The best food we ate in Osaka was definitely Yakiniku at a place called Sora (空), which means “sky”. Pieces of pre-marinated meats are cooked on the grill, and everything was delicious.

Even though we were not in Hiroshima, we got to eat Okonomiyaki again. This time, there was a grill at our table and a server at the restaurant cooked it for us while we watched.

Osaka is also famous for deep fried skewers using different foods like chicken, squid, and veggies. The skewers are served with a special sauce and according to the local culture, double-dipping is highly frowned upon. We at this at a famous Japanese skewer restaurant called Daruma (だるま) with some friends in Osaka. My personal favourite was the kind with intestines.

Osaka Castle is another well known landmark in the city. Since the many wars that the castle has been involved in since its construction in the 16th century, the castle has now been restored and the inside has been converted into a museum with a rooftop observation deck.

We also visited the Osaka Science Museum. It was full of interactive exhibits that taught various concepts in the natural sciences, like magnetism, sound, air drag, and chemical reactions. The best exhibit was definitely the one on nuclear fission.

Takoyaki, another one of Osaka’s local delicacies, was also something we had to try. The ball is made of a batter and inside it, there are bits of octopus meat, and the entire thing is cooked in a special Takoyaki grill. After it is cooked, Takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise is added. It is interesting to eat since the outer shell is quite soft, but the octopus is not. The sauce also adds some sweetness to the flavour.

While I was no stranger to Takoyaki since I have had it previously, we got to try a kind that used egg for the outer shell rather than the batter. It was definitely new and special, but I have to say the regular kind was way better.

We also stumbled onto a restaurant called the “International Beer Museum” that had different beers from around the world on tap. It had been a long time since I had a Helles, so that’s what I got. I also realized that I haven’t been posting much about Japanese beer and the reason is that it is quite easy to get the same name brands in Vancouver (with the exception of Suntory Premium Malt’s) and they taste the same too!

I also didn’t think I’d be able to eat Currywurst in Japan either. Needed way more sauce though, but I understand that kind of sauce is probably hard to come by in Japan.

And I also didn’t think I’d see an Asian person wearing Lederhosen either.

Links to photo albums:

• Osaka
• Osaka Science Museum

One of my friends, who had spent 10 months in Hiroshima, had the idea of cooking Okonomiyaki.  It consists of a batter cooked like a crepe, but with soba noodles, cabbage and eggs plus whatever people feel like adding (cheese, bacon, etc.) with Japanese mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce, green onions, and katsuobushi (the dried fish flakes) on top.  My friend bought all of this stuff at this Japanese grocery store in his home town.

To begin, we started off by chopping up the cabbage, green onions and making the batter.  Since my flat did not have a large enough bowl, we ended up making the batter in a cooking pot.  It was quite difficult stirring the batter while adding in the flour without everything spilling.  Chunks of flour would always get stuck on the side of the pot too.  Once we finished the batter and cut up the veggies, we took out the teppanyaki grill.

At first, we didn’t oil up the surface before we started using the batter for the crepe layer, so it ended up sticking.  We couldn’t separate it to flip it either.  When we tried, we tore up the entire layer so bad that we didn’t try to proceed with that one.  We poured on some more batter and tried again, and the second time around, it worked slightly better – at least not so bad as the one before.

We added the cabbage on a vacant part of the grill and let the cabbage and crepe cook for a while before flipping the crepe over the cabbage.  We learned later that it was better to throw the cabbage directly onto the crepe and let both parts cook together.  Afterward, we started frying the Soba noodles.  We took the entire slab of noodles and spread it out as best we could on the grill.

Once the cabbage was sufficiently cooked, we moved the whole slab of cabbage and crepe and stacked it on top of the noodles and let that cook for a while.  Next came frying the egg.  We cracked the egg over the grill, popped the yolk, and swirled it around for a little bit to spread out the leaking yolk.  In the end, the egg just looked like a badly scrambled egg.  Then, we scooped up the stack of noodles, cabbage, and crepe and placed it on top of the egg.  After letting the egg cook until it was done, we took the entire stack off the pan.  We added okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, katsuobushi, and green onions.  As we added the katsuobushi on to the okonomiyaki, we could see the individual flakes shrivelling up due to the heat.

Between the layer of egg and crepe was soba noodles and cabbage.  We made others with different ingredients like cheese and bacon.  It was probably super fattening, but it tasted so good.  The sauce made it taste 10 times better.  I don’t know how Japanese mayonnaise is different from regular mayonnaise, but it’s definitely better.  We had enough ingredients to make 10 of them, so that each person could have two each.  As we kept cooking them, we got better and better at lifting the stack and flipping it.  The end product tasted so delicious and eating two of these filled me up real good.  I’m totally going to try and find a restaurant that makes these in Vancouver or if I’m feeling up for it, I can make it myself!

Being in a different country, it’s pretty much a necessity to try out the local cuisine. However, since I’m not rich enough to try really unique and high quality German food all the time, I’ve kind of failed in this regard. Luckily for me though, I get to try different types of German from the cafeteria at work. But then again, it’s not quite the same thing, but I’ll try my best. And since the German food I’ve been eating comes from the cafeteria, I didn’t think it seemed appropriate at the time for me to take pictures, so the pictures I won’t be from me, but from Wikipedia (the best source for all knowledge).

Bratwurst

Pretty much everyone who lives in a western country knows what bratwurst is. In short, it’s a German-style sausage. It’s different from North American sausages in the fact that a whole lot better. I haven’t got a clue at the differences in the what parts of the cow/pig they use, but it tastes damn good. I eat bratwurst pretty much every morning.

Kaiserschmarrn

Simply speaking, Kaiserschmarrn is pretty much a German/Austrian pancake. People in Austria eat it for dessert. When it comes to food, I rarely ask what it is made of. I just eat it, so I’m going to have to quote Wikipedia on this one to find out what it’s made of.

Kaiserschmarrn is a light, caramelized pancake made from a sweet batter with flour, eggs, sugar, salt, and milk, baked in butter.

Wikipedia said it’s a dessert, but I ate this as my main meal. Personal taste I guess.

Maultaschen

Maultasche are a Swabian food, which is like ravioli. It’s got pasta on the outside and meat on the inside. Wiki says its got different kinds of meat, spinach, bread crumbs, and onions with flavoring from various herbs and spices. It wasn’t super delicious (but still good), and doesn’t look super delicious, but it’s worth a try just to get a taste of Swabian culture.

Spaetzle

Also a Swabian specialty food, Spaetzle is a type of noodle. I was explicitly told by a colleague of mine not to call this pasta. Apparently Swabians like to make a distinction between Spaetzle and pasta. To go with the Spaetzle, I had lentils and sausages. It tasted okay I guess (if you’re Swabian and reading this, don’t hate me). It’s not one of my favorites, but for those who want to eat Swabian food, this is something to try.

Semmelknoedel

A southern German and Austrian specialty food, semmelknoedel is made of mostly bread. That probably doesn’t make the food sound delicious, but when I ate it, i thought it was good. It’s not super fancy or anything, just something unique that people in Germany eat.

There is way more German food that I ate since I’ve been here, but unfortunately most of the time I eat the food, I have no idea what it is or that I can’t remember the name. Oh how inconvenient it is to not be able to read/speak German. As I try more and more different kinds of food, I’ll be sure to post more.