After going to Kyoto and Tokyo in 2014, I vowed to go back to Japan. The food, the culture, the impeccable train system, I was enamored by all of it. I was lucky enough to be back last month on another family vacation, but this time felt even more special because Matt is now part of our family.
We went to Osaka, one of the premiere food destinations in Japan. I read that the people of Osaka spend more money on food than anything else, and that their food culture is characterized by the term “kuidaore” which roughly translates to eat oneself bankrupt. Most people also commonly refer to it to mean: eat until  you drop. Osaka sounds exactly like my kind of place.

And eat we did!

It was snowing on our first night in Osaka, but we lucked out because there was a seafood restaurant right outside our airbnb  rental. (This is the 5-bedroom we rented, and we were all happy about how large and super convenient it was, minutes away from the Higashimikuni train station, and close to restaurants, grocery, and convenience stores). We had an amazing plate of shrimp tempura that I shared with Matt, my sister Patty, and Patty’s boyfriend Marlon. If I can time travel, I would go back to that night and order another plate of shrimp tempura all to myself. On another night, Matt and I walked to the restaurant area right outside the Higashimikuni train station and entered a little ramen place. I had the spicy miso ramen, a pure bowlof comfort  food. It wasn’t spic...