Delicious Little Discoveries in Osaka
16 December 2008
I am sitting on the Shinkansen express train back to Tokyo as I write this, eating some of my beloved yatsuhashi for breakfast. I spent the weekend in Osaka, where Simon currently is on business – and instead of him coming back to Tokyo as usual, we decided I could just join him there for the weekend, as I had not been in Osaka before. Frankly, we didn’t really see that much of the city itself – we made a day trip to nearby Kobe on Saturday, and then spent a wonderfully lazy Sunday, during daytime only leaving the hotel for some window shopping in the immediate neighbourhood, and then hanging out at the spa, equipped with a thick book and a game of scrabble, for the rest of the afternoon.
[Looking out of the window right now I have a stunning view on the majestic Fuji-San. There are clicking sounds of cameras to be heard all over the train…]
Osaka is not exactly known for its spectacular sights. If you ask someone what Osaka is most famous for, you will almost certainly get as a reply "for its food". As a matter of fact, most places in Japan take great pride in their local specialties, so hearing that a city is "famous for its food" sounds really funny and somewhat redundant ("oh, really?!"). But even by Japanese standards, the focus on their culinary traditions seems to be particularly pronounced in Osaka. You can see why I was looking forward to this visit…
Judging from our small sample of this weekend, we were indeed impressed by what Osaka had to offer. The izakaya named "Sakura" we had been recommended for Saturday was excellent, and just a touch more sophisticated than what we were used to at these kinds of "Japanese-style pubs" – there was always a little twist to the dishes, a particular ingredient or spice to make them special, like the fatty tuna mashed with Japanese herbs wrapped in soy milk skin, or the deliciously seasoned, fluffy omelette roll filled with pork and topped with bonito flakes.
On Sunday we went for a very popular version of dinner – we randomly picked one of the numerous places offering "okonomiyaki", which I would describe as kind of a "Japanese tortilla" mainly made out of egg batter and shredded vegetables. This was maybe the biggest surprise – it was definitely the best of its kind I have tried so far, and quite different to the ones commonly sold at street festivals. Those are not bad, either, but this one was much thicker and juicier, delicately seasoned with ginger, and the squid (this is the flavour we chose) was so tender you hardly had to bite it…
Well then, I’ll soon arrive in Tokyo now and have to get my stuff packed!
