Fried ── Fried dishes
Kushikatsu
skewered and deep-fried cutlet
Thin-sliced beef and vegetables skewered, breaded, and deep-fried, said to have originated in Osaka's Shinsekai district as a quick, filling meal for local laborers. Known for its shared-sauce 'no double-dipping' rule.
- Origin: Osaka City, Osaka
- About 400 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Thin-sliced beef, vegetables, and seafood are skewered, coated in a thick crumb, and flash-fried in hot oil. Lifting the skewer brings a light crunch first, and each ingredient along its length offers a different bite and flavor as you work through it. The shared sauce pot, and the 'no double-dipping' rule that governs it, has become as much a part of the dish as the food itself.
How it's made
A loose batter of flour and water coats skewered ingredients before they're rolled in panko and fried for one to two minutes at 180°C. Beef, quail egg, lotus root, and shishito pepper are among the many fillings used, each skewer said to be tuned for how it cooks and how it tastes. Sauce comes from a pot shared among diners, with each skewer dipped in only once by house rule.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that in the late Taisho to early Showa years, workers around Tsutenkaku Tower in Osaka's Shinsekai district needed a quick way to fill up cheaply, and thin beef in a thick crumb, fried on a stick, was devised to meet that need. Cheap, fast, and good, condensed onto a single skewer, it's said to have gained a reputation postwar as a fry with little risk of food poisoning, and Shinsekai grew a street lined with shops devoted to it.
Before you go
- Tanabata and festival food stallsA guide to the somen said to be eaten on Tanabata, and to festival-stall staples like yakisoba, takoyaki, candy apples, and shaved ice.
- Takeout and convenience store customsHow to answer "Shall I warm it up?", choosing chopsticks and a paid plastic bag, saying whether you'll eat in or take out, handling trash and eating while walking, and the different tax rate for takeout versus eating in.
- At yatai food stalls and while eating on the streetPaying and ordering at a yatai food stall, handling your trash, the etiquette of eating as you walk, and how to step into a Hakata yatai.
Dishes in the same style
- Agemaki Yuba no NimonoFresh yuba sheets are layered, rolled into a log, sliced into rounds, and deep-fried before a slow simmer in a light broth — a Nikko dish built on the region's rippled yuba-making craft, served at New Year's and celebrations.
- Aji FryFilleted horse mackerel breaded in panko and fried. Chiba prefecture holds some of the richest mackerel fishing grounds in Japan, and frying is thought to have taken root as a quick way to eat regional brands like the oily 'golden aji' fresh.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Osaka
- AkanekoSteamed sticky rice pounded with wheat flour is dusted with sugar and soybean flour — also called hangesho mochi, for the rite marking the end of rice planting. The whole-ground wheat flour once left the mochi brownish, said to resemble a cat's round back and give the dish its name.
- BatteraThin slices of vinegared mackerel and white kelp sheet are pressed together in a wooden mold. A sushi shop in Minami-Senba is said to have devised it in 1891, naming it after the Portuguese word for a small boat because the original version, made with konoshiro, resembled one.
- Beni Shoga TenThin slices of red ginger, pickled in plum vinegar, are battered and deep-fried. The plum vinegar's tang and the ginger's bite are said to suit drinks well, and the fritter appears as a one-sen tempura in Sakunosuke Oda's 1940 novella 'Meoto Zenzai,' evidence of how long it has fed ordinary Osakans.
- Beni-zuiki to Aburaage no TaitanBeni-zuiki, reddish taro leaf-stalks that can grow to 2 meters tall, is soaked in vinegared water to remove its bitterness, then simmered with fried tofu in dashi and soy sauce — a summer obanzai dish. Its spongy cross-section is said to soak up flavor well, and it has been named a Naniwa specialty product.
- Dote YakiParboiled beef tendon simmers for a long time against a bank of miso and mirin piled around the pan's edge like a levee, or dote. Rich and sweet-savory, it pairs well with drinks and is said to be a beloved downtown Osaka food, with many shops concentrated in the Shinsekai district.
- EhomakiA thick sushi roll eaten whole and in silence while facing the year's auspicious direction on Setsubun, the last day of winter. Its origin is not settled, but theories passed down include a game among the geisha quarters and a prayer for prosperity by Osaka's Semba merchant houses.