The sublime triumph of using a square pan for tamagoyaki

 

Today my life has been changed forever.

Green onion and pickled radish onigiri, ginger apple hijiki, and… what’s that? The world’s most beautiful tamagoyaki? Yes, yes indeed! You see, we went down the housewares aisle at Mitsuwa when we went last Sunday, and we picked up their cheapest square tamagoyaki pan.

When I first started making bento, I pored over as much YouTube as I could, and saw all these bento wives cooking the whole meal in the little square pan… and later, I saw them using these square pans to make the perfect rolled omelettes/tamagoyaki. I was like, “there’s no way it makes that big of a difference.”

Today I made the most beautiful tamagoyaki of my life, with coarse mustard and nori flakes. I wish I’d gotten pictures of this thing unsliced and fresh out of the pan. Jesus Christ. It looked like it was crossed between a perfect restaurant pancake and a bar of solid gold.

I’m not ever going back to making tamagoyaki in round pans.