The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry | A Sydney Food Blog

Things we ate in Osaka, part two

December 18th, 2010  |  Published in Travel  |  1 Comment

_enjoy_willscoffee

I went to Enjoy! Cafe in search of a bear. Instead, I got a Siamese heart. And a snowman.

Here, customising your coffee goes beyond just tapping in the odd packet of sugar; instead, you can request a drawing in your coffee: a rabbit, leaf or not-quite-scientific girl (really, a charming loveheart with a female face). If you want more portraiture with your brew, you can walk to nearby Cafe Jojo, another Amy discovery, where you can sip on a Panda-ccino or order Miyazaki’s lovable Totoro illustrated from frothed milk.

Enjoy cafe, Osaka, Japan

Enjoy! Cafe isn’t just about caffeine – although its unending collection of mugs would suggest otherwise. You can also get a Toast ‘Setto’, a jumbo-thick slice of bread with cheese that, in melting, still obeys the rules of geometry, as well as a few sidekicks (such as a scraggly salad dressed in all-magic Japanese mayo), and minus ham, if you’re vego. It’s not super-serious food, but I like how the Japanese remix a Western breakfast, giving it some eccentric beats.

Enjoy cafe, Osaka, Japan

And among the Snoopy figurines, the selection of cheery, unironic mugs (how great is the “Pray For Waves” cup?) and other oddities (like a random pink toy elephant keeping a pot plant happy), there’s a sign in the cafe that simply says, with untameable enthusiasm: “Now! I am happy!” Where else, but at a place called Enjoy!?

Enjoy! Cafe, Ōsaka-fu Ōsaka-shi Nishi-ku南堀江3丁目4−1; click here for a map.

Enjoy cafe, Osaka, Japan

Instant Ramen Museum
Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

In 1958 – to the benefit of future time-poor students everywhere – Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen in his backyard shack in Osaka.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

Given the world-wide popularity of these noodles (85.7 billion packets were tipped into bowls and slurped up in 2007), there’s also a museum dedicated to his creation.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

It’s located in Ikeda, the suburb where Momofuku Ando made his discovery. And from the moment you see the statue of him, posed atop an instant noodle cup, you know that this isn’t a staid, overly academic institution but a fun, semi-goofy spot to visit.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

Inside, there’s a theatre in the shape of a giant noodle bowl, a tunnel of ramen (displaying noodle products all the way back to the ’50s), an exhibition of “Instant Noodles of the World” (Germany, Mexico and India, reprazent), Space Ram (a replica of the stratosphere-busting ramen that was deployed on the Discovery space shuttle in July, 2005) and, most importantly, a section dedicated to making your own instant noodles.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

For 300 yen, you get to create your own cup of ready-boil ramen to take home. First, you wash your hands in some hi-tech mist that reaffirms all your feelings about how advanced Japan is. Then you get a styrofoam noodle cup to decorate and personalise (which reaffirms all your feelings about how unadvanced your drawing/colouring-in skills are). Then you get to hand-crank dried ramen out of the “Noodle Shooter” before choosing your four toppings and soup base.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

Both Will and I started with a Curry soup base and, curious as I was about selecting cheese (!) as a topping for instant noodles, I stuck to the less experimental-sounding garlic chips, egg, asparagus and corn.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

Will, like a lot of people, had perfected his list of Best Four Toppings To Choose only to do a topping reshuffle when he saw the discs stamped with super-cute chickens (the cartoon is the mascot of Nissin, Momofuku Ando’s instant ramen brand). But don’t let your eyes hoodwink you, this topping flavour is actually seafood …!

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

After instructing the attendants on your flavour choices, your cup is then sealed, shrink-wrapped and then placed in a bag which you air-pump into a massive cushion to prevent the tiniest possibility that you might bump your noodle cup, causing an instant ramen tragedy of having to perhaps work your chopsticks 4 per cent harder in fishing out strands that have snapped off the main noodle cluster. I’m pretty sure this overprotective packaging could also double as an airbag in emergency situations.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

Another highlight of the museum was the cafe which, at first glance, looked like an uninviting room furnished with nothing more than tables and vending machines, ambiently fed with an audio loop of Nissin jingles and (inexplicably) Bon Jovi. It turned out that the machines were stacked with limited-edition and hard-to-get packs of instant noodles, which was why all the locals in front of us were frenziedly buying up.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

Even though packaged ramen is self-serve by definition, I loved how – once you slotted in your yen and your styrofoam cup tumbled down the machine for collection – the staff actually came over to your table and poured the boiling water into your noodles and instructed you, precisely, to wait “three minutes”.

Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka

I bought “Udon de Sky”, which apparently is a pun (supposedly it sounds like “is it udon?” in Japanese) and was first served to “executive class” passengers on Japan Airlines back in 1992. Its in-flight history is best illustrated when you peel back the lid and discover the noodles are topped with miniature aeroplanes.

Japan is awesome.

Ramen Museum, Osaka

Instant Ramen Museum, 8-25 Masumicho Ikeda, Osaka, click here for a map. The museum is a half-hour train ride from Umeda, on the Hankyu train line. Admission is free. There are also workshops where you can make noodles from scratch (it’s full of kids and looks like the set of Junior Masterchef), but you need to book ahead. Visit the website for more details.

Ramen Museum, Osaka

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One Comment

  1. Ooooooh the instant ramen museum looks awesome! Will definitely have to stop in next time I’m in Osaka 🙂
    Coffees are super kawaii. 🙂

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Hi, I'm Lee Tran Lam. When not blogging with my mouth full, I'm usually writing, presenting Local Fidelity on FBi radio, making zines, producing podcasts or continually breaking promises about how I really am gonna get through my book pile one day.

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This is a blog about eating and drinking in Sydney, Australia (with the odd cross-border or off-topic detour). BYO appetite.

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