Osaka’s Kuromon Ichiba Market was established in the early 1900s during the mid-Taisho era and contains over 170 shops along a length of almost 600 meters. Although primarily catering to the restaurant industry, the market is open to the public and contains a huge variety of places selling all kinds of fresh local delicacies, with a focus on fresh seafood.
It’s important to note that in Japan, it is considered rude to walk around while eating. If you do get something to eat from one of the stalls, stand to the side and eat it before continuing to walk around.
This place was selling a variety of raw, steamed and grilled seafood. My wife and I tried scallops and conk which were raw and, as I suppose seems obvious, very fresh.
Quite a few stalls were selling cold tempura. I assumed that they wouldn’t taste that good as they had been sitting out for a while but we tried a few things and they were still very tasty and crispy.
While the market predominantly deals with fresh fruit and vegetables and seafood, there are some meat stalls too. This place sold varying grades of Kobe beef.
It was simply cooked on the hotplate and served with some salt and pepper on the side. I’d tried wagyu beef before but this was by fat the best I had ever tasted. The sirlion was very tender, and the fat melted as soon as it hit my tongue. It was extremely luxurious and the taste remained in my mouth for quite a while. Up to an hour later I was still repeatedly making comments to my wife about how amazing it was.
Osaka’s Kuromon Ichiba Market is well worth a visit both to try a variety of food and to see a slice of everyday Osaka life in action.