Japan 2010: Let's Eat!

Itadakimasu!

Our arrival in Osaka, Japan prompted only one response: Let's eat!


Fluffy clouds
(taken with iPhone)

The flight had been reasonably uneventful. We had taken advantage of the buy-one-get-one-free Jetstar offer on sale early last year -- the only downside was the 6.10am departure from Sydney and the transfer from domestic to international at the Gold Coast. The early check-in time and a last-minute panic over pre-written posts for Grab Your Fork meant I didn't even bother going to bed.


Brunch: Beef with udon, cabbage salad, bread roll and chocolate
(taken with iPhone)

After the delightful obento box meal we'd enjoyed on our 2007 trip to Japan with Jetstar, we were a little saddened by the options on offer today. The udon needed some serious saucing action and the sugar snap peas and carrots were bland and soggy.


Afternoon snack: Beef pie with tomato chilli relish and Mango Weis' bar
(taken with iPhone)

Five hours later, the plane was filled with the smell of pastry. Feeling a little woozy from lack of sleep, a greasy meat pie was the last thing I wanted, but it was scoffed down in the name of sustenance anyway. A Weis' mango and cream bar never goes astray though!

By the time we had checked into our hotel, I was ready for real food. We stayed at Hotel Kinki which backs onto Doyama-cho. It's a somewhat colourful area, dotted with clubs and bars and perhaps akin to Sydney's King Cross, but we always felt safe.


Doyama-cho

On this trip, we were a travelling band of six. The larger size meant we could all split up into smaller groups and eat as we pleased. Pocahontas and I headed out for our first fix of ramen.



In Japan, ramen is everywhere. It's fast food for the masses, and is served with endless variations, often marked by regional influences.

Travelling in a foreign country often presents language barriers but the Japanese always go out of their way to be helpful. If your knowledge of Japanese is patchy, the food models out the front of restaurants are always a huge help.



We pick a ramen place on the corner, and slide open the heavy glass doors. The staff have limited English but motion us outside so we can point at the dishes we want. We sit at the wrap-around counter on bar stools, cradling glasses of iced water. Within three minutes our bowls of noodles arrive.


Char siu ramen with wontons 800yen (about AU$10.15*)
*based on our exchange rate of AU$1=78.9 yen

Pocahontas has the chair siu ramen, a surprisingly lean cut of pork fillet that is served with wontons and a garnish of bean sprouts and green vegetables.


Pork rib ramen 800yen (about AU$10.15)

My pork rib ramen is served off the bone, and the flesh is so soft and tender it falls apart with ease. Our ramen noodles are thin and quite chewy. The soup is clear and subtly sweet, a perfect antidote to the long day of travel.


Dumplings and pork buns

We explore the surrounding streets with the others and are instantly drawn to the stalls offering freshly made snacks.


Pork buns 6 for 780yen (about AU$9.90)

We bring back a container of pork buns, piping hot from the steamer - they all contain a pork mince filling although the orange buns have a kimchee addition.


Making takoyaki balls

And if there's one thing you must have in Osaka it's takoyaki balls.


Takoyaki stall

We end up waiting about twenty minutes for this street snack, a batter which is cooked in a cast iron pan with semi-spherical molds. In the middle of each ball is a small piece of octopus, and it's almost magical to watch the runny batter slowly cook, its crisped surface rotated with a skewer until a perfect ball-shaped snack appears.


Cooked takoyaki


Takoyaki packaging

Our takeaway order marks our first encounter with excessive packaging for the trip. Our takoyaki balls are carefully placed into a segmented printed paper box which is then put into a specially printed paper carry bag.


Takoyaki balls 550yen for 10 (about AU$7.00)

You're either a soggy or a crunchy takoyaki ball fan. I'm more of a crunchy person, but the others like the gooey goodness of these. The scorching hot snacks are a mouthful of barely cooked batter, an ooze of mayonnaise, a light brush of sweet okonomiyaki sauce (like a thick sweet Worcestershire sauce) with a salty hit from ground seaweed and thin flakes of dried bonito (dried, fermented and smoked tuna).


Meshiya

For breakfast the next morning, we head to the 24-hour trading Meshiya.


Plastic food model menu display


Kitsune udon 380yen (about AU$4.85)

Speedy's kitsune udon is a deep bowl of noodles that comes with seaweed, fish cake and a huge pocket of aburaage, the tofu pocket that is said to be well liked by foxes, hence the name kitsune (fox).


Breakfast set with sausages and egg 380yen (about AU$4.85)

Pocahontas has the breakfast set with sausages and a fried egg.


Salmon and natto breakfast set 450yen (about AU$5.70)

Veruca Salt and I have the salmon and natto breakfast set. It's a journey of flavours and I love that everything is served separately, even if it does mean an excessive use of dishes.

Salmon seems to be always served quite well cooked in Japan, the thin slice seared on both sides and served with an accompaniment of seaweed. We pick our way through the cube of cold fresh tofu topped with shredded green onion, a bowl of miso soup, a raw egg which I mix through my rice, and the star of the show, natto.


Natto with hot English mustard

Natto has been a dish I've struggled with on previous visits to Japan. The fermented soy beans have a distinct musty smell and the alien-like strands that appear upon stirring do little to whet the appetite.


Mixing the natto with soy sauce and mustard


Sticky mucus-like goodness

On my second visit to Japan, a friendly local had given us a few tips on the best way to enjoy natto.


The trick to eating natto

DILUTION. That's the key.


Natto sushi

The packets of toasted nori seaweed are not on your breakfast tray by coincidence. By placing a small amount of natto on top of your rice, you can then use a sheet of nori to make a mini natto sushi roll. The end result is surprisingly palatable and, I'm pleased to report, it's the first time I've ever managed to eat my entire portion of natto.

And just to prove that natto is always a good excuse to play with your food, check out Veruca Salt singing her impromptu natto song whilst she stirs.




Hotel Kinki
17-8 Doyama-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka
530-0027, Japan [Google Maps]
Tel: +81 6 6312 9117

10min walk from Osaka JR station

> Read the next Japan 2010 post

< Go back to the first Japan 2010 post


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
My first encounter with natto (published in To Japan with Love)