We made it to Osaka!
Osaka Metropolitan Prefecture
Octopus Balls たこ焼き
Sorry for the unfortunate English translation, but I would guess a huge proportion of you know what takoyaki is. A simple dish: simply make a batter from flour, then put it onto a special takoyaki grill, pop a piece of octopus in each section, and make spherical shapes with it. You can also add red ginger to taste. After finishing, you can add your toppings. There are many toppings to choose from but the generally accepted ones are takoyaki sauce with mayonnaise, followed by dried seaweed and katsuobushi, a kind of dried fish flake that waves in the heat of the food.
Kushi Katsu 串カツ
This one is particularly close to my heart since I was a regular customer of a kushu katsu restaurant until it closed down due to covid. Basically put, it’s fried stuff on sticks! Meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, or basically whatever you want, is covered in batter, then breadcrumbs and fried. The special feature of Osaka’s kushi katsu is that the coating has a particularly jagged texture for that extra crunch. People who eat kushi katsu should know the Japanese phrase 二度漬け禁止, or ‘don’t dip twice’, since the same sauce will be used for the following customers and they don’t want your spit in there!
Okonomiyaki お好み焼き
Okonomiyaki is made with flour and eggs, with your favourite ingredients such as finely-chopped seafood, beef, pork, vegetables, etc. It is also mixed with finely-chopped cabbage to give it volume. Traditionally, you are handed the ingredients in a cup, and you cook it on an iron griddle in front of you. It doesn’t look like much, but it really is deceptively filling!
