonito flakes.

Everything around me is cold. The takoyaki are steaming. One bite into the scaldingly hot, crisp, soft, chewy, sweet, salty, creamy ball and I'm both intensely present and miles away, even if there's still rain falling on my knees. Mmm. Takoyaki.