Day 2, Osaka

Osaka Castle

Beggar outside the castle walls

Sweet field trip!
View from the top of the castle - Japanese love their baseball!
Cute Japanese kids:
More cute Japanese kids:

Snack time! Japanese hotdogs - sorta like corndog meets bagel-dog. Yumm!

View from the Osaka museum:

And now for the serious part: Eating!

1st real Japanese lunch: Udonsuki.

Waitress pours hot broth over ingredients for Greg and Kellie:

Hardest part of do-it-yourself restaurants: "Is it ready yet?" Thankfully, with udonsuki, you don't have to wait long!
Udonsuki seasonings: sudachi (Japanese citrus), ginger, scallion, spicy grated daikon. An after-lunch snack... Takoyaki! Little octopus dumplings of my dreams. Mmmmm

Takoyaki satisfies this tourist, kids and businessmen alike!


Writer Patrcia Unterman and chef Chris Whaley check out the tempura stand.

This woman rocked my tempura-eating world!

Insanely expensive Matsutake mushrooms - in the lower right, that's $50 for two!
A proud pickle vendor

Live Fugu: freshly caught...
still swimming, behind our heads...

and here it is, fresh as can be!

Mmm, the sweet taste of danger!

Still alive, we move on with more snacks:

Giant grapes!

Sweet bean delights! God, how great are those depaato samples!

Day 2, Dinner #1: the welcome reception!

Mom and I arrive

The Japanese one-up us on our own shrimp cocktail!

Gives new meaning to the term "sushi boat," eh?

Cha-soba - Green tea soba! Oishi! The white is grated mountain yam, the gooey, slimy one. With the dense, toothsome, nutty soba... it works!

Time for DESSERT!!!

You'd think I was full at this point, which I was.

But, some people had chicken sashimi last night. I was not about to be outdone.

Here's the sashimi platter. Clockwise from bottom left, that's minced breastmeat (balls) with breastmeat slices, skin side up; raw chicken liver slices...so tasty and pleasant texture-wise, Scott Howard pulled the young chefs aside after the meal to try to coax the prep secrets out of them. But they stood by the menu's claim: it is raw!; slices of seared thigh meat; middle, left: sliced heart; middle, right: sliced kidney. The yellow at 3 o'clock is the teensiest dab of minced ginger.

The verdict: even squeemish Mom liked it! (The heart and kidney were chewy, I prefer the raw thighmeat personally! Scott's fave, obviously, was the liver.)

Mom, enjoying her chicken sashimi:

Tsukune: Chicken Meatballs! Ok, these are cooked, but each one is prepared with a different sauce, and very scrumptious! From bottom, that's teriyaki, sriracha-miso, white miso with daikon, I forget, and I forget. :-) Sorry, but they were all tasty!

Melissa and Scott Howard dig into the tsukune.

WHEW!! What a DAY! If you think this was a lot of food, brace yoruself for the rest of the posts!

First real meal in Japan: Okonomiyaki in Osaka!

Itadakemasu! Mom, at left, at the ready.

Almost everyone here ordered the "mix" okonomiyaki, with chicken, shrimp, squid, bacon and konnyaku, along with the requisite cabbage and scallions inside and sauces on top.

Bored, I ordered the beef knuckle, which had no bacon (sad, but I stole my mom's when she wasn't looking. Well, she was, but she didn't stop me - hey, she's my mom!). Mine also had konnyaku and pork cheek. The waiter hesitated, but once he realized I really wanted to order it - and was enjoying it! - he brought me his favorite condiment with a smile: Tabasco! A girl comes all the way to Osaka, and the waiter at the local dive recommends the house specialty with Tabasco! Go figure.