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Takowasa, also known as Tako Wasabi in English, is a popular side dish in Japanese izakaya. It is made of raw octopus (“tako”) heavily flavored with Japanese horseradish (“wasabi”). It was said that Takowasa originated from a punishment game in Azuma Foods company back in 1991, where the employees found the taste of this “punishment dish” being surprisingly pleasant. Afterwards, the company started to develop the product for commercialization, which soon became popular in izakayas all across Japan.