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Anyone in Namba, Osaka and looking for some decent ice cream could do far worse than go to Namba Parks‘ Cinemas on the 8th floor and enter the Astonish ice cream shop.

They have some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. I recommend the Suntan Beach.

I haven’t done a You are what you eat post for a long time. This is Matsuzaka Beef Donburi eaten in Ise near the grounds of Ise Shrine. It’s beef on rice in a bowl.

Matsuzaka Beef is even more delicious than Kobe Beef in my opinion.

The standards maintained for Matsuzaka beef are very high. The cow is raised in a quiet, serene area surrounding Matsuzaka, with the Kumozu River to the north and Miya Gawa River to the south. It must be from a good breed, and must not be bred. It will live quietly for two to three years and treated with the utmost care. It is said that if the cow has calves, then the sashi, the fatty parts, do not retain the characteristic patterns.

For the best feeding methods, each farm has a different approach, such as including beer in the diet. The key lies in the feed. The beef is sold in specialty shops in the city of Matsuzaka, with the finest cuts costing the most, but some of the meat available at a more affordable cost.

Whilst walking through the narrow passageways under Umeda train station which I like to call Salaryman Central, I came across this takoyaki shop which bills itself as the smallest takoyaki shop in Japan. It had newspaper cuttings to prove its point.

Takoyaki is fried octopus pancake balls and is a speciality of the Kansai region of Japan.

The shop may have been small but the takoyaki were normal sized. I’ve had better though.

At the school I teach at, we have a few set routines in every class. The sit behind their chairs and introduce themselves. Then they colour in their attendance and give me their homework to be stamped.

If we’re running late, I may skip one of these activities or swap them around. This confuses the kids and I realise that they don’t entirely understand what I’m saying but have become accustomed to the sequence.

Instead of asking, “How many times did you listen to your homework?”, I could say, “Tak tak tak tak tak tak?”, a la Mars Attacks and they’d answer my question.

I say this because I’m pretty good at ordering from Americanised restaurants . The routine is usually the same wherever I go

- Eat in or Take Out?

- Do you want fries with that?

- Drink?

- X Yen please

But sometimes they change the order. Or even worse add in some extra conditions standing between you and your meal then I’m back to Mars Attacks’ Tak tak tak speak.

Kansai Time Out is a very high brow publication but sometimes they go too far in their superiority complex. They seem to assume that if you read this magazine, you are all-knowledgeable about Asian affairs.

Japanzine, a competing magazine, has articles on how to drink for cheap in Japan and previews of upcoming music festivals. Kansai Time Out has articles about why obscure Korean politicians should be the next UN General Secretary, obscure Japanese historical figures and a primer on Korean food whose author is so eager to show his complete mastery of Asian food that when talking about how they eat raw fish, he writes:

They dip their hwae in cho kochu jong

?????????????????????????

You’re expected to understand this without any further explanation. You see the problem here is that my knowledge of Korean food is limited to kimchi and great hunks of meat grilled over a flaming barbecue preferably acompanied by beer.

I`m sure he sticks his hwae in the cho kochu jong himself and jacks off thinking about all the people reading his gibberish in the magazine. Sadistic ecstasy it may be but a good article about Korean food it does not make.

I may not agree with his comments on the alphabet, but Jak sure knows how to find good videos. This is a Japanese advert for Mario brand Furikake the topping put on rice. Surreal.

A picture of some okonomiyaki, the Kansai pancake speciality, I made myself.

Whilst we were in Tokyo we went to the Tsukishima area. This area is famous for monjayaki. A sort of Japanese snack food in the Tokyo area similar to but less (substantial)to the Kansai area`s okonomiyaki.

This is the wall of the monjayaki restaurant we ate at where Brad Pitt also once dined.

See also Japanese cuisine

Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Monjayaki

Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Sushi, Christmas, Dinner

Pickled garlic cloves also known as bariki.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English