Rokukakutei

Last meal in Osaka … One for the road 🙂 And I would say this is one of the favourite meal of the trip
and an Osaka special :
Kushiyaki

start

Ready your stomachs! here we go!

#1: Prawn

#1: Fugu

#2: Beef

#3: Scallop

#4: Green bean and Prawn

#4: Pumpkin

#5: Mountain Caviar ( Shisho leaf, “donguri)

#6: Red Snapper with Leek and Ginger

#7: Green Pepper, Pork and Ginger

#8: Octopus

#9: Fish Egg

#10: 1 Day and 3 Day Pickled Cucumber

#10: Palate Cleanser : Yoko

#11: Crab Claw

#12: Duck with Leek

#13: Anago with Burdock

#14: Hida (Japanese Vegetable)

#15: Chinese Yam with Raddish

#15: Shrimp with Yidi (Lotus Root)

#16: Salmon with Mayo

#17: Kiss Fish with Anago

#17: Kiss Fish

#18 : Home Made Sour Cream

#18: Home Made Bread

#19: Ginkgo Nuts

#20: Cheese

#21: Coffee Ice cream

#21: Champange Jelly with Fruits

#21: Chocolate Pudding

#21: Close up of Chocolate Pudding

Verdict: 5/5 of us will definitely return here!

The whole experience was as if a pampered whimsical representation of creative representation of a simple street food that can actually actually be simple with the ingredients used, but fun with the way the chef interacts with the customers, to the waitresses that take the effort to explain the origin and preparation methods.

This place is 1 Michelin star but
1) casual and friendly dinning
2) good service
3) YOU WILL BE FULL!!! Orders will just keep coming until you tell them you want to stop! but other than that, we managed to finish through the entire 20+ sticks (I counted and recorded)
4) For each of the sticks, they will purposely place it pointed at the specific dip, so just follow suit and you will be fine 🙂

Rokkakutei
1-21-16 Nipponbashi, Chuo-ku
Takoso Bdg2F, Osaka,
Osaka Prefecture 542-0073 , Japan

Grand Front Shin Osaka

3 Restaurants for 3 meals in Grand Front Shin Osaka

First stop, Soba

Grilled Duck Slices

Assorted Tempura

Dipping Duck Soba

Hand Cut Soba ( cold dipping one for 1 person)

Duck Soba in Soup

Verdict: 3/5 of us will return

Duck was their specialty but it was just abit bloody to the extent some parts of it had that “birdy-uncooked” taste.
The noodles were good .. hand cut soba is really very different from those instant ones and all ..
we would return for their tempura set instead.

手打ちそば　石月
(Hand Cut Soba)
06-6485-7571
http://www.gfo-sc.jp/shop/detail?shopid=00000415

Dessert!!!
I had to find my Green Tea Parfait ..

Green Tea Parfait

Verdict: definitely without question thumbs up for me
If i had to be stuck in a shopping centre, I am definitely parking myself here.
I think the picture already says it all . IT IS AS GOOD AS THE PICTURE LOOKS!

Nana’s Green Tea
Grand front desk
Osaka south hall 4F, 4-20,
Ofukacho, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi,
Osaka, 530-0011

For dinner, we decided to head towards another different type of Japanese cuisine: yakitori. .. so we tried this place: Enishi Dori

What we liked:

Appetizer: Runny Egg

Chicken Soup

Oyakudon

Chicken Skin

Fried Chicken

Tonpeiyaki

Close up of tonpeiyaki

What we didn’t like

Tsukune (Chicken Balls)

Chicken wings

Chicken tighs

Chicken leg

Verdict: 3/5 of us will return

The chicken wings were super huge! but the meat was not as juicy .. turned out to be a little tough
Overall it was a maybe will return but definitely highlight was the oyakudon :), chicken skin

Enishi Dori
Japan 〒530-0001 大阪府大阪市北区梅田3-1-3

+81 6-6485-7791

Anago Meishi

Travelling to Miyajima, one thing that is a MUST EAT:
Anago Meishi (Sharp toothed eel steamed rice)

After Taking the JR train, on the way to catch the Ferry to Miyajima, we stopped by this place that my bro highly recommended :
Uneo Anago Meishi

Entrance

two main choices: either salted or sauced flavoured

Shio (Salt) Anago Meishi

Normal anago meishi

Verdict: 5/5 will return (and we did return on the way back to Osaka)
The texture of the eel is so different from unagi – its bouncier, and tastes almost similar to the Chinese red grouper (hong ban) kind of firmness.
Although both looks the same, but i think we liked the sauce one better

Ueno Anago Meishi
1-5-11 Miyajimaguchi, Hatsukaichi,
Hiroshima Prefecture 739-0411, Japan

Heading towards the direction of the ferry, chanced upon this quaint cafe and had coffee

Entrance

Genmai Cha

Ice Green Tea Latte

Green Tea Ice with Red Bean and Ice Cream

Matcha with Momiji Manju

Marron (Chestnut) sponge cake

Coffee ( love the cup)

Verdict: 5/5 return will return (not on a full belly)
The staff was very friendly in engaging in conversation with us. Setting was very much like a localised coffee shop that neighbours just freely came in and had a cuppa 🙂 if you like to look at potteries and cups etc, this is a very nice place that sell pretty artistic unique kind of cups ..

alrighties onward Miyajima!!!

Oden Kyu

We were looking around Grandfront Osaka Station for food .. and decided to try : Oden 🙂

What We liked:

Appetizer: Anin Tofu (tasted a little like cheese)

White Broth: Potato, Fishcake, Beancurd Skin, Egg, Beef, Raddish, Beef

Red Broth: Daikon, Beef, Konyaku, fishcake, Egg, Potato

Tako(Octopus) Tempura

Crab Croquette

Tamago(Egg) Dashi

Sticks: Chicken Liver, Chicken Skin, Pork Belly, Chicken

Tori Karage (Fried Chicken)

Shirako (Fish Sperm) Chawamushi

Spicy Udon

What was meh .. can do without

Plain Udon

Verdict: 5/5 will return ( even the one that doesn’t like Oden liked this place)
Both broths were good, but I reckoned we liked the spicy one better.

Advice: Go there early or make reservations! The queue was extremely long!
Service is super extremely foreigner friendly

大坂おでん　焼とん　久
11:00～23:30
Grand Front Osaka Station (South Side)
7F
http://www.gfo-sc.jp/shop/detail?shopid=00000231&nowdate=20140107031529

Kitamura House

Another Osaka MUST visit for Sukiyaki:
Kitamura House
(2 Michelin Stars)

Entrance

We Went with Sukiyaki and Butayaki (Butter-yaki)

Appetizer: Sweet Miso with Beef Slices

Don’t forget to wear your apron for the feast!!

For the Butteryaki:

Part of Butter Yaki : Mushrooms, Green Peppers, Carrots, Cabbage, Long Beans

Butteryaki Beef 🙂

Buttering the pan

Basking in the beef goodness

Sukiyaki: Kansai Style ( This is different from the normal soup style or the one eaten at Fukuoka)

Sukiyaki Accompaniments: Konyaku, Toufu, Leek, Cabbage

Sukiyaki Beef

What is Kansai style of Sukiyaki?

Step 1: Put the Beef and position the sugar in the middle

Step 2: Add in Dashi and Shoyu

Step 3: wait for the sauce to boil

step 4: dip into mixed raw egg to enjoy

step 5: to be eaten with rice

step 6: cook the vegetables in the remaining sauce

When we gobbled down the whole course, we were presented with a mini souvenir from our ‘Sukiyaki cum butter yaki master’

Verdict: 5/5 will return back
The cut of the beefs were excellent, apart from the quality (at least A5). This batch of beef was from Saga 🙂 They all import beef from all over Japan, such as Fukuoka, Saga, Hokkaido, Kobe etc..
Although I think if you wanted more flavours, Sukiyaki would still be more a favourite choice.

Advice: It would be better to book in advance / get your concierge to book the place for you because we were quite fortunate to get this booking in the nick of time.

Kitamura House
〒542-0083
1-16-27 Higashi-Shinsaibashi,
Chuo-ku, Osaka City
TEL:06-6245-4129
http://shimizu.or.jp/kitamura/home.html

Endo Sushi

A top Sushi Must Go Place the next time I return to Osaka :
Endo Sushi (ゑんどう寿司)

Entrance

Look at their Hall of Fame: From Japanese themselves to Singaporean artiste Bryan Wong , to Thai Celebrities etc .. Despite so many Celebrities who have visited over the years, the standard seems to be maintained very high and value for money.

Wall of Fame

Instead of dipping the sushi into the shouyu, you actually use the brush and spread above the sushi. Prior ordering, the staff would ask you about your level of wasabi. Each Sushi served has wasabi hidden inside.

Shouyu (Soya Sauce) and Pickled Ginger

For English Speakers like my family and I, they have an English menu. We tried everything

No 1. Hamachi(Yellow Tail), Toro (Fatty Tuna), Tai (Sea Bream), Uni (Sea Urchin), Anago (Sharp Toothed Eel)

This was one of the best plates I felt.
The Uni was really fresh and creamy. No Seawater taste or smell. Hamachi was amazing literally slips down your throat so easily. One of the best Hamachi that I have eaten in my life so far! Anago was also chewy and had texture that was different from unagi. Meat was firmer and substantial comparatively. Tai as well was bouncy and non-fishy.

No. 2: Flatfish, Toro (Fatty Tuna), Hotate (Scallop), Akagi (Top Shell), Hamo (Sharp Toothed Eel)

Favourite for Plate no 2: Hotate. Fish sashimi with skin tend to be more on the fishy side -> not quite my favourite to look forward to. But this one, ust didn’t have that problem.

No.3 : Tako (Octopus), Tekka (Tuna Roll), Ebi (Prawn) , Tamgo (Egg), Awabi (Abalone)

Favourite: Tamago . Abalone was too chewy and tasteless. Prawn was ok (Claims the ones that ate it). Octopus was not rubbery but just not mind blowing enough.

No. 4: Sake (Salmon), Toro (Fatty Tuna), Ika (Squid), Ikura (Salmon Roe), Sayori (Halfbeak)

Favourite: Salmon and Ikura. It was the Ikura Season so the egg roles were like ‘mini explosions in your mouth’. Texture of the eggs as well were more ‘bouncy’.

3 types of Miso Soup

This was a major surprise! His blend of 3 different types of miso, added with a lot of ginger really brings miso soup to a whole new level. The mini clams brought about a refreshing added sweetness in the soup. Could not find soups like these in Osaka anymore.

Apart front the sets, if you are feeling creative enough, go for customisations such as:

Toros, Anago and Hotate

Of course, all these customisations comes with a greater setback than 1000 yen (depending on your combinations and availability).

Verdict: 5/5 of us are definitely returning (and we did)

Endo Sushi
Address: 1-1-86 Noda Fukushima-ku Osaka City Osaka
Tel: 06-6469-7108
Hours: 5 AM – 2 PM
http://www.endo-sushi.com/english.html

Kobe-Osaka: #4.5

Just as mentioned in the previous post, that we reserved this place for our last night in Osaka, so we went back to our faithful restaurant – boy was the old lady so glad to receive us! hahahaha ..

Cold Hairy Crab

we wanted snow crab but that was sold out .. so we had this .. which was also good as well

SNOW CRAB SUSHI

This is the next most awesome thing my brother ordered .. ALL peeled and thicker than rice Snow Crab Sushi!! Pure Awesomeness! We ordered multiple orders of this!!!

Of course, my dad’s staple Japanese food is

Fotomaki

chawamushi with crab

and most importantly, not forgetting what we also came here for :

crab shabu shabu

Shabu-ed

Zousui

Kani Doraku
Dotonbori 1-6-18

So this last post rounds up my Osaka experience, before we all head towards Tokyo. I love Osaka as much as Kobe, for its own life and vibrancy! I love how the girls here are dressed -they all have they own style and flavour, in comparison to tokyo girls, thats what I think.

Osaka #3.3

Then since we had Okonomiyaki, we decided we should at least give that big attraction a shot. How can we be here and not try out what is the iconic restaurant of Dotonburi?

Kani Doraku

So our crab feast begins!!!

Cold Snow Crab

Kani(Crab) Cream Croquette -so so

Crab Hot Pot

after the end of the hot pot, they put in rice to the soup, so its like a crab soup porridge with all the crab essence - SUPER SHIOKS

and last but not least, ending off the meal with:

Matcha Ice-cream/ Ice cream in Matcha?

This was just awesome! We booked our dinner for here tomorrow night! We just died and went to crab heaven! The crabs were so fresh and sweet!! No signs of smelly seafood taste! just pure awesomeness

Kani Doraku
1-6-18 Dotonbori, Osaka

Osaka #3.2

We explored the whole of Shinsaibashi, a shopping area .. I was walking around and found

Chestnut puff thingy! looks like its going to flyyy!!! 🙂

That was just awesomeness it its own! and i sighted this:

HUGE Kit Kat only store

The Japanese really take their sweets very seriously!

Then we headed back towards the Namba area to satisfy my dad’s craving. His whole purpose of coming to Osaka- just to fulfil his aim that he has been watching from television: to experience eating the real Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is this Japanese style of ‘pancake’, filled with vegetables and include toppings like tako(octopus), squid, etc . So since its one of Osaka’s trademark food, we decided to go try out this chain of them at shinsaibashi called Chibo

Okonomiyaki

Tonpeiyaki

O-O OOOkonomiyaki

We all came out smelling like we were fried okonimiyaki-ed. .. But nonetheless, my dad was super thrilled and happy he managed to get what he wanted.

Okonomiyaki Restaurant Chibo
〒542-0074
Michikaze Bldg.
1/2F, 11-27 Namba Sennichimae,
Chuo-ku, Osaka

Osaka: #3.1

My parents love visiting the market, ever since visiting the last Nishiki Market in Kyoto. So we headed down to Osaka’s one called Kuromon Ichiba Market.

Owner of the shop

BEST ramen ever eaten for this trip!!! super shioks times 10 ♥ ♥

EGG

Handmade Chicken balls

kkkkk

Entrance

Tuna my best friend

Its as big and long as the fella’s hand!!!!

Guess what lurks inside??

Usagi snackssss 🙂

Guess what fish this is?

Puffer fish anyone??

Quaint little Curry place by the market – Cheaper without rice!

Fresh Puffer fish anyone?

Steamed Scallops

this is how yuzu looks like

The crabs were alive burried in this sand thingy!!

usagii galore!!! ♥

Look at the grains!!

Fresh handmade Noodles

Cutiee

Then, it was lunch time .. we were walking around and through the lanes ( you know how sometime you split up in a group and meet at meal times, and it takes time to relocate everyone again especially when most are hp-less) .. and I must say this is one of the BEST RAMEN yet!

Owner of the shop

The shop is really small.. like my family of 5 took up 1/2 the sittings!

BEST ramen ever eaten for this trip!!! super shioks times 10 ♥ ♥

EGG

Handmade Chicken balls

So what distinguishes this ramen from the rest? the owner of the shop takes alot of pride in his work and charcoal grills individually EACH PIECE OF CHARSIEW! and it has that charred taste, topped off with the rich broth and molten Eggs! There were hiddden chicken balls to go along with the ramen! I am so going to come back here the next time I visit Osaka!!!

Kurumon Ichiba Market
〒542-0073
1-15-6 Nippombashi,
Chuo-ku, OsakaCity

Ahballing

Eat what you can't cook.

Category Archives: Osaka

Rokukakutei

Grand Front Shin Osaka

Anago Meishi

Oden Kyu

大坂おでん　焼とん　久
11:00～23:30
Grand Front Osaka Station (South Side)
7F
http://www.gfo-sc.jp/shop/detail?shopid=00000231&nowdate=20140107031529

Kitamura House

Endo Sushi

Kobe-Osaka: #4.5

Osaka #3.3

Osaka #3.2

Osaka: #3.1

大坂おでん 焼とん 久 11:00～23:30 Grand Front Osaka Station (South Side) 7F http://www.gfo-sc.jp/shop/detail?shopid=00000231&nowdate=20140107031529

大坂おでん　焼とん　久
11:00～23:30
Grand Front Osaka Station (South Side)
7F
http://www.gfo-sc.jp/shop/detail?shopid=00000231&nowdate=20140107031529