Bit of a strange day today. I was on my way to the school where I teach German to meet a potential student who wants to study ballet in Germany when I received a Line message cancelling the meeting, so I suddenly had an hour and twenty minutes of spare time before my scheduled children's classes...
So, instead of catching the tram, I walked to the park where I practise deadhanging but I wasn't able to equal, let alone beat, my 72 second deadhanging record today. I managed about a minute the first time, and then only about 30 seconds the second time.
After that, I popped down to the sea-front to see the sea. It was very peaceful. There was only one other person down on the seafront.
Then I walked all the way to the school, and got there in good time for my other two classes.
In the second class, a new girl joined my two funny kids as a potential student. She's only six, a year or two younger than my regular kids, but she's lived in America and her parents don't want her to forget her English. She was very shy at first, but was soon howling with laughter at the mistakes - deliberate or unintended - of the two regular students.
The boy is a bit of a joker. Today's topic was "illnesses" and he got a kick out of deliberately pronouncing "stomachache" with "chi" sounds - sto-match-aitch - and continued to mangle the word until it sounded like "Starbucks" to the delight of the new student.
I rather hope she decides to stay with our class as I think it will be a hoot to have her in the mix.
Anyway, that was my last class, which finished at 7pm, so I had time to get the tram back to my neck of the woods and check out a ramen and gyouza restaurant in the new Aeon City Shopping Mall that opened in December just a stone's throw from where I live.
Osaka Ohsho 大阪王将
Osaka Ohsho built its reputation on its gyouza (dumplings). The chain started in Osaka in 1969 and became famous for it's high-quality but affordable gyouza. The dumplings are typically pan-fried to a golden crisp on one side while remaining tender and juicy inside. They are a bit bigger than your average gyouza and well stuffed too.
The name "Osaka Ohsho" means "Osaka King-General. The Ohsho (王将) is shogi piece, the equivalent to the king in chess. The "sho" of Ohsho is the same character as the "sho" of "Shogun" (将軍), where it combines with the word for "army" - "gun" (軍) to mean "army general."
I was attracted to the restaurant by it's red decor and the layout which gives each table a fair amount of space and semi-privacy with high partitions separating the tables. I also like the idea of hunkering down on a set menu of ramen, fried rice, and gyouza, along with a beer at the end of the day, and to be able to do so in relative peace while sat at a reasonably sized table on comfortable bench seats, where you can mind your own business in relative peace and quiet.
I got there around 8pm and was invited to sit where I liked. The first thing I noticed was the computerized ordering system, which is now the standard way of doing things in chain restaurants. I ordered the "Ohsho Setto" for ¥1,280 and a Suntory draft beer for ¥490.
The "Ohsho Setto" consists of chuka soba 中華そば ("Chinese noodle" ramen), gyouza 餃子, and yakimeshi 焼き飯 (fried rice). According to the blurb on the menu, the chuka soba,
醤油感溢れ、多めの葱油を加えた熱々のスープで、どの料理にも合うように仕上げています。
With a rich soy sauce flavor and a generous amount of scallion oil added to the piping hot soup, is crafted to pair well with any dish.
Well, all I can say is that the first thing I noticed when the Ohsho set landed on my table was that the fried rice and the chuka soba and even the gyouza were somewhat lacking in the "piping hot" department.
Fried rice tends to cool down fairly quickly at the best of times, so it's best to serve it in a bowl rather than on a plate, to keep the heat in better. Another advantage of a bowl is that the walls of the said crockery provide some purchase for your spoon when scooping up the rice. Unfortunately, I rather cackhandedly scooped some rice right off the plate and onto the table. Just goes to prove my point about the unwise choice of crockery at Osaka Ohsho!
How about flavour?
Well, not bad - it's difficult to go wrong with ramen, rice, and gyouza, after all, but nothing to write home about. Not a patch on my good old local ramen restaurant's cooking - I speak of Dossanko Ramen, which I have blogged about a couple of times before, here,
@hirohurl/from-sardines-to-spicy-miso-a-3-course-ramen-feast-for-less-than-11
and here,
@hirohurl/hanchan-ramen-at-my-local-ramen-restaurant
The gyouza were fine, but again, not noticably more delicious than anything I've had elsewhere.
The one big positive note, however, was that the beer was promptly served and in a good sized "chu-jokki" 中 ジョッキ (medium-sized beer mug) that was well filled with beer, which is not always the case in some restaurants where the beers arrive with almost as much head as there is beer in the glass.
So my final verdict is that Osaka Ohsho, while not being anything to write home about - or write reviews on the Hive blockchain about - it does represent another option when it comes to chilling out and pigging out at cheap chain restaurants where one can mind one's own business and zone-out in a comfortable environment, and maybe order another beer to extend one's stay!
I didn't to that tonight, but "cheers" anyway!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus