What you can eat in Kyobashi, Osaka - Hot Dog

It was my sister who told us about Kyobashi's Hot Dog or 'furankufuruto' in Japanese (or Frankfurter in German?).  She told us that it is really famous but does not know why, other than it is often mentioned on TV or magazines in Japan.

My sister and her husband live in a town on Keihan-Line, the railway network linking between Kyoto and Osaka, so we often change trains at Kyobashi train station to get to downtown Osaka.

The shop that sells famous Hot Dogs is actually a kiosk, on one of Kyobashi Station platform for Keihan-line. They are selling them for 110 yen (including tax) per stick, which was about 60p in UK at the time of the exchange rate when we were in Japan. I heard that commuters are cueing up to buy it, hop on and eat it on the train going home or some salaried-men eat it with a can of beer on the platform waiting for their train to arrive on their way home. Sounds like a good plan, except I don't eat meat so I don't eat this famous hot dog. Emily and Maria did though, on the New Year's Day this year, after we came back from Osaka Castle for new year blessing.  Imagine, the first snack you eat to start off a new year is a hot dog on Kyobashi train station!

Well, I have done some research.  Apparently the shop sells 700 sticks a day on average! It is 13cm long, 2cm diameter and weighs 60g.  The shop started selling hot dogs almost 40 years ago. It is seasoned really well so that you do not need to put ketchup or mustard and eat it on the go.

It is meant to be smoky and crunchy...

Ever since my sister mentioned about the hot dog, Emily and Maria were wanting to try this, especially Maria as she thought it was actually a corn dog, only to discover it wasn't though...
However, I think they enjoyed it. At least they can say they tried this famous Kyobashi's hot dog, on the New Year's Day in Japan!

Our train arrived. We hurried to get on the train and sat down. Maria was wondering if they were allowed to eat it on the train. I said, just do it, so they did. The smell of smoky hot dog started permeating within the train carriage, but before you know it, the hot dogs disappeared into their stomachs.

It is rather eclectic to eat a German frankfurter on a train on the New Year's Day in Japan, isn't it.  There are many many such eclectic things you can eat or do in Japan.  Japan is an interesting country.

That's all forks!

What you can eat in Japan - Okonomi-yaki (Japanese savoury pancake)

If you are in Japan, especially in Osaka, you got to eat Okonomi-yaki. This is a Japanese savoury pancake, literally meaning 'cooked what you like' and is made of batter with flour, grated yam, dashi (Japanese soup stock), eggs and shredded cabbage, and you add extra ingredients such as meat, seafood, vegetables or cheese. Most of Okonomi-yaki restaurant has a cook who prepares the dish in front of you on a hot plate. Once ready, you eat it with Okonomi-yaki sauce (a bit like brown sauce but more sweater, saltier and thicker), green seaweed flakes, bonito flakes and Japanese mayonnaise.

We went to Botejyu in Umeda, which is a chain Okonomi-yaki restaurant.

Customers sit at counters watching a cook preparing Okonomi-yaki on hot plate.

In Japan most of restaurants have show-windows displaying plastic models of foods they serve, which look real, and inside of the restaurant menus often have pictures of foods they serve too, so if you don't understand Japanese, all you got to do is to point at a picture of what you fancy and you never go starve, ha ha ha!

So we sat at the counter. Wow, it was really hot sitting there as you got the heat off the hot plate right in front of you.

As we were taking pictures, the cook was busily preparing out food, mumbling to himself in Japanese, "Oh no, I am feeling pressure here ....".

The cook mixing all the ingredients throughly before pouring onto the hot plate.

Okonomi-yaki mix with lots of vegetables...

Checking orders for other customers too.

Preparing fried noodles to add to Okonomi-yaki for other customers....

He then put whatever extra ingredients you want from the menu. Emily, Maria and my sister opted for pork and bacon whilst I decided to try oysters as they were in the season in winter. and it was on their special menu.

Three Okonomi-yaki with pork and bacon in the front
and my oyster one is in the back being cooked on the hot plate.

Whilst we were waiting we had grilled aubergine slices with say sauce and mustard.

As Okonomi-yaki was getting ready, the cook put a lid over the okonomi-yaki to trap the heat and to ensure it would cook thoroughly, not just the top and bottom but middle too.
They were almost ready!  He then clean the hot plate to get ready for more orders for other customers.

Bowls of Okonomi-yaki mix are waiting to be grilled on the hot plate....

Once ready, you then add tasty Okonomi-yaki sauce, mayonnaise, green seaweed flakes and bonito flakes.

You then eat it with this steel spatula to slice the Okonomi-yaki in bite sizes.

If you wish to recreate this dish (but it would not be the same as you can't get the suitable type of potato here such as yama-imo, a bit like yam), you can try using the following ingredients for mix and cook it using a frying pan.

1 egg
50g plain flour
50g stock, cooled (or ideally Japanese dashi stock if you can buy it)
125g cabbage, thinly shredded
15g grated raw potato (though you could cook them to mash to give a softer consistency)
spring onions, chopped

You can go to a Chinese supermarket (unless you can go to a Japanese store) and buy okonomi-yaki sauce, if not you may try HP sauce mixing with Japanese soy sauce. Some Chinese shops may also sell Okonomi-yaki mix too if you want just adding extra ingredients to it.

Mmmmm, I may go to a Chinese supermarket this afternoon to see if I could buy some mix and make this at home for dinner.

That's all forks.

What you can eat in Kyobashi, Osaka, Japan

Toward the end of December is always the busy month for Japanese pubs and restaurants where many  workers go out for 'Bo-Nenkai' (literally meaning forgetting-the-year party) with their co-workers or friends to forget the woes and troubles of the past year to end the year with high notes (with lots of drinks involved!) whilst looking forward to the new year.

One evening, my sister's husband, Kenji, was away for one of his many such Bo-Nenkais so Emily, Maria, myself and my sister decided to go for a quick bite to eat on our way home from downtown Osaka for shopping.  We were originally looking for some restaurants in Umeda, Osaka but every place we tried was fully booked for Bo-Nenkai groups, so we gave up and decided to head home to my sister's house in a suburbs of Osaka. We changed our train at Kyobashi Station to get on Kyobashi Line and thought why not try if we could find somewhere for a bite to eat in Kyobashi.

We walked through some arcades and alleys with lots of restaurants and pubs, tried couple of places and eventually found a place called Ponpokorin.

Walking through alleys with lots of restaurants and pubs in Kyobashi

Ponpokorin serves drinks and traditional Japanese foods.

The ground floor was busy but we managed to get a table upstairs. I forgot that people can smoke everywhere in Japan including restaurants and pubs. As we were seated, smell of cigarette smoke from nearby table hit you for the realisation but we did not care as we were too hungry and thirsty.

We ordered drinks for 'Kampai' (or Cheers) literally meaning bottoms up.  We were getting to feel like having a nice girls' night out alternative to the Bo-Nenkai that Kenji was having elsewhere.

When you order drinks in Japan, you are always served with a small dish of accompaniment to alcohol to start with.

A wee vegetable dish with a beer.
Chopstick bearing the name of the restaurant.

We then perused the menu. There were so many choices and things we wanted to eat.  We ordered Tuna sashimi. As this restaurant serves fresh fish and sushi, the sashimi was really delectable. A slice of sashimi was really fresh and almost as if it really melted in your mouth, and nothing fishy in taste at all.  I am blogging this in early hours of Saturday morning yet I am already salivating for the mere thought of this sashimi!  I wish I could eat it right now!

My sister ordered Mozuku, a type of stringy seaweed in a Japanese style sweet and sour broth sauce. It was an interesting dish.

We like unagi (eel) sushi so we ordered these too. Freshwater eel was grilled and served brushed with tasty sweet eel barbecue like sauce. It was soft, fluffy and flaky. This was really yummy.

We should feel guilty about eating freshwater eels however as I have now discovered that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment has officially added Japanese eel to the endangered category of the country's Red List of animals ranging from threatened to extinct!

We also ordered Age dashi -dofu (or Fried Tofu with tasty sauce).  I love tofu.

Agedashi tofu garnished with grated ginger, horse radish, chopped spring onions and bonito flakes.

Also ordered mixed tempura that came with huge king prawns! Yum.

Also ordered fried potato - why not, everyone loves fries!

Emily and Maria were intrigued with this crab croquette so this was ordered too. It came as creamy mushed potato with lots of crab meat encased in a crab shell and enveloped in fried breadcrumbs. Yummy too.

My sister earlier ordered a glass of Umeshu (a Japanese liqueur made from steeping plum in alcohol and sugar) on the rocks.  Emily and Maria tried and liked it too.

We further ordered Tekka-maki, sushi roll with tuna and Asari (clam) miso soup to finish off our meals!

It was such a great night to the extent that we forgot some people at other tables were smoking.  There are hundreds and thousands of restaurants like this in Japan. With all these dishes and drinks, it only came to just under 10,000 yen which is probably equivalent to £50ish in Sterling Pound at the time of this blog being done. Such a great value when Sterling is strong against Japan!

As I type this, our cat Yuki, decides to sit on my lap, blocking my view to the keyboard on my laptop. I hope you can make out what I am typing. I also notice Yuki is eyeing up at the picture of tekka-maki.  I'd better go now before she manages to move her bottom onto the laptop or she may demand feeding her a plate of sushi. She really loves food...

That's all forks.