Wednesday, November 16, 2011

..Food addiction in Osaka..#1 お好み焼

Close-up on waraiyaki, my favorite okonomiyaki

Osaka is Japan's greatest food city
My るるぶ楽楽 ("rurubu rakuraku") travel book of Osaka mainly talks about street food and restaurants and, I must say, the number of small food shops here is amazing. Someone told me that Osaka people eat out around 7 times per week. There is even a Japanese proverb for it:

京の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ
Kyo no ki-daore, Osaka no kui-daore
Kyoto people ruin themselves on clothes,
Osaka people ruin themselves on food

Even if Osaka is not a main spot for overseas visitors, a lot of Japanese tourists come to Osaka for the food
A friend that works in the luxury hotel industry (Hilton, Ritz-Carlton, etc.) also told me that the highest turnover for restaurants is made in Osaka.

So today I'll start a new blog series: my food addictions in Osaka!
All pictures are taken with my iPhone.


お好み焼 (okonomiyaki)


Okonomiyaki literally means "grill what you like/as you want" and comes in the form of a big salty pancake based on either shredded cabbage (Osaka style) or yakisoba (Hiroshima style) and topped up with onion, meat (pork) or seafood (octopus, squid, shrimp).
My favorite style is made of mochi and cheese!

Okonomiyaki are served or directly made on hot plates that are built into the table : your food will never get cold and you can finish the cooking yourself by adding ingredients such as aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), mayonnaise, sauce and pickled ginger.

I usually eat okonomiyaki twice per week. In Osaka uni you can get them at the okonomiyaki stand for only 250 (3USD)!!
Normal okonomiyaki in restaurants cost around 900 (10 USD).
Okonomiyaki in France cost around 15 EUR (18 USD)

My 2 favorite okonomiyaki shops near my place in Osaka, Umeda:

My favorite okonomiyaki shop in Paris:




3 comments:

  1. I love okonomiyaki too! That look so delicious~~~ I havent found a yummy okonomiyaki here :(

    ♔ cominica beauty blog ♔

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  2. have you been to Chibo?? It's my FAVOURITE okonomiyaki place in the woorld ❤❤
    and they are so big I can't even finish it in one sitting haha ...

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  3. @cominica: that's too bad(ーー;) where do you live? You can try cooking them, it's quite easy and you can basically put anything you want in :)

    @てぃあ: oh yes, 千房‼ I went there with my classmates, the decoration was very trendy! But warai's mochi cheese is still my absolute favorite(^^)

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