Rewind to June, when I was planning to go back to Hawaii for the summer, I emailed Kirk to see if he would be there at the same time.
He replied that they were instead thinking of visiting Japan in the Fall...whoo!
Fast forward to last week Monday...we had plans to meet up but Typhoon Vongfong had other intentions.
And so yesterday, we finally got a chance to meet up.
Having read Kirk's blog for many years and then meeting up in person, it wasn't like we were meeting for the first time, there weren't many silent moments, just lots of conversation and lots of laughter.
At first we had planned to check out a cheesecake cafe, but the line was krazy, so instead we sat along the Dotombori river with coffees and chatted for awhile.
Then as the sun started to set, we decided to eat something and found ourselves at Kushikatsu Gokakuya.
The name "kushikatsu" are fried foods on a stick, "gokakuya"..."gokaku" means to pass an exam and "ya" is shop. This shop is kind of like a lucky place for students studying for exams.
They even have a stick called "gokaku kushi" which has a piece of beef, pork and chicken and is supposedly good luck...which I found out about afterwards while researching for this post.
As I read off most of the menu for Kirk and the Missus to choose from, Satoshi was in-charge of yelling our order to the cooks.
We started off with enoki wrapped with bacon, quail eggs, red ginger, horumon (pork innards), tan (tongue) and "big" kushikatsu, some karaage (fried chicken), pickled cucumber, and wasabi tako (octopus).
The missus loved the sauce...
Gokakuya's sauce is their own special blend, a little sweet and tangy. The panko they use to bread the different food items is fine and gives the outer coating its crunch and keeps things light when fried.
In Osaka, remember when eating kushikatsu...no double dipping!
um, we all decided that we tried whale and can now cross it off our bucket lists...(if you are curious, it tastes like the "dark part" of a fish).
We had a great time, I hope Kirk and the missus enjoyed themselves and had enough to eat.
I hope they come back to Japan soon! (I can't believe with all the travelling they have done that this was their first trip to Japan!)
It was so nice to meet up, lots of eating, lots of talking...Thank you Kirk and the Missus!
Kushikatsu Gokakuya (Sennichi-mae Honten)
1-7-5 Dotombori
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6214.4194
Hours: Mondays-Fridays 15:00-23:00
Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays 11:00-23:00
8 comments:
It's so cool that you and Kirk got to meet. Kushikatsu sounds interesting! When me and Leslie were in Japan we were at a kushiyaki place and I accidentally ordered chicken skin (although I acted like I meant to do it). It was good!
lol Jalna :) I'm glad you liked it.
Take care.
Kat
Nice! I'm glad you guys finally got to meet too!
Thanks Dennis! It was fun.
Take care.
Kat
Hi Kat - It was such a pleasure (finally) meeting the both of you! Thanks so much for taking the time out to meet. It was such fun!
Looks like a fun and delicious meetup!
Lucky people, all of you! I saw something on one of Bourdain's shows where he was scarfing down a lot of fried stuff on a stick, so this post brought that to mind.
For some reason I thought Kirk and the Missus had already visited Japan before!
Satoshi is already thinking about visiting you guys, Kirk :) Thanks again!
it was K!
I'm gonna look for that episode, Rowena :)
Take care everyone!
Kat
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