Ramen:
We'll start with Ramen, one of Japan's well known dishes along with Sushi. A Ramen bowl consists of Chinese style noodles served in meat based broth flavored with either soy sauce or miso. Toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, bamboo shoots, and green onions are quite common.
In Japan, almost every region/prefectures has their own variation of Ramen from the broth to the toppings. The Ramen you see above was ordered from a local Ramen shop chain and it's known as the Tokyo style Ramen which consists of curly noodles in a soy sauce based chicken broth. Toppings here include sliced chicken, spinach, green onion, and fried onion.
Takoyaki:
On to the next dish, Takoyaki, one of Osaka's soul food. Takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a flour-based batter and cooked in a special cast iron pan. Fillings often consists of diced octopus which is why is called Takoyaki because tako is octopus. The Takoyaki is then topped with a sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, thin green dried seaweed, and dried bonito shavings.
If you don't like the idea of eating octopus, a great option Okonomiyaki, another soul food from Osaka. It's essentially the same but it is shaped as a pancake and the base is made out of cabbage not diced octopus. It has the same toppings so you'll still get the same great flavor.
Karaage:
One thing I'm sure everyone will love is Karaage, which essentially is Japanese style fried chicken. Karaage itself is just the technique in which the meat, usually chicken but can be fish and other meat as well, is dipped in light batter and fried in light oil. It is similar to how tempura is fried. Karaage can be served in different ways such as a wrap or on it's own with a slice of lemon and salad as shown below.
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