Un-Fulfilled: Epic Fail in my Kitchen

For those of you who know me, you know I am a darn good cook and fairly fearless in the kitchen. I don't fail often. In fact, I've failed precisely three times in my life-- once trying to make meringue cookies (my boyfriend's mother makes the best); my first waffle; and now with Imagawa-yaki.

I found the pan in Little Tokyo on Friday at Anzen Hardware & Supply Co. It's an unusual shop; long, narrow, musty, with strange bits of metal and wood scattered in dusty boxes, large chef's knives in a glass case, and walls stacked with shelves overflowing with interesting bits of clutter. Imagine you shrank to about 2 inches tall and got lost in your kitchen drawer- the one with all the obscure instruments that people would puzzle over if they found them at a garage sale- and that is what this shop is. After asking the owner, and being pointed in the right direction five times ("that there? This one? Where?") I found the elusive cast-iron Imagawa-yaki pan. I felt very proud of myself.
I seasoned it just like Martha Stewart told me to, and this morning made my first and second attempts at this traditional Japanese...ahem..."comfort food."

It started out well...

I decided to go with a sweet one, and used meyer lemon and blueberry waffle mix. The filling was cream cheese mixed with sugar and vanilla, and fresh blueberries.
It started out well. I filled the little cups with batter, gently laid little balls of filling in the middle...













And then they started overflowing, and since flipping them was out of the question, I decided to make scrambled pancakes. Scrambled pancakes are not good.





















My second attempt at least did not end up in the frying pan. I filled the cups about half-way this time, and when I saw the bubbles-of-done-ness coming up, spent many laborious minutes carefully prying them from the sides with my pick, and slowly, gently, laid one half on top of the other with a fork. Still, not pretty.

I think I'll leave this to the pros for now--and I'm going out to breakfast today.