Tabemono

The Japanese love to eat. They will eat all sorts of things, and all sorts of cuisines. Italian food here is all the rage, and while it may be because pasta and noodles are familiar foods anyway, I think that there is also a romantic, exotic connexion as well. Italian food conveys a simple, yet dreamy lifestyle, in Japanese eyes not disimilar to how the English viewed Italy in the later half of the 19th, and early part of the 20th Centuries. A lush, plentiful place, where there was a bountiful amount of lush vegitation, rich foods, and passionate people. You can go to your local Italian restaurant,for example the one near my house, Saizeriya, and eat there, and be un-Japanese for a moment--- but only a moment, because being Japanese is very important. However, if Italian is not your fancy, you can have French, Spanish, Mexican (yes, Mexican and in fact I have gone to this one place called El Poncho and it is really good, and I will go back on Wednesday with a date, it is that good), Indian, Nepalese, Peruvian too. Osaka is replete with different kinds of cuisines. However, if you still pine for traditional Japanese, you can certainly have that too, from yakuniku, to home-style, to ramen or udon specialty places. I have come to love ramen; not the ten-cent packages you can get at the supermarket, but the real, egg noodle kind. Some restaurants make their own, some have the noodles made. But, just like in Tampopo, each restaurant prides itself on having its own broth, and indeed are very secretive about them. I have a favourite ramen-ya myself, although it is a chain: Sisen Ramen. The restaurant is adorned, Chinese style (which is another exotic cuisine, and Japan has a lot of these kinds of restaurants too, one of which I go to alot, being that it has a great lunch buffet)(yah, the more things change,the more they remain the same), and has Chinese music playing in the background. You can have it plain or spicy, or different combinations of things in it, but it is the broth that makes it good. Going there also points out an interesting reversal, too: in the US, many Japanese restaurants are owned, and run, by either Chinese or Koreans. In Japan, Korean and Chinese restaurants are owned and run by Japanese.
There is one place, in the back part of the Ramen Hall and Museum (if you come to Osaka, I will show you this place,as well as the Dumpling Museum), which is run by Chinese, and they make their own egg noodles, and it is different from anything else in Osaka, and really good. But, probably because it is not the "normal" ramen, people do not flock there. So, the thin noodles you have in the ramen packs are pretty much the style all over.

Having lived in Japan now, I can test the authenticity of any Japanese restaurant. First, do they even serve ramen? If they do not, well, then it may be a great restaurant serving good Japanese sushi, and tempura, but be skeptical. Ask them for Kitsune Udon. Now, udon is very Japanese. While the delicious egg noodle creation may be a national passion bordering on infatuation, udon is still a quinticential Japanese food. This noodle soup's stregnth is also in the broth, but while ramen will often be a strong, salty, spiced affair, udon broth is much more like consomme.
Many Japanese say there is a lot more complexity in udon, and I tend to agree. It is a very subtle comfort food. So, the second test of any J-joint is do they have udon, and what kind. My favourite is Kitsune Udon. In Japan, the tradition is that the fox loves to eat fried tofu, so this kind of soup is her favourite. We went to Kyoto the other day, and I bought my order ticket from a vending machine, to get this great treat:


If the restaurant in question does not have, or cannot make by special request, this easy and tastey treat, move on; your yen for Japanese food will be satisfied better in a more legit place.