吃飯了嗎？

味万 - 心齋橋本店

We only had half a day in Osaka before our flight home in the late afternoon, and most of that time was reserved for shopping. The shopping arcades of Shinsaibashi, filled with real-life household shops, was more our speed, compared to the exclusive boutiques that line Mido-suji avenue the next street over. Even better, the main Akachan Honpo shop is right at the head of the shopping street, where we could get our fill of made-in-Japan baby-stuff in one stop.

All that didn't leave much time for lunch. No time for leisurely multi-course menus here. On the other hand, I was hoping for an authentic Japanese-style meal for our last one in-country, rather than settle for some chain fast-food. While the wife went through both buildings and all eight stories of Akachan, I had time to scout ahead a little bit. There are a zillion eateries lining the Shinsaibashi arcade. But this particular shop seemed like it's been around for a while, it was filled with locals, and featured udon which the wife likes. So when she checked out of Akachan I was right there to help carry the bags and lead us to the restaurant. We'd taken a look at the plastic food outside to get a rough idea of what's available, and we didn't wast time, just pointed to the highlighted specialties on the menu. Tanooki udon with shrimp-tempura sushi for me. A hearty beef and mushroom curry udon for her.

A few puffs and I was slurping away at my soup-udon. But the thick curry sauce in the wife's curry udon retains heat longer, so she had to wait patiently before getting started on her lunch. While she was waiting for her udon to cool off she could mooch off my plate of tempura-ebi sushi. It's a popular side dish that goes with many of the set meals so they do crank them out and the nori and breading have softened just a tad from sitting out. But the set meal is still a great deal and can't quibble too much with the fresh-fried shrimp. The curry is flavorful, with just a tiny bit of heat which you don't notice at first but builds up over time, especially when combined with the heat of the noodles themselves. Good thing we could serve ourselves from the ice water cooler.

The atmosphere and decor is exactly that of a decades-old Japanese food hall. Well-experienced obasans and their younger apprentices with headscarves and aprons scurry about bringing food and cleaning tables. Solid wood furniture haven taken many years of abuse and can stand up for many more. Locals carrying shopping bags and workers on lunch breaks come in-and-out for a quick bite and so did we. For less than 2000-yen it was fast and filling and now it's time for us to move on.

味万
大阪府大阪市中央区北久宝寺町3-6-12
06-6252-0612

中村藤吉本店

Uji has a long history in tea production, serving the noble houses in nearby Kyoto. With its two UN World Heritage temples and many historic tea merchants, it makes for a conveniently interesting day-trip in Kansai. Many of the tea-merchants have added tea-houses to serve the tourists, and Nakamura Tokichi is one of the larger places. They have a newer cafe along the river near the Byodo-In Temple, but we decided to visit the original Honten building, opened for business in 1858, located in a prime spot near the JR train station.

We were expecting hot weather and big crowds on a summer Saturday. But a freak thunderstorm in the morning had scared away the day-trippers and cooled off the air, leaving the streets relatively empty and us slightly wet. However we still wanted to get a taste of their summer specialties. The vegetarian soba seemed like just the ticket for a light lunch, since the menu promoted it as a lunch special with big, attractive pictures. Turned out other tables got the hot-soup soba which would've been preferable to the cold noodles, but we couldn't read the Japanese menu so we missed out on that option. But the combo meal was a decent deal, also coming with a serving of macha ice cream topped with azuki and mochi, served in a cute bamboo cup, as well as a glass of iced macha tea.

Even though we were almost shivering in the air-conditioned room, we still had to order the signature きんとき shaved-ice dessert. A big bowl of finely shaved ice, with macha and molasses syrups to drizzle on top. Azuki paste and mochi balls to moderate the icy coldness and offer different taste textures. Topped off with a dollop of soft-serve vanilla ice cream just because they can. The syrups were sweet with flavor without being artificial-tasting, and by judicious pouring you can keep it from getting to sweet. The ice cream added some rich creaminess to keep the pile of slush from being too overwhelmingly cold. You can always chew on a mochi ball for a while if brain-freeze kicked in.

中村藤吉本店
京都府宇治市宇治壱番十番地
0774-22-7800