Kansai eat · Eating in Kansai
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Eating in Kansai
Eating in Kansai
Kansai cooking is subtly different from the Kanto style, although the average short-term visitor is unlikely to spot many differences. Perhaps the most visible differences are a tendency to use light-colored soy instead of dark, especially in soups, and a preference for thick white udon noodles over the thin buckwheat soba noodles of eastern Japan.
Some famous Kansai dishes include:
sabazushi (鯖寿司 mackerel sushi), Battera of Osaka, sabazushi in Kyoto, or kaki-no-ha zushi (柿の葉寿司) from Nara are local variants of this type
okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), variously described as Japanese pizza or pancakes. Although Hiroshima also makes a strong claim for this name, they are in fact reasonably different from each other. (Hiroshima style tends to come cooked on a pile of noodles.)
takoyaki (たこ焼き) is the common name for the fried balls of octopus and batter. Akashiyaki (明石焼き) from Akashi City area is recognized as the origin of the more famous Osaka-style takoyaki. As opposed to the Osaka-style being served with dark and thick sauce on it, Akashiyaki are eaten without sauce but dipped into clear soup. When visiting takoyaki bars, the various fillings mentioned are generally substituted for octopus, rather than being an addition.
beef (和牛), there are famous beef brands; Kobe beef (神戸牛), Matsusaka beef (松阪牛), Tajima beef (但馬牛) and Omi beef (近江牛).
udon (うどん) is the popular noodle in Osaka instead of soba in Tokyo. Another udon area, Sanuki in Shikoku, is famous for delicious noodles, while Osaka is famous for delicious soup.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Kansai
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Kansai Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.