Seasonings of Osaka

What sets Osaka's seasonings apart

Osaka's seasonings are marked by two things of quite different character sitting side by side: a clear dashi, and a sweet local sauce. Edo-period Osaka was called the nation's kitchen, the collection point for kombu arriving on the Kitamaebune ships. A clear, kombu-led dashi took root in udon and clear soups, and cooks came to favor a style that does not wash out the color of the ingredients.

The other pillar is sauce. In a city where okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and kushikatsu became daily food, the demand was for a thick, sweet sauce that works with batter and flour, and a great many so-called ji-sauce brands from small makers have survived. Most of them lean hard on the sweetness of vegetables and fruit, tomato, onion, apple, and hold back the sharper acidity.

How Osaka's local sauces spread

Sauce took hold in Osaka on the back of its flour-based food culture. From the Meiji period onward, Worcestershire sauce production began across Japan, and in Osaka small and mid-sized makers appeared one after another. Once okonomiyaki and kushikatsu became everyday street food in the Showa period, the small-maker sauces known as ji-sauce, tuned to the taste of a particular shop or neighborhood, settled in for good. Some of those makers are still family-run and still brewing.

On the dashi side, the account handed down is that Edo-period Kitamaebune ships brought Hokkaido kombu into Osaka, and it was redistributed nationwide from Dojima and Semba. The reason Kamigata cooking came to be built on kombu dashi is credited to the city's position as that collection and distribution point.

Local dishes and their seasonings

Semba-jiru (船場汁)

A soup of salted mackerel trimmings and daikon simmered in kombu dashi. It is said to have started in the merchant houses of Semba as a staff meal that used up every part of the fish. Kombu dashi and salted fish together give the bowl a clean, clear taste.

Hako-zushi (箱寿司)

Osaka's pressed sushi, shaped in a wooden box. Sea bream, prawn, and conger eel are laid out for color, and it has long been eaten as sushi for special occasions. The simmering liquid, seasoned with usukuchi, soaks into the toppings.

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き)

Wheat batter and cabbage cooked on a griddle and finished with a thick coat of sauce, the dish Osaka is known for. It spread the habit of keeping sauce in the house and has underpinned demand for local sauce brands.

Makers in Osaka

• Iwami Shokuhin Kogyosho (Hermes Sauce)Founded in 1935
  A maker where a family of a few people brews the Worcestershire sauce Hermes in a small plant in Higashisumiyoshi. The recipe passes to one heir per generation, and with the official mail order backed up for months at a time, it has a reputation as a sauce you can hardly get hold of.
• Asahi Shokuhin (Asahi Ponzu)Founded in 1948
  Started in Yao as a dried noodle plant, and in 1967 released the ponzu called Asahi Ponzu. It combines sudachi, yuzu, and yuko from Tokushima with a dashi of kombu, bonito, and dried shiitake, seasoned to be used straight from the bottle, and has been a fixture in Kansai hot pot restaurants for decades.