no fuss lemonade scones

Breakfast really is the meal for champions. Eggs benedict, pancakes, and french toast- it just seems like a shame that these foods are relegated to just the one time of the day. Unfortunately, my daily fantasies of a feast of a breakfast are soon dashed when I realise it requires getting out of bed earlier than desired just to fumble around in the kitchen.

on my plate - una-ju @ Kissho, Osaka

What better way to beat the heat of summer than with unagi? Well, if you ask me, I would have suggested Maxibons, gelato, an ice cold bear, or just about anything other than steaming hot eel with rice. How unagi came to be associated with summer is still debatable (some say it's because the fattiness of the eel gives you more energy to last in the humidity compared to regular fish, others say it's because foods starting with the character 'u' are connected to winter, and so its winter-associations are meant to counteract the heat of summer), but being in Osaka, I felt the need to do what Romans do, and gave it a shot.

My aimless wandering around Osaka finally paid off when I stumbled upon Kissho, a restaurant famed for its Edo-style (a.k.a Ye Olde Tokyo style) unagi. Yes, eating a Tokyo style dish in Osaka is essentially the same as going to Sydney to try South Melbourne dim sims, but my previous experience with unagi involved buying the discounted stuff from convenience stores, so my ability to discern quality eel from the regular stuff is probably quite low anyway.

Not the cheapest lunch I've had in Japan (about $28), but I guess there's no use complaining when the meat is rich, juicy, and slathered with sweet soy-based kabayaki sauce. I am still highly suspicious of its reputed summer-beating qualities, however, unless the food coma that occurred on the train immediately afterwards was pure coincidence.

Kissho
8-47 Kakuda-cho, Kita-ku
Osaka city, Osaka