Introducing Culinary Backstreets’s Osaka Food Tour

Ansel Mullins

Culinary Backstreets co-founder Ansel Mullins visited Osaka this past summer as part of a research trip for our newest food tours. Japan’s second-largest city is well known for its vibrant food scene, and delivers a powerful punch of personality, too. Here, Ansel shares some of his favorite food memories – from takoyaki to really excellent corn – and a bit of what we can expect from our new coverage in Osaka.

What makes Osaka an exciting and compelling destination for Culinary Backstreets?

In a fairly formal and reserved country, Osaka feels funky and laidback. That is reflected in the endless options for a quick delicious bite, but it’s the people, Osakans, who set the stage, and they are boisterous welcoming hosts. Belly up to a standing bar or settle into a tiny izakaya and you can expect to be engaged. For me, that always elevates the culinary experience to a higher level.

Osaka

Do you remember your first trip to Osaka? What were the first sights, smells, or flavors that you remember?

Before I could even find something to eat – and, mind you, food is virtually everywhere in Osaka – the sheer energy of the place hit me with force. This is a city that lives, eats, and plays at street level, more so than any other Japanese city I’d visited. Having easy access to what I was hungry for (and so much of it!) was a bit bewildering at first, but I quickly got swept up in what seemed like a citywide, barbecue eel-laden, tonkatsu-packed, miso-laced, sake-drenched feeding frenzy that lasted for days. Back in Tokyo, I often felt a part of a crowd of people commuting to and from work – in Osaka, that crowd all seemed to be headed to the next izakaya.

Osaka

What was one of your favorite bites (or sips) from your time in Osaka? Where did it take place?

Fresh scallops in the back room of a fishmonger were memorable, a mug of very good coffee in an old-school coffeehouse unexpected, but the corn, in the form of a kakiage fritter, was something unimaginably tasty, one of the courses of a supreme kaiseki meal in a restaurant with no more than ten seats. People often rave about how most things in Japan are done a bit better and it’s true, particularly corn.

What can CB readers and tourgoers look forward to in this city?

In a word: fun. We’ll be digging deep into the backstory of this historic port city and contemplating the origin of umami-rich bites but, at the same time, reveling in the carnivalesque nature of the place, where a wobbly cheesecake emerging from the oven draws a cheering crowd. Does it get more fun than takoyaki, the iconic octopus balls? I don’t think so.

Osaka

What is one of your favorite neighborhoods or areas to explore? What’s the vibe there/what does it have to offer?

Osaka is home to the largest Korean community in Japan and in the market streets of Tsuruhashi, it’s evident. Korean language signs, great mounds of kimchi and banchan, and Korean barbecue joints filled with young diners at midday animate the tiny alleys of the market. Wandering around, my mind was stuck on the painful history of Japan and Korea. Was I expecting to find a solemn monument to it? Maybe. What I found was a teeming place of commerce and Korean cultural life and, this being Osaka, fun.

Osaka

What differentiates Osaka’s food scene from that of Tokyo, for instance? What kind of influences are different? Is the vibe of the city different? What can visitors look forward to?

The density of Michelin stars in either city is blinding; you are spoiled for choices on the refined side of the food scene, and depachika, or department stores, set the standard for gourmet shopping as in any Japanese city. But in Osaka I was impressed by how many independent food businesses I encountered, simple places doing one thing and one thing only, and doing it right. In Tokyo, chain restaurants and hospitality groups have taken the place of so many independent ventures, but in Osaka, for now at least, so many remain. That’s a special thing to experience and in some of the older shops you really feel a link to the past which can be harder to find in Tokyo.

Osaka

What foods, produce, or dishes are particularly good in Osaka?

The octopus is very high quality and plentiful in the waters around Osaka, and many find their way into the takoyaki, which are like savory donut holes packed with chopped octopus and topped with a couple of sauces and bonito flakes. Okonomiyaki is another local favorite, a pancake packed with seafood, oysters when in season, and cooked on a griddle. Delicious. There is high grade sushi to be found, of course, and the famed Kobe beef is just one variety of wagyu native to the region around Osaka.

Published on January 15, 2025