Kuromon Market

Osaka's kitchen, in the same sense that Nishiki is Kyoto's: a covered lane about 580 metres long with some 150 shops, trading since the early 1800s, supplying the restaurants of Minami with fish, meat and vegetables. The name comes from the black gate of a temple that stood nearby and burned down in 1912.

The chefs still shop here in the early morning. By ten the market has changed character completely, and what fills it is street food aimed at visitors: king crab legs on the grill, scallops in the shell, wagyu skewers, uni on a spoon, tuna cut to order. Some of it is very good and almost none of it is cheap. A crab leg can run several thousand yen, and the price is usually posted, so read before you point.

Osaka is the fugu capital of Japan, consuming most of the country's pufferfish, and Kuromon has stalls selling it grilled and shops with tanks of live ones outside. The licence required to prepare it takes years, so the risk is theoretical.

What has not changed: the fish shops will grill or fry what you buy and hand it back on a plate, which is the way to eat here. Standing tables are provided. Prices at the back of the market are lower than at the entrance.

Nippombashi station is at one end and Dotonbori is a ten-minute walk from the other, with Den Den Town, Osaka's electronics and anime quarter, immediately south. Most shops shut by five or six in the evening.