Day 2: Osaka 2 Central Osaka +

Breakfast

"FAMILY MART" Type: Convenience Store
Food:
1. Onigiri #2 Spicy Roe filling 3.5/5
"Still awesome but a bit mushy"
2. Yakisoba Pan (Bread with yakisoba filling) 3/5 "
Required more noodlies"
3. 2X BOSS simple style coffee 4/5
Stronger and less sweet than the usual
Ambience:
Neon lights in the morning wake me up.

Food rants: Denise is obsessed with collecting BOSS coffee cans. BOSS is a brand of canned coffee in Japan, frequently found in vending machines which are ubiquitous in this land of rising sun (which is probably why they need coffee). Ra once gifted Dee 4 boss cans as souvenirs.

Dee is also obsessed with Onigiri. Onigiri is a rice ball, characterised by (a) usually triangular shape (b) filling inside which is not seen (c) sometimes wrapped with seaweed. They usually cost a little over Y100 and are filling. Almost impossible to get in Sydney (Wagaya in Haymarket, Ryo's Ramen in Crows Nest, and the 2 hatted JuRin).

Aqualiner Haha, free cruise since it's finally December. well worth it too, much better that yesterday's cruise.... until the roof started to lower towards our heads... apparently one of the features of the ship is that the roof can lower to help pass under bridges. we concluded that they were just doing that to show off since we were nowhere near a bridge


Nissin Museum
aka "Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum" For all you Honkies. This is for you.
It is a truth universally known, that any single woman is in need of a good cup noodle, which is only found if they are branded Nissin.

The first highlight of the museum was a 10 meter wall of all the instant noodles ever produced by the company, starting from 1958, up to today. The second highlight was the DIY cup noodle activity, where we could decorate our own cup, pick the soup base and 4 toppings out of a possible 13 for our unique cup noodle!






Lunch - Nissin ramen After much debating, we finally settled on trying 2 new bowl ramen.
Which naturally we bought from a vending machine, despite being IN the museum.
We promptly put the bowls into a second machine for hot water. Go figure.
We may as well sit in a third machine to eat it.

"NISSIN BOWL RAMEN" Location: Last stop of Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum
Food:
1. Roast pork ramen 4/5
2. Pepper pork 4.5/5
The ramen was chewy and had a "spring" to it that the Cup Noodle variety doesn't. Its definitely a different ramen and certainly impressive considering its instantcy. There was even a round 8cm of dessicated pork (complete with substantial ribbon of fat) which reconstituted reasonably well. The pepper pork soup was more interesting than the roast pork soup base, which tasted greasy, fatty and collagenous like a tonkotsu base.
Ambience:
The lady tried to help us open and assemble our bowl ramen toppings despite our obviously Chinese heritage and short stature - both proof of the fact we grew up on Cup Noodle goodness.
Drink:
Dee's Grape Fanta, Rah's Apple-aloe drink
Both light and good complements to the fatty ramen stock. However, by the last 1/3 grape fanta was a little artificial, almost medicinal.

Floating Garden Observatory beautiful views @ dusk & psychedelic flooring. what more can you want?
recommended over the wtc observatory for above + 1. building has hole in it, 2. more central, 3. wishing tree (may only exist in december) - where we promptly hung stars with wishes on it -> we wish that our friendship will survive this trip

Dotonbori A whole street of restaurants, a must visit for any foodie. Or tourist. Or living being.
Be amused by street signs of giant crabs, puffer fish, octopi, dragons, running Glico man...

Dinner - Fugu @ Zuboraya
Fugu, literally "river pig", is the Japanese word for pufferfish. Fugu can be lethally poisonous due to its tetrodotoxin (a neurotoxin which paralyses in seconds). Only chefs who have qualified through rigorous training are allowed to serve fugu.
Its both our first times eating fugu, a highlight of this trip.

"ZUBORAYA"
Type: Fugu Restaurant
Location: Dotonbori, Osaka
Food: A set menu including
1. Grilled fugu 7/10
2. Fugu sashimi 8/10
3. Fugu pressed sushi 5/10
4. Marinated fugu with pickled vegetables 9/10
5. Fried fugu 4/10
6. Fugu in light broth 2/10

Dee's thoughts:

• Fugu has white flesh, a rubbery consistency a bit like squid.
  
• Flavour only comes out after a few chews, but there is no bad fishy taste.
  
• It can be overcooked and becomes tough easily like Kangaroo.
• The best dishes above was the Marinated Fugu, which had Fugu in a light citrus dashi (thus slightly cooked by acidity), carrot/cabbage/daikon as sweet and sour, green stems as salty and burnt bonito taste but still crisp, and a slice of sweet sweet carrot.
• Sashimi was sliced thinly. beautiful and light. We also got shreds of the skin which were rubbery and fun to eat.
  
• We grilled our own fugu with individual hotplates. Loads of fun, but gotta be quick or the meat turns tough.
• Sadly, the broth was disappointing (chunk of fugu was tough and dry despite being immersed in broth!), fried fugu tasted like fried food only KFC does it better, and the pressed sushi was alright. Ambience - it looked a bit shabby on the inside like a chinese restaurant, but we were served good green tea in cute fugu cups which makes up for it.
  

After dinner mint- Takoyaki

"DAI TAKO"
Location: Side street of Dotonbori
Food: 6 Takoyaki, original flavour
Out of the 5+ Takoyaki stands we saw today, we're glad we picked this one. We later learn its apparently been there for 30 years. Its the best. A large chunk of octopus, nothing like the stingy Chatswood markets. The cheapest around at Y300. 5/5.

Teaser: GIANT Rainbow pocky released in late November 2010.
Full review coming soon.