Street Food in Kansai

Aug 28, 2024

Street Food in Kansai

Street food is a handy and quick way to try out new dishes, an alternative to sitting down for a restaurant meal. It has grown in popularity in recent years and you can find stalls and kiosks serving tasty portions in many countries including Japan. The region of Kansai has many unique dishes, including a few mouth-watering street food recipes, with Osaka in particular embracing street food culture. Here is a selection of treats that you can expect to find.

Okonomiyaki

A street food staple in Kansai, okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake made with batter and shredded cabbage. The remaining ingredients? Well, that’s kind of up to you. Okonomiyaki translates as “grilled how you like it”, so you can pretty much add what you want. Meat, seafood, vegetables, even cheese. The mixture is cooked on a steel griddle and then topped with a garnish (typically seaweed or bonito flakes) and a sauce (Japanese mayo and/or a sweet brown okonomiyaki sauce). The Osaka okonomiyaki differs from the Hiroshima okonomiyaki as the latter is layered rather than mixed together, and also often includes noodles.

Takoyaki

The other big hitter in Kansai street food, Takoyaki are grilled balls made from a batter including dashi soup stock and soy sauce. These balls are filled with diced octopus meat along with a bit of ginger and spring onion. Similar to okonomiyaki, this hot snack is often topped with dried seaweed or fish flakes along with a sauce. The balls are served in a small tray and eaten with a toothpick-style skewer. Takoyaki originated in Osaka in the 1930s and can also be cooked up with other fillings such as cheese and bacon.

Kushiage

Sometimes called kushikatsu in the Osaka area, these are a quintessential street food snack in appearance. They are deep fried and served on bamboo skewers so you can eat them like an ice lollipop. Ingredients can be a range of meat, fish or vegetables coated in a breadcrumb finish and typically served with a dark, fruity ponzu sauce. Most stalls also provide some sliced raw cabbage on the side.

Mitarashi Dango

Dango is popular across Japan. Essentially, they are balls of mochi rice, millet, soba or wheat that are covered in a sweet sticky sauce glaze and served up on a skewer. You often find them at festivals and can also buy them from shop stores. The Mitarashi Dango is a Kansai version made with mochi rice cakes and dipped in a sweet soy sauce. They apparently originated at the Kamo Mitarashi Tea House in Kyoto in the 1930s and their name was inspired by their similarity to water bubbles. Great as a late night sharing snack.

Funazushi

Sushi is one of Japan’s most well-known culinary exports. You can find its many styles in restaurants, supermarkets and street food stalls all over the country. Funazushi is a Kansai speciality, one of the oldest sushi recipes in Japan. It’s made with funa fish found only in the region’s Lake Biwa and fermented for many years with pickled rice and salt to give it a distinctly strong taste. If you’re a sushi aficionado, keep an eye out for kiosks selling this.

I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons