OCTOBER • NOVEMBER 2012 ISSUE 29 澳門航空雜誌 噴灑揮毫 HERE TO SPRAY 澳門塗鴉藝術家塑造街頭新面貌 THE STREET ARTISTS AIMING TO ALTER MACAU’S IMAGE 碧波作樂 SAILS DRIVE 郵輪變身企業會議及獎勵旅游熱點 CRUISE SHIPS RIDE THE CORPORATE-EVENT WAVE 紅顏悅色 A STUDY IN SCARLET 北京處處喜氣洋溢 RED IS EVERYWHERE IN BEIJING, FROM FAÇADES TO FASHION AND FOOD
Uncovering culinary treasures in Osaka isn't tough - just do as the locals do, get your legs moving and eat your way across town on any given night of the week.
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OCTOBER • NOVEMBER 2012 ISSUE 29
澳門航空雜誌AIR
MA
CA
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AZ
INE
噴灑揮毫HERE TO SPRAY 澳門塗鴉藝術家塑造街頭新面貌THE STREET ARTISTS AIMING TO ALTER MACAU’S IMAGE
碧波作樂 SAILS DRIVE 郵輪變身企業會議及獎勵旅游熱點CRUISE SHIPS RIDE THE CORPORATE-EVENT WAVE
紅顏悅色A STUDY IN
SCARLET 北京處處喜氣洋溢
RED IS EVERYWHERE IN BEIJING, FROM FAÇADES TO FASHION AND FOOD
TRAYS OF SUSHI PASS BY ON A CONVEYOR BELT. Plastic plates are stacked before me like monuments to my gluttony. I examine the empty dish in front of me: it’s dotted with soy-sauce splatters and dabs of wasabi. As I add it to the nearest pile, I notice other customers doing the same. As sated as I am, I’ve a hunch I’m not the only one thinking there’s still a lot of eating to be done tonight.
Outside, pedestrians wander from one eatery to the next. In Osaka, it’s customary to stop for a bite, move on, then stop for another, with the process repeating as many times as possible. Osakans have a word for it — kuidaore — “to ruin oneself by extravagance in food”. It’s an ethos here, a force that all but compels residents and
visitors alike to eat and explore and eat some more.
On a street in DĿtonbori District, near Shinsaibashi Station, tanned, artifi cial eyelash-adorned young women stroll past teens dressed as Victorian-era Lolitas. While Tokyo’s Harajuku Station, another youth-culture hot spot, tends to feature fashionistas lounging in groups, it’s more of a runway here in Osaka.
Ebisubashi, one of the main bridges
地
t
across the DĿtonbori Canal, is a popular meeting place. The neon lights of an electronic billboard featuring local candy company mascot Glico Man, a runner with arms raised in triumph, shine
Kuidaore 意指「吃到倒下去為止」
OSAKANS HAVE A WORD FOR IT — KUIDAORE — TO RUIN ONESELF BY
on the waters of the canal. Once a red-light district, DĿtonbori was gradually transformed thanks largely to a 17th-century businessman, Doton Yasui, who began lengthening the canal to link two branches of the Yohori River. After his death, a series of urban-planning projects led to DĿtonbori’s designation as an entertainment district. The area quickly gained fame as a centre for drama, playing host to performances of kabuki (Japanese dance-drama) and bunraku (puppetry). After the theatres were destroyed during World War II, cafés, restaurants and bars became the district’s drawing card.
In one type of venue, traditional pubs called izakaya, visitors are given the choice of sitting at Western-style tables or on tatami mats. Though izakaya are most popular with Japanese “salarymen”, growing numbers of tourists and younger Japanese have begun frequenting
Clockwise from top left: Glico Man sign by the Ebisubashi Bridge; Kani Doraku restaurant’s famous giant-crab billboard; Zubora-ya restaurant’s pufferfi sh lantern; DĿtonbori side streets are home to many cafés and bars
THE TRACES OF NEUROTOXIN IN THE FISH CAUSE A SUBTLE NUMBING OF THE LIPS, GUMS OR MOUTH
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亞洲聚焦 | OSAKA
them. Beyond beer, punters can enjoy dishes such as tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlet) and tempura (battered and deep-fried seafood and vegetables).
In Osaka, you’ll also fi nd fugu, a fi sh prized by connoisseurs for its fl avour. Fugu, literally “river pig”, is also known as pufferfi sh owing to its ability to infl ate its body to scare off predators. An otherwise harmless-looking species, fugu also contain a neurotoxin. For this reason, chefs who prepare it for consumption must be specially trained to remove enough of the poison to make the fi sh edible but not so much that it fails to work its magic on diners. The traces of neurotoxin that remain in the fi sh cause a subtle numbing of the lips, gums or mouth. Intrepid diners eager for a taste should make their way to Zubora-ya, a famed fugu restaurant near Kani Doraku, an eatery whose instantly recognisable giant-crab billboard makes it a local landmark.
(右圖)廚師靜待食客光臨;(下圖)日式八爪魚丸
子攤檔
Right: a chef ready to work his culinary magic; Below: street
vendors making takoyaki, molten balls of battered octopus
Outside Zubora-ya, the operator of a tempura stand deep-fries meats and vegetables chosen by customers, serving them with a tangy dipping sauce. Past the uncomfortably bright lights of an arcade is a yakitori restaurant where skewered bits of char-grilled meat in a sticky, sweet sauce are served. Nearby, tourists pose for photos next to the statue of Kuidaore Taro, a mechanical, drum-playing clown dressed in red and white who is the mascot of both the area and the way of life. The statue stands in front of the now defunct Cui-daore Restaurant, an eight-storey cathedral honouring Osaka cuisine.
At an okonomiyaki (savoury pancake) eatery — okonomi means “what you like” — the chef adds ingredients like bacon, cheese, and green onion to the dish’s pancake-batter base, somehow managing to fl atten everything into its pizza-like form on a fl atiron grill. The dish is served sizzling hot and cut into wedges.
The Japanese have a saying: “Dress in kimonos ’til you drop in Kyoto, eat ’til you drop in Osaka”. Setting foot in DĿtonbori is an invitation to dance to the drumbeat of the Kuidaore clown and do some restless exploring of this city’s mouth-watering culinary culture.