Eating ??? (Basashi)
It seems every time I go to Japan, I try something else a little off the beaten culinary path. There was that raw chicken meal last fall as well as the tuna eye in Okinawa. At this point, sea cucumber and such seems a little tame. I still need to try blowfish. But this time, with a few days in Japan’s foodie city, Osaka, I decided to get back on the horse after my Kazakhstan equine dine.
 

So my friend Rie, a resident of Osaka, helped me find some basashi (???) or horse sashimi. She made reservations at Toitoi, a sort of izakaya, down a few side streets just a short walk southeast from Osaka Station. This was Kyushu-style, similar but still different from the other after-work sort of grilled/fried goes-with-sake or Super Dry sort of thing. In fact, this one had a hot volcanic rock as a grill at each table.  

All the sakes were from the region as well.

We order scallops, to be grilled, drizzled with lemon, then butter and rock salt. Tasty and tender.
 

We had some not so tender pieces of chicken with a nice barbecue sauce, soy sauce, and pureed sweet onion.

A salad of cucumbers cut into wedges and drizzled with a bit of oil were designed to make sure the gaijin flings his food at some point with his chopsticks. Three-second rule ? I still ate that piece. Delicious and simple. The cucumbers are smaller, denser, and more flavorful. Another item to add to the menu at home.
 
Rie the Grillmaster
Rie tells me the large onions ...