Day 14: Osaka

Today is the last full day we have in Japan, and I only wanted the best food Japan could offer, meaning no more breakfast food from 7/11 anymore; it also means the best curry in Osaka and Kobe Beef in Kobe, Japan!

Well, our breakfast/lunch curry was indeed the best we’ve ever had! This little curry shop is run by a very nice Japanese guy and extremely good curry chef. His curry has just the right amount of flavor for sweetness, spiciness and cumin. The pork cutlets were also one of the best I’ve ever tasted! We were thoroughly satisfied!

Next was Osaka Castle. This magnificent building was built by the famous Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Born of a son of poor farmer family, he rose to power with his intelligence and cunning political skills, defeating all the Japanese clans in 16th century, and united Japan for the first time in history. Although since he invaded China and Korea during his later years, I’d only known him as a “bad guy”. It was very interesting to read his story in the castle museum, realizing how important he was in Japanese history.

His biological son was born when he was already 59 years old. In order to ensure his son’s successful succession, he executed the entire family of his adopted son.

His son was only 6 years old when he died, too young to truly rule the country. At age 26, an attack occurred on the castle which was led by the son’s rebellious uncle. The fall of the castle prompted the young shogun’s and his mother’s suicides, along with several generals.

You can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if his father hadn’t killed the entire family of the adopted son… history can be so brutal!

OK, enough about history, back to food! We thought it would be really cool to have Kobe beef in Kobe. So I reserved the seats at the best Kobe beef restaurant in Kobe. In order to make the reservation, I had to pay right then. So the most expensive meal we ever had was paid months prior us even arriving in Japan.

As soon as we laid our eyes on the two perfect pieces of Kobe beef, we knew we were about the have the best meal of our lives. I can’t even describe properly the first taste of a piece of Kobe beef. It was so tender that it could melt in your mouth! If the perfection can have a taste, this is it!

The entire process of cooking the beef was also well designed. Instead of having a large chuck of meat all at once, the chef broke the pieces into different sections, and cooked them separately between making vegetables: first, 4 small pieces of beef; then eggplant pieces; then 4 more small pieces of beef; then mushrooms… and so on. Every thing the chef put on our plates was so good that was mind boggling. The entire process lasted more than one hour! We were in food heaven!!

Japan, a country full of perfectionism, gave us the final act of perfection with this meal. I can’t think of a better way for us to end our trip to Japan.Baca selengkapnya