Interview with an Osakan – What to Eat and What to Buy in Osaka

Photo Credits: by bruceley on Flickr

We earlier had a interview with a friend who is from Osaka, lived for some years in Canada and has now returned to Osaka. This is part two of the interview.

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Japanese Restaurant Review – Royal Host

Last week we had the chance to drop by one of Japan’s well known family restaurants – Royal Host. Here’s what we thought.

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Beyond Ramen – Some Other Japanese Restaurants

Photo Credits: by jonny taise on Flickr

So in interviewing my Japanese friend currently in Canada about ramen, (link to) she also added a bit more info on other restaurants and a bit on grocery shopping too.

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Japan’s Ramen Restaurants

Photo Credits: mdid on Flickr

The one food in Japan I could have eaten until I split was ramen noodles from the noodle shops. So delicious. So I decided to interview a Japanese friend currently living in Canada for a year. Her first words:

I like ramen too, but !! It has very high calories as you know. Be careful for eating ramen too much !

No surprise there I guess. Anything that delicious has to be bad for you.

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Japan & Chocolate – An Addict’s Research

Photo Credit: CookieM on Flickr

I like chocolate. It’s not a strange thing and I wouldn’t say I am any worse than your average chocoholic. But the fact remains that I need a certain amount of chocolate. The trouble with this is that Japan isn’t big on treats. (I haven’t tried the sweet bean treats yet, maybe this visit. I’ll report back) And there was a scarcity of chocolate bars for a quick hit. How am I going to cope?

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Introduction to Japanese Food – Takoyaki

What comes to your mind when I say balls of flour wrapped around chewy octopus? Don’t feel bad if the first word out of your mouth is “Yuck!”

While western pallets may find the idea of takoyaki a little hard to swallow, it’s actually a very popular treat in Japan. In fact, it’s one of Osaka’s greatest specialties.

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Introduction to Japanese Food – Okonomiyaki

I know what you’re thinking. What the heck is okonomiyaki?

Although being a Japanese comfort food, it’s less likely that you will run across okonomiyaki outside of Japan. While you may come across it on a menu at a North American Japanese restaurant, okonomiyaki can be a strange sight to western eyes.

So let’s shed some light on the mysterious okonomiyaki.

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Introduction to Japanese Food – Fugu

The blowfish (fugu) is not only one of the worlds weirdest looking creatures but it also one of the worlds deadliest cuisines. If prepared incorrectly you may be in store for the paralyzing of your muscles while remaining fully conscious and eventually dieing from asphyxiation. Sound yummy?

So why in the world would anyone eat this stuff?

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Introduction to Japanese Food – Soba

There are so many Japanese foods out there with strange and bizarre names that it makes one a little intimidated to try them out. For that reason we’ve decided to dispel some of the mystery by occasionally highlighting one of Japan’s more famous, but sometimes unknown, cuisines.

Today we look at one of my favorites – Soba.

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