Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho
Tempozan Market Place
1-1-10 Kaigan-dori Minato-ku
552-0022 Osaka
Tel. +81665765501
http://www.hokkyokusei.jp/
The movie Tampopo is responsible for many of my Japanese food obsessions. Ramen of course, but also the moreish omurice, a homely dish of omelette filled with fried rice, which is eaten throughout Japan.
After a hard day of fish viewing at the Osaka Aquarium, and trippy IMAXing at the [...]
Osaka and Melbourne became sister cities in 1978, which was our towns first sister-city relationship. So I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to stumble across Melbourne House restaurant in downtown Osaka (right next to the Aquarium and Ferris Wheel). Specialities of the house included Australian Beef, and they even had VB! Impressive.
On a side note, be sure to catch [...]
Meiji has once again provided a worthy candidate for my peculiar obsession with kooky Japanese sweets. Tasty Crunch are nuggets of Hokkaido milk chocolate studded with (the packaging doesn’t lie) salted french fry potato chips. And to be honest, they’re actually not that half bad!
I spotted this snack in the Great Eastern (Russell St) and Central [...]
Two morning markets are held in Takayama daily, the Jinya-mae and the Miyagawa market held along the Miyagawa River in the old part of town. They started in the Edo period and sell everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to pickles, fish, flowers and crafts.
You can sample most of the food too, which made the [...]
Hands down, one of the best bowls of ramen I had in Japan had to be the hia chuka in Takayama (EG may well disagree on this point though). The soup itself was shoyu based, which was simple, flavoursome and seasoned just right. The chashu (sliced pork) was lean and tender and the sliced green [...]
There was a real carnival atmosphere on the streets of Takayama, with many stall fronts offering a myriad of food for hungry festival-goers. It was an interesting mix of the traditional and the not-so-traditional (as this post will capture). I always find fascinating what people eat during celebrations.
These conch (sea snails) were [...]
1-50-30, Sowamachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-kenWebsite http://hida-yado.net/yado/sosuke/english.htm
Here are the pics and thoughts from our last dinner at Sosuke - what a way to go out!
Crisp vegetable tempura; shitake, yam, shiso, kabocha (pumpkin) and potato. A little patty cake foil contained a seasoned salt, which I liberally sprinkled over my veggies. The shiso especially was a great [...]
1-50-30, Sowamachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-kenWebsite http://hida-yado.net/yado/sosuke/english.htm
Dinner on the second night was just as fantastic as the first.
This local river fish had been smoked and salted, and I just about picked the bones clean it was so moreish (we had seen these cooking on a walk around the market earlier that morning). On the side was was [...]
1-50-30, Sowamachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-kenWebsite http://hida-yado.net/yado/sosuke/english.htm
Just like the breakfasts written about previously, the dinners at Sosuke Minshuku were just as impressive. The theme of traditional home style dining prevailed, and we were able to sample further specialities of the region including Hida beef and yomogi udon.
We were also treated to a little something extra on our [...]
1-50-30, Sowamachi, Takayama-shi, Gifu-kenWebsite http://hida-yado.net/yado/sosuke/english.htm
We stayed at the most wonderful minshuku (family run guest house) in Takayama called Sosuke. Part of what made it so wonderful was the food; traditional Japanese breakfasts and dinners served in Sosuke’s tatami‘d dining room. I’ll blog the dinners shortly, but following are three breakfasts we had the pleasure [...]
