Park It in the Market

Osaka's day market demands your attention! There is fish, there is meat, there is whole fresh wasabi root, there is tea, and there are robots. It's got food-on-the-street as well as cozy little restaurants. Shoe stores abound. Vendors roast coffee to order. And, of course, rows and rows of confections stand at perfect attention.

Just look at the size of those prawns. They're at least 10 inches. And the uni is ready to go. Like everything else, it's too cute, and the vendor hands you a little plate and a tiny spoon and a fish-shaped micro-bottle of soy sauce, and you stroll around eating urchin gonads, as one does. (More and more I think uni adapted their spines because they know they're delicious.) And talk about a chip shop. It ain't North Atlantic cod.

One of the more interesting aspects of display is how meat is handled. Whether it's on a sign or in a case, it's always raw. I think this is to show off the marbling. Imagine an American steak house trying that. Not gonna happen. Must show fire. But at $40 per skewer, I stuck with the uni. I also avoided the mini octopus on a stick (octopop?) but I saw several young couples enjoying them so I guess it's a good date food.

Feeling kind of mangy, we ducked into a sushi place for lunch. Karen even ate her salmon eggs because everything here is good. I branched out and tried the fugu, the highly poisonous pufferfish that claims one or two people per year. But I was fine because I only ate the egg sack, which was one of the finest things I've ever put in my face.