March 14--"Irasshaimase!" comes the boisterous greeting from behind the messy, flat-top griddle at Fukutaro, a dimly-lit, greasy spoon restaurant in the Sennichimae section of town.
Every time a customer walks through the front door, the harried staff calls out in unison, offering a hearty welcome and a chance to sit at a coveted spot along the massive, U-shaped counter. The greeting is typical in Japan. What's unique here is the food.
Most American tourists never set foot in Osaka, opting instead for the urban crush of Tokyo, with its legendary ramen shops and cocktail dens. Some venture to Kyoto, a two-hour bullet train ride away, to stroll among the splendor of ancient temples and fashionable teahouses.
Osaka -- a city obsessed with food -- is just a 15-minute ride on the Shinkansen, or bullet train, from Kyoto. I spent three days attempting to eat my way through the back alleys and side streets of this urban-industrial city, a mix of skyscrapers and smokestacks.
Fukutaro specializes in okonomiyaki, a flour-based cabbage pancake loaded with ingredients. "Okonomi" means "whatever you want," so proteins like extra-fatty wagyu beef, strips of bacon or handfuls of squid and shrimp are popular options. What the pancakes have in common is dashi -- the building block of Japanese cuisine -- made from steeping dried seaweed (kombu) and thinly shaved, smoked-and-dried skipjack tuna (katsuobushi) in water. The resulting broth provides umami, that fifth taste beyond sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
The Frisbee-sized pancakes at Fukutaro are griddled until crisp. Typical toppings include an okonomiyaki sauce -- think A1 or Worcestershire with a bit of sweetener -- plus a healthy drizzle of mayo, cut with some white wine and mustard, usually fired from a few feet away and squeezed out into thin ribbons. A final dusting of dried seaweed adds yet another hit of umami. Other local restaurants, like the slightly classier Chibo, offer Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which includes a wild tangle of egg noodles hidden within the batter.
The other signature dish in Osaka is takoyaki: flour-based (and dashi-infused), pan-fried orbs the size of golf balls, made in special griddles. Each sphere is embedded with a chewy piece of cooked tako, or octopus. They're made with ferocious intensity along busy Dotonbori Street, a chaotic, neon-lit pedestrian mall packed with Chinese and Korean tourists seeking a cheap snack.
Once the takoyaki are cooked to a golden brown, they're buried beneath that brownish sweet sauce, a drizzle of mayo and either some dried seaweed flakes or a mound of shaved katsuobushi. It's an umami uppercut combined with a right hook.
A more elegant approach can be found in the naked versions served at Takoriki in the Karahori neighborhood, one of only three areas in the city that escaped World War II bombing and has preserved its historical patina. Here, chef Junya Suzuki recommends pairing a glass of Champagne with his refined takoyaki.
It would be a shame, however, to visit Osaka and limit yourself to these two flour-based carb bombs beloved by thrifty tourists.
Consider the city's location on Osaka Bay. It's no surprise to see a gentleman in a down vest slicing up a 600-pound bluefin tuna at the Kuromon Market at 9 a.m. Sitting before him on one of only four stools, sipping hot tea and placing freshly cut pieces of fatty, unctuous chutoro and otoro sashimi and nigiri into my mouth is a breakfast I'll never forget. The market also offers steamed crabs and grilled wagyu beef skewers.
In the Shinsekai neighborhood, skewers are king at Kushikatsu Daruma, where guests line up for the namesake all day long. Thin, wooden-skewered vegetables and proteins await in a refrigerated case. When an order comes in, a cook dips one into a thickened, dashi-laced batter, rolling it in fine panko bread crumbs before dropping it into a fryer of smoking beef fat. Guests have the option of dipping the cooked kushikatsu into a secret sauce -- not unlike the aforementioned okonomiyaki version -- but are reminded to dip only once. Pieces of raw cabbage are offered as palate cleansers.
The Japanese practice of tachinomi, or drinking while standing, is very much in evidence in the Ura-Namba section of town, just two blocks from the massive Takashimaya department store and its breathtaking food hall in the basement. Here, locals outnumber tourists, smoking, drinking and ordering snacks like yakitori and fried chicken from handwritten menus on smoke-tinged, wood-paneled walls. Another culinary trend can be found in the city's horumonyaki restaurants, where offal fans who fetishize nose-to-tail eating can indulge their inner Bourdain or Zimmern.
Osaka is the birthplace of two unique food traditions. One is kaiten, or conveyor belt-style sushi, where time-pressed customers sit at a counter and grab whatever looks good off a rotating conveyor. The other, created here in the 1800s, is kappo, or counter-style dining that seats guests directly in front of the chef.
In the tony Kitashinchi area, where multistory nightclubs feature pretty women out front (shadowed by suit-clad dudes in thin ties), the 30 year-old Iwakawa is one such kappo worth visiting. My sushi course included fluke, kinmedai and fugu (blowfish), while grilled barracuda and bear meat soup both delivered deeply complex flavors that were new to me. The cost for eight courses came to roughly $64 -- a bargain by Japanese standards but no surprise in cost-conscious Osaka.
"There is a term we use quite a bit: neuchi ga aru -- is it worth it?" said Kimihiro Eguchi, who, along with his in-laws, owns Mimiu restaurant.
This 200-year-old eatery is where I had another local specialty: udon-suki, a dashi-based hot pot used to cook vegetables and proteins before adding homemade, toothsome udon noodles to the mix. The massive bowl easily fed four, costing less than a fancy tasting menu in Kyoto for one person.
"If people think something is overpriced," he said, "they won't come back."
Steve Dolinsky is a freelance writer.
