Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
Hey guys, how's it going?
Yeah, so I went to Osaka.
Yeah.
And I ate this croquette.
Okay.
It's a famous croquette.
Okay.
It's called Nakamuraya no Croquette.
Okay.
At Tenjinbashi Suji Shoten-gai.
That's the longest shoten-gai in Japan.
Oh, it's a pretty famous…
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think I know that.
And you have this little, very tiny shop calledNakamuraya.
Okay.
It's a stand.
Okay.
And they sell like croquette, like menchi-katsuand things like that.
I ate that.
Okay.
It was good.
You should try that.
Tell me the name again, what was it?
It's called Nakamuraya Croquette.
I mean, nothing fancy.
Like nothing…
It looks very normal.
Yeah, it's too ordinary, I would say.
But it's good.
Nothing fancy inside.
It's 100 yen.
It's 100 yen?
Yeah.
That's pretty…
Wow, that's pretty cheap.
It used to be 70 yen.
Okay.
They should do more.
Okay.
Yeah, I've never been here.
Yeah, you should visit.
Oh, okay.
It's always lined up.
People are lining up always.
Maybe you have to like wait a few minutes, but…
But it's just…
I'm sure it doesn't take a long time to process.
Yeah.
You know, you just pay and you just get the thing,right?
You don't have to wait for anybody to finisheating, right?
Okay.
Yeah, it was good.
It's just a croquette though.
Nothing, you know, honestly, nothing special,special.
But what did you like about it?
The crispness of the outside.
It was unusual.
Unusually crispy?
Yeah.
I feel like they're using something special.
Okay.
Something different.
Okay.
Not like it's unusual.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
One of our friends, she guided me.
Okay.
There was like local areas and she said even if itbecame like cold,
the croquette became cold, it's still crispy.
It's still crispy.
Oh my god.
How are they doing that?
It's like America.
Yeah.
I'm sure they're using something…
Something illegal?
Yeah.
I have a picture of the shop.
Is that…
Is this the inside or it's a different menu?
A different menu.
This is ham katsu, I think.
What I had was croquette.
Well, this is ham?
I think so.
Okay.
I saw the menu.
Ah, okay.
They had ham katsu.
I see.
Yeah, this one.
Like these.
Yeah.
Like right here.
This is like normal croquette.
Yeah.
Well, I think ham katsu would be a good choice.
Good too?
I think so.
They're all…
Yeah, I mean, I could try two or three.
It's like, I would say like very old-fashioned,you know, retro.
This has been, I don't know, for a very long year.
Oh, okay.
You know, good old shop.
Yeah, I mean, I would like to try that, you know.
I would love to try that.
These like old places that's been around for areally long time.
These foods, those foods tend to, I feel like, nothave too much character in it.
But like, you know, things like extremelyunusually crispy, that's interesting.
That's interesting.
Yeah, it's very old.
Nothing special, nothing fancy.
But like, it was good.
Oh, wow.
Okay, I gotta try a lot.
All right.
Yeah.
You know, when you go to Osaka, just like you saidbefore, I remember.
To me, there are not many things to do besideslike eating and drinking.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I went like this shop, like go to thisshop.
Okay.
You know, take a train and everything and just goto the shop and eat this.
And then take trains and like go to the next likecafe shop.
Because there's not much to do.
Yeah, I just did like tabeyaruki, but like a neatdistance version.
Okay, okay, I see.
Yeah, yeah.
I tried to go like areas, different areas to feelthat I was making a trip, kind of.
Ah, okay.
That's the Osaka style tabeyaruki then.
Yeah.
I saw like a debate online of like which area,Kanto versus Kansai, has better food.
Oh, yeah.
And one of the loncho was that in Kanto, there's alot of tasty food.
There's a lot of high tasty foods, right?
There's a lot of like, like if you pay more, youget more like great food.
And there's like, it's like an endless goodness.
Yeah, that's great.
But at the same time, Kanto has lots of hazure.
Ah, yeah.
But Kansai, it might not have as much of ahighness of Kansai, but it doesn't go as high,
but it doesn't go as low as Kanto.
Yeah.
Kanto, yes.
Yeah, Kanto, yes.
Right.
So like, yeah.
So do you want a high or high or do you want ahigh or low?
Oh, yeah.
Right? It's kind of like the, is a...
I see.
Right. So Kansai, Kansai, Kansai.
Yeah, Kansai area, you basically, there's nohazure.
Oh, yeah.
Is one of the longchou on the internet that wasgaining attraction.
What do you think about that? Do you think it'strue?
Yeah, I agree like in Kansai, like basically likeeverything is cheaper than Kanto's.
Okay.
Like especially Tokyo's.
Wait, what?
Especially like Tokyo's prices.
Which one are you talking about? Kansai or Kanto?
I'm talking about Kansai. They're cheaper than...
Oh, right. Okay. I see, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, but if you want to try something like veryexpensive, they have something like that.
Oh, in Kansai as well.
But yeah, so just like korokke, it's 100 yen.
Like I went to udon, famous udon shop, it costedjust 700 yen, something like that.
Nice.
So, yeah, I kind of agree with that.
There's not much hazure.
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
Yeah. But one thing I feel about Kansai is likewho's is, you know, we both,
you were born in America, but raised in Kantoarea.
Like my, our tongue taste is like very likeadjusted to the Kanto's taste, right?
Okay.
So compared to that, I feel like especially likenoodles.
Okay, like ramen?
Ramens, udons. To me, they are a bit thin as ataste.
I think it's the dashi taste are different.
So that's one.
I hear that.
I hear that a lot.
Yeah, I hear that.
So that's one thing you have to be careful, likenot be careful, but have to know.
Be ready for.
Yeah, it's a different taste.
Is it not popular?
Like a thick ramen?
Like Yokohama, Iekei style ramen?
They don't have that much Iekei ramen in Kansai.
Well, they have some of them, but it's, yeah.
Which one do you prefer?
Honestly, I prefer Kanto's taste.
Thicker ones?
Yeah, thicker ones, because I think I'm just usedto that taste.
Yeah, every time I see ramen, I imagine the taste.
Yeah.
And it's, you know, my imagination is like basedon those Kanto things.
Oh, yeah.
So yeah, to me, like Kansai ramen is more like ayatai thing, like very old.
I see.
You know, in Tokyo, ramen is like a decent onedish.
Right.
Treated as like one of the, you know.
Right.
The dishes.
That's right, yeah.
You go to like a bit fancy ramen shop and you dothis like maekake.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some shops you do that.
Yeah, it's like a ramen restaurant.
Oh, okay.
But in Kansai, it's more like a ramen ya.
So like what, like you decide five minutes beforegoing to the shop and you like randomly
go to that place?
It's more like, they're good, but it's more like,you know, it's like a very old fashioned.
It's nothing fancy.
It's like dirtier.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can say that.
Not air conditioned.
It's like, there's no doors.
Am I capturing it?
They have doors.
It's like counters.
It's air conditioned.
But, yeah, vibes are like that.
It's that kind of vibe.
It's more like, you don't pay that much for oneramen.
You know, in Tokyo, you pay like 2,000 or thingslike that.
Yeah.
They don't, it's different.
Uh-huh, it's much more.
More like a mukashi nagara no chuka soba.
I see, I see.
So, yeah, that's one thing I think you have toready, especially you're from Kanto.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I've never, I ate kasu udon in Osaka.
I didn't feel, I don't think I feel, yeah, I don'tthink I, I didn't feel like, oh, this
is too thin.
I mean, I liked it.
I loved it.
Yeah, I got to try the ramens.
Yeah, yeah.
Because I feel okonomiyaki, like takoyaki, likesushi, nikus, like pizzas and everything,
very good in Osaka.
Very good.
Yeah.
But like ramen, every time I eat ramens in Osaka,I feel like something is like different.
Like, what is this?
Like, why is this so popular?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I go to some recommended, like locally recommendedramen shops.
Oh, it's good, but some things are like differentfrom popular ramen shops in Tokyo.
I guess that if that shop comes to Tokyo, then Iguess it wouldn't be as popular.
Yeah, maybe I think so.
Yeah, yeah.
This is the different thing.
You know, I don't hear, you know, come to think ofit, you know, in Tokyo, we get ramen
shops from all over the country, right?
Like we got some Hakata ramens, we got some, what,I don't know, like Hiroshima ramens,
or I don't know if they have ramen, but like,yeah, all these styles of ramen.
I don't hear any Osaka ramens, you know, openingup in these like ramen dori.
True, true.
You have, we have, you know, the very thick ramen.
Tenkaippin?
Tenkaippin, yes, that's from Kyoto.
Yeah, okay.
So, but if you, you know, the thickest one,Kotteri ramen, is famous, but that's like
extraordinary thing.
Okay, okay.
If you try Assari Tenkaippin, and I think you canfeel the differences.
Oh, wait, there's a Assari Tenkaippin?
They have like three, four types.
They have like Assari, it's like very authentic,traditional, like shoyu ramen, like a Kansai
shoyu ramen, and you have Kotteri, and you haveKossari, it's in between.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, you know, the Kotteri is like very popular, soeverybody goes to this, but if you try
Assari Tenkaippin, I tried this once, and I feltthat vibe, like differences.
It's different from, like, even if you compare theKanto shoyu ramen, Kanto Assari ramen,
it's very different from that too.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's good, it's not, like, some things aredifferent.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You should try that.
Yeah, maybe the way they use their dashi orsomething?
Maybe, maybe.
That's very interesting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know what the essence is, but yeah.
Interesting, you gotta try that.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.