fromosaka
Located right next to the second exit of Nihonbashi Station on the Osaka Metro, in a slightly mysterious mixed-use building. Take the elevator to the third floor, and you'll find yourself in a Chinese-style space with a Hong Kong vibe, complete with a painting of Jackie Chan and his friends enjoying dim sum. The tables are all beautifully crafted in black lacquer, with round tables in the back for larger groups. The head chef has 30 years of experience in authentic Cantonese cuisine from Hong Kong. The friendly and talkative owner, who is the chef's sister, has many regular customers due to the delicious food and great value, and the restaurant used to require reservations before the pandemic. The dim sum all-you-can-eat course is available for two people or more, but as a solo diner, I tried the owner's recommended Cantonese dishes. While most Chinese restaurants in Japan offer a variety of Cantonese dishes, such as mapo tofu (Sichuan cuisine) and green pepper beef, as well as Peking duck (Beijing cuisine), Cantonese cuisine is the focus at this restaurant. Cantonese cuisine is a fusion of various regional specialties from Guangzhou, Shunde, Dongjiang (Hakka cuisine), and Chaozhou, all within Guangdong Province. In Guangzhou, the culinary capital of China, many outstanding chefs are actually from Shunde, who have incorporated and improved upon dishes from other regions. Cantonese cuisine has spread worldwide, with words like "dim sum" and "wonton" commonly used in English and Japanese, thanks to Guangdong immigrants who settled in the United States, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, and other regions since the Qing Dynasty. In Japan, there are many Cantonese restaurants in Yokohama Chinatown and Kobe Nankinmachi, as these areas are home to many Cantonese immigrants. Cantonese cuisine is known for its use of dried seafood like shark fin, bird's nest, scallops, oysters, dried flounder, and other ingredients, with a focus on enhancing the natural flavors of the ingredients. The basic seasonings include sugar, salt, pepper, soy sauce, rice wine, and soup, with ginger and scallions adding flavor, and oil and cornstarch giving dishes a glossy finish. Other seasonings like oyster sauce, XO sauce, fish sauce, shrimp paste, vinegar, garlic, fermented bean curd, star anise, and fermented black beans are also used, all of which are familiar to us. Recently, I noticed a pattern while exploring Chinese restaurants - those run by Japanese owners are labeled as "Chinese cuisine," while those run by Chinese owners are labeled as "Chinese food." Perhaps this reflects the different tastes tailored to Japanese customers, with what we know as Chinese cuisine being referred to as such in Japanese. I have edited a video of the dishes I enjoyed, so please take a look if you're interested.【Nihonbashi】Hong Kong Rohttps://youtu.be/VQ6DGNTwWpQ