J82Productions: Osaka 大阪

Showing posts with label Osaka 大阪. Show all posts

Karaoke in Japan is a huge phenomenon that is extremely popular among everyone in any age group. It can be a past time for retirees, a hobby for students or just for working adults that need to take the stress off. There is no way you can walk down a street in the city without seeing numerous karaoke stores or staff on the streets handing out flyers, advertisements or holding a signboard yelling out the latest promotions.

The karaoke room you get varies from the number of people you have in your party. It also depends on the peak hours and whether the karaoke house is full up or not. You are also allowed to smoke in the rooms, so don't be surprised if you smell smoke while walking through the corridors.

Songs are very up to date and they have a huge selection of English, Chinese and Korean songs too. Also, if you get hungry or you need a drink, be it alcohol or not, karaoke rooms also have menus that are quite affordable for food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Usually if you have a package, non-alcoholic drinks are free.

From 2009-05-09 Huizhi to Kyoto

*Yawns*, slept at 3 a.m yesterday and gotten to wake up 8 am in the morning so that we could go to Kyoto as my friend had to leave for Yokohama at 7 pm..... We took the train from Honmachi station to Nishi Umeda station (西梅田駅) and decided to have a light breakfast. Initially, we thought of eating Mos Burger, but the menus does not seems to be appealing and we went around searching for other shop until we sawed this one man cafe, or perhaps one woman ?

From 2009-05-09 Huizhi to Kyoto

Special part of this shop is that seats are lined along the walls and it has a narrow walk path. Another thing was all the jobs, including receiving orders, making of the breakfast, washing was done by only one lady staff.

From 2009-05-09 Huizhi to Kyoto

My breakfast set: Raisin Bread Toast, one hard boiled egg and a cup of coffee.

From 2009-05-09 Huizhi to Kyoto

I don't think we can find this kind of cafe in Singapore... It is really one man show or one woman show..

This is one of the food that represents Osaka - Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き）, which is like a cabbage pancake fried over a Teppan (Hot plate). Though the cooking method is the same, there are many kinds of fillings and sauces you can choose from. I went to a shop in Namba with one of my taiwanese friend (Who discontinued her studies and went back to Taiwan) and she was saying that this shop has been around for decades and their cooking style are a bit different from other shops. So let take a peek at their making process...

Osaka Botejyu （大阪ぼてぢゅう）

Making process of a Okonomiyaki

A cabbage mixture is placed on the Teppan as base, and the shrimp on top.

Next, the bacons are placed in, which the cabbage mixture comes in again.

Spreading it evenly, to make sure it looks round & (yummy)

Say 'Cheese!' Close up view of Mr. Okonomiyaki

Last but not the least, an egg is beaten on the top to serve as the crust. Please note that in other shops, eggs are usually not added in. That is why we called this shop a bit of special. Served with shop specialty sweet sauce and Mayonnaise.

When you first sees the word 'curry', which taste would come to your mind first ? Spicy right ? Well, if you have not eaten before Japanese-style curry, it is not spicy at all, in fact, I would say it is tends to be sweet. Japanese themselves possess a weak tastebud for spicy food that they have adapt most of their cuisine to suits the mild tastebud.

The 1st curry house I visited was Fukujima Top Grade Curry House (福島上等カレー) and there wasn't any waiters bringing over the menu, instead you could just simply purchased the tickets of the dish which you preferred through the ticket vending machine. I think it is really good for travelers who had difficulties speaking Japanese.

This is the one I have ordered - pork cutlet curry rice. The special part was the pork cutlet is deep fried and then curry gravy is poured over the rice and the cutlet itself.

In order to 'excite' my tastebud, I challenged on the hot spice powder which can be found laterally on the table. The instructions reads ... "It will become one time spicier after one shake." I did 7-8 times and I can feel the kick coming in. Sorry, can I have more water please ?

Motsunabe (もつ鍋) is another Japanese-style hot pot similar to Shabu shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ), with the main difference in ingredients, which are beef or pork offal. The soup is put to boil with the offal, together with vegetables to complete the dish.

It becomes from this...

VVVVV
VVVV
VVV
VV
V

to this !

The taste ? It is like eating chewing gum but in the end part, you would need to force it down your throat. In order to smoother your throat, best is to down it with a beer ! It might not be as bad as I have described though, but for those who hates or dare not eat offal, you have just missed a japanese cuisine.

As mentioned by one of my teachers, Motsunabe (もつ鍋) was popular among normal salary men because it was inexpensive. Normally these guys would gather together after work, where they will start to eat and drink the night away ...

Sorry guys, I was slacking around too long that I did not even bothered to update my blog !!! Just joking, busy recently and had little time to linger with my blog. So today I am going to talked about the food culture in Osaka. Simple to say, as listed below ...

Izakaya (居酒屋), Japanese-styled Chilling Places
Gyuu-don (牛丼), Rice topped with Beef
Yakiniku (焼き肉)
Takoyaki (たこ焼き)
Okonomiyaki & Yakisoba (お好み焼き＆焼きそば)
Sushi (寿司)
Katsudon (かつ丼)
Fuku (河豚)
Motsunabe (もつ鍋)
Kani Doraku (蟹ド楽)
Curry Rice (カレーライス)
Shabu shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ)
Convenience Stores 'Dining'
Family restaurants

I know it would look stupid if I were to put all these information onto this post. You guys might wanna to bookmark this page so you can do easy reference...

休みのときに、全部の詩を覚えた？めちゃ難しいですね。僕は全然見なかった。幸いのことが、先生はテクニックを教えてくれたし、みんなは想像力でいろいろなおかしいの方法少し覚えた。。

例え、
１．す。。ゆめ。。(僕はいつも酢豚を考えてるけど。。）
２．このたびは。。まにまに　（Money Money)
３．わすらるる。。ひとのいのちの　（のいの＜＜それは顔みたいですね）
４．なげきつつ。。いか　（食べ物のイカと想像した）
５．ゆらのとを。。　ゆくへ。。　（両方は”ゆ”から）

じゃ、クラスのリーダーを紹介するわ。Mr. キム　ヨン　ジュン　さん