Choosing your travel companions will always dictate, at least a little bit, what your trip looks like. Luckily, traveling through Japan with my brother and sister means that we get to focus on what is (obviously) the most important thing: the food.
During our first stop in Osaka, we had the pleasure of taking a food tour with local guide Barun. Originally from Canada, Barun was able to open our eyes to the sights, smells, and flavors of Kuromon Market.
Beloved by locals and tourists alike, the market is a great place to pick up local ingredients, like fresh wasabi root – less spicy than the horseradish used in most prepared pastes.
Baby octopus lollipops… another essential?
During our tour, we sampled a huge variety of local foods, like these soy donuts sprinkled with powdered sugar.
We also got to try tons of local seafood.
Char-grilled fresh scallops were a delicious treat, prepared with just butter and soy sauce.
I’ll admit I was especially excited to taste blowfish.
(Don’t worry – ours didn’t have eyes.)
Our pieces were battered and deep-fried. (And, most importantly, didn’t kill us!)
As for the flavor? It mostly tasted like chicken.
I’m a huge fan of mochi (you’ll certainly hear more about that obsession soon), but I was intrigued by this local version of mochi, made with whole grains of sticky rice. This one was flavored with sakura (cherry blossoms), stuffed with red bean paste, and wrapped in a pickled leaf. It was one of my favorite things I tried.
Also tying for first place was this grilled tuna jawbone. (We went back for nigiri the next morning – sushi for breakfast is my new favorite thing.)
The last contender for a first-place trophy was the okonomiyaki, a local pancake of sorts made with egg, cabbage, and tons of toppings: sauces, bacon, and dashi flakes.
I was pretty full by the time we dug into this bad boy, but trust me – I made room.
After our tour, there were only two more local street food specialties we wanted to try. After a long walk (and lots of digesting), we made our way to Dotonbori street, known for its street food stalls and atmosphere.
(AKA, giant anamatronic crabs and operatic singing about okonomiyaki.)
We started with a stop at Kushikatsu Daruma, home to this terrifying gentleman (and to a very strict anti-double-dipping policy when it comes to the house-made sauce).
While not technically street food, this shop’s bar makes for a quick stop to warm up and try the house specialty skewers.
We tried five: chicken, chicken skin, pork cutlet, beef, and sweet potato. The last was my personal fave… possibly because it had some vitamin A in it (but also because it was delicious!)
The last local delicacy we had to try was takoyaki – a fried dough ball stuffed with octopus, green onions, and tempura flakes.
On recommendation, we tried the ones at Juhachiban, where they heap the dough balls with extra crispy tempura bits.
Supposedly, this makes them less gooey than other versions.
We tried these topped with green onions and mayo, and while they were tasty, they may have been my least favorite of the local street food trio. They tend to get pretty gooey inside and the octopus, which I assume is double-cooked, gets pretty darn chewy. (The green onions were nice though!)
