A Few Things Made Better Than So Many Things Made Badly

Osaka Station, Osaka.  November 3, 2011.  Almost 10 p.m.

We have just arrived from Kansai where we landed from Manila.  Just like last year's trip, Michiko and I didn't make any plans for this first night when we get to Osaka.  The next day we will be off to Tokyo for a 6-night stay before we go back to Osaka again for another 5 nights.

We always assign this arrival night as the adventure time.  As someone who is not really too adventurous with any sort of extreme sport or leisure, a night without hotel and itinerary is already my idea of a great adventure.

Upon exiting Osaka station, we just walked straight crossing whatever street that's ahead of us.  We are looking for a good dining place.  That's first.  Sleeping place is second.  But for now, filling up the tummy is top of mind.

On the first cross, we already passed a commercial building.  How do I know?  Because there's a Starbucks Coffeeshop in the corner.

Like most commercial buildings in Japan, there is always a restaurant floor in there somewhere.  Either on the top floor or in the basement.  With this one, it was in the basement.  So off we went down the escalator.  Everything's closed.  Lots of pictures and plastic food "sculptures" on the shop windows but everything is closed.  We went up again.

We continued our walk towards the inner part of the streets.  One key rule in looking for restaurants in Japan is to go for the side streets.  I don't know why but most of the restaurants, if they're not inside a building, are most probably behind the main streets.  They line up one after the other.  And mind you, they're quite aware of competition.  Every restaurant or izakaya does not sell the same kind of Japanese food when they're beside each other.  One place serves tempura or tonkatsu, next one all sushi, the next soba, after that is a grill place and then some ramen house, and then the next set of stalls will repeat the cycle of types of food being served.

We found the nearest side street and walked around.  It was a quiet night.  The street is almost empty.  This is unlike the Dotonbori district in the heart of Osaka where it is just bustling with people.  That was a lazy night by Osaka standards.  

We found this quaint little place towards the end of the street.  We didn't know anything about it except that we kinda liked the pictures outside and decided to give it a try.  The pictures showed a ramen, a bowl of rice with EEEGGG and a tray of Gyoza.

Inside, except for the man cook and a lady waitress (sort of), we were the only ones inside.  When we sat down, the waitress gave us a menu that looks exactly like the placard outside the resto except that it's smaller.  We asked for an English menu and she said there's none.  Not knowing what else is written in that one-page menu, we decided it would be easier to just order the pictures.  So we ordered all that was pictured in the menu: the ramen, the bowl of EEEGGG rice and the gyoza.  No Coke.  Just tea.  Off the waitress went and handed the order to the cook.  She then brought out a tray and a container and started making gyoza, fresh.  Woooot!  The lady waitress doubles as a gyoza maker too.

The ramen was good.  It had the basic boiled pork belly on it and the classic leeks.  But this one had a soft-boiled egg in it.  Shit!  Egg!  Perfect!

The bowl of egg rice was simple and heavenly.  The eggs were wet and mushy laid on top of fried rice.  The fried rice was mixed with shoyu, burnt spring onions and a bit of garlic.  Oishii!

Finally, the gyoza made by that lady waitress.  Hmmmm, it was just OK.  The meat filling was a mush although the casing had a nice texture.  But I've tasted better gyozas before.

As our food were served, two groups of black suited working Japanese men entered and took the two tables of this 4-table hole-in-the-wall.  We wanted to find out what they ordered so we waited a bit to see what they had.  They all ordered the same ramen we did.  That's it!  Ramen only.  Plus a glass of beer each.

This is what I love about Japan.  They have these small stalls that only serve one kind of food; the food that they're good at.  They don't venture for any other types of food just to give their customers choices.  They only serve what they know how to do best and that's it.  Nothing more.

In this small place, they only serve three things in there and those types of food are not even the most complicated to do.  With ramen, they just have a stock that's boiling the whole time.  A portioned noodles in plastic containers.  Pre-cooked super tender pork belly and freshly cut leeks.  For the egg dish, it was just the egg and the fried rice.  The gyoza was the most complicated there.  But the meat filling is already prepared earlier.  It's the wrapping it by hand that makes it a bit more complicated than the other two dishes they serve.

Those three dishes plus 4 tables and they have a restaurant already.

Akihabara station.  November 7, 2011.  10:20 p.m.

After a long day at Yodobashi building going from one floor to the next looking at all the electronic stuff in there, it was time to go back to our hotel in Ikebukuro.  Akihabara is around 14 stops to Ikeburo.  That's quite a trip.  So before going into the train, I made a quick nicotine break just outside the station.

Right beside where I was smoking, there was a small van parked on the corner with quite a line of people waiting.  Michiko and I were curious to see what it was so we took a closer look.

Inside the van was a guy making crepes.  The kind of crepes that's very Japanese.  The one with the fruits, a bit of chocolate and an ice cream on top of it.  The crepe is not even really a crepe.  It's more like a softer barquillos (this tubular sweet, flaky delight from my hometown).

Anyway, this guy was going at the crepe-making all by himself.  Lay down the crepe mixture on the round, flat pan to cook it.  Place the whipped cream from the piping bag, smother it with chocolate sauce, put a few banana slices, top it with a scoop of ice cream, wrap the crepe around the filling, cover it with a paper napkin and serve it.  One after the next they were being served the same way with the same precise movement of the crepe maker.  It helps a lot that he's playing loud music in his van.  He makes the crepes almost to the beat of the music playing.

We were thinking, this guy could have been here the whole day serving the same thing to a line of people, listening to music to keep him going.  And when he's done, he'll just hop into the front seat and drive away.

I've tried one of these crepes in Osaka last year.  It wasn't really my kind of thing.  I'd still go for Cafe Breton's basic sugar and butter crepe over this.  But the Japanese sure loves it.

This guy only makes crepes and yet he manages to make a living out of it.  And he has a line of people to prove it.  A van, some music and just loads of crepes all day long is enough.

TO BE CONTINUED...