My husband Michael and I are digital nomads, and when I wrote about our day-to-day meals while living in Taipei, Taiwan, people seemed very interested.
We’re living in Osaka, Japan, now — another country where kitchens are small, and people tend to eat a lot of meals out, especially in the city centers.
But as before, this is not the kind of article that tries to dazzle you with pictures of our nicest meals out on the town. No, listed here are the meals at the various restaurants near our apartment that we return to again and again for our casual dining.
We’re including prices (in USD), but do keep in mind that the exchange rate is currently excellent. Also, there is no tipping, and taxes are included in the price.
The Sushi Stand in the Nearby Shopping Arcade
Osaka loves its shopping arcades. There’s a very local one near our latest apartment, and we’ve gone to the sushi counter there a couple of times.
For dinner, I always supplement the sushi with stir-fried veggies that I make myself.
Price per meal per person: $4.25, or $3.75 (for the sushi) + $0.50 (for the veggies).
But honestly, this place’s sushi isn’t very good, and we won’t be going back. For casual sushi, we’ve had better luck at grocery stores.
Sadly, most of the other restaurants in the arcade haven’t been any good either.
The Little Nepalese Restaurant Just Down the Street
I’ve said before that I think Indian food is the most “reliable” of any cuisine — the most likely to be “good.”
Nepalese is very similar to Indian — I hope I don’t offend anyone when I say it seems exactly the same to me. Anyway, on my way to our gym, I noticed this little Nepalese place and was very eager to try it.
It turned out to be fantastic.
When dining out, I usually order vegetarian, and Michael gets meat — usually chicken. Then we share a bit.
My veggie plate (left picture); Michael’s meat dishes are in the two pictures on the right.
(Michael Jensen)
So far, we’ve only eaten here for lunch, because it’s about 15% cheaper than dinner. Either way, it’s possibly the best food value we’ve ever had in all our years of travel.
Price per meal per person: $6 — including drinks!
Various Ramen Places
This being Japan, we’re never far from a ramen place, and it’s always some degree of “good.”
Price per meal per person: $5-$10 (a bit more with gyoza and edamame).
Problem is, I’m not a big fan of ramen, even when it’s good.
The Pizza Hut Takeaway Place
We try to avoid chain restaurants, but sometimes we have a hankering for, say, pizza, and the local pizzeria in our neighborhood is apparently never open, despite what the sign says.
So we decided to try the little Pizza Hut in that shopping arcade.
As we’ve traveled around the world, we’ve discovered that food in chain restaurants varies widely from country to country, and that was definitely true here. I’ve never liked Pizza Hut in the U.S. because it’s way too greasy, but they have the balance better here.
We tend to buy the “daily special” — which is about 20% cheaper — and here I’ve supplemented the pizza with a veggie salad from the neighboring deli.
Price per meal per person: $6, or $4 (pizza) + $2 (salad).
Stir-Fried Veggies and Tofu
Here in Japan, I’ve been making one of my go-to dishes fairly frequently: stir-fried vegetables and tofu served over brown rice, covered with my homemade lemon-dill tahini sauce.
(Tahini is called “sesame paste” in Japan, and it’s widely available. But I have yet to find dill, so I left that out.)
Price per meal per person: $4
Various Other Japanese Restaurants and Dishes
Close readers will notice that we’re not eating that much Japanese food — and we’re not always crazy about the Japanese food we do eat.
Michael recently wrote about this — how Japanese food, like most Asian food, is unhealthier than we expected.
And often, we just don’t really like it.
Here are some of the other Japanese dishes we’ve eaten, and the specific problems we’ve had with them:
Gyoza and yakisoba
We’ve had lots of gyoza — usually with yakisoba. But both dishes have always been very greasy, and there’s also virtually no concept of “vegetarian” dumplings: it’s always meat, usually pork.
Price per meal per person: $4-$5
Okonomiyaki
Japan is famous for a kind of savory pancake called okonomiyaki, which is served all day. Osaka is literally the birthplace of the dish, and they still proudly offer a specific version: Osaka (or Kansai) okonomiyaki, which is made with shredded cabbage (and sometimes noodles).
The other version is called Hiroshima okonomiyaki, which is made with noodles (and sometimes cabbage).
Osaka okonomiyaki (top) and Hiroshima okonomiyaki (bottom).
(Michael Jensen)
Price per meal per person: $5-$10.
The problem here is that neither of us cares all that much for okonomiyaki, especially when the chef slathers it with the usual amount of sweet sauce and mayonnaise.
And I outright hate the katsuobushi — or “bonito fish flakes” — they often put on it.
That said, we definitely prefer the Hiroshima version of okonomiyaki (with more noodles) to the Osaka one.
Takoyaki
The last Japanese dish we see everywhere is takoyaki: pieces of octopus dipped in batter and cooked in a process called “yaki,” which is kind of a cross between frying and grilling. It’s generally eaten as a snack.
This is another dish that supposedly originated in the Osaka region, and they now have their own specific variation here, which is more doughy and less crispy than in other places, and it’s served with a sweeter sauce.
But you guessed it: Michael and I don’t really like takoyaki either — and we really don’t like the Osaka version, which is both too sweet and too goopy.
Osaka takoyaki, with about 1/100th the usual amount of sweet sauce and mayonnaise.
(Michael Jensen)
Price: The above assortment was $1.25, but the price can be as high as $4.
In Conclusion…
There you have it: more evidence of the fairly shocking discovery that we don’t like Japanese food nearly as much as we thought we would.
AloJapan.com