Osaka is rich in regional dishes. The most
famous is tako-yaki, delicious
octopus dumplings usually sold in specialty
shops. There’s also okonomi-yaki
– a pancake with cabbage, meat, shrimp
and eggs, grilled and topped with sauce, mayonnaise,
dried fish shavings and grated seaweed.
Nabe, or hot-pot, dishes combine
meat or fish, tofu and vegetables in broth,
and vary from the high cuisine tecchiri, often
with blowfish, to the filling udon-suki with
udon noodles. There’s also shabu-shabu,
where thin slices of beef are dipped into boiling
broth at the table.
And Osakan hakozushi or ‘box’
sushi will be new to many Westerners. Rice is
pressed into a box in layers with egg, prawns,
grilled eel, raw fish and shiitake mushrooms
then sliced into bite-sized pieces.
The city is also a
chef’s paradise, with
traditional markets such as the Kuromon
Ichiba and Sennichimae Doguya-Suji.
Then there are the food theme parks such as
the Dotombori Gokuraku Shopping Street, which
reproduces an Osaka street during the late Taisho
period, and the Naniwa Gyoza Stadium,
devoted entirely to gyoza, delicious stuffed
dumplings.
In this city, you’ll never run out of
wonderful new foods to try, so come hungry and
get ready to eat until you drop! |
