Taking the Midosuji Line, Chiba and Haibara Ai arrived at Umeda from Shinsaibashi Station - their destination, where the New Umeda Food Street is located.

Shin-Umeda Shokudōgai is a food business district opened after the war (December 15, 1950). Over the decades, a store group of 18 small stores has become a store group composed of hundreds of stores with their own characteristics.

Regional signboard.

"What's queuing up over there?" As soon as she approached Shin-Umeda Shokudō Street, Haibara Ai found a line of people queuing out from the entrance of Shin-Umeda Shokudō Street. "Do I still need to queue to get in here?"

"No," Qianyu shook his head. "This is a shop that sells takoyaki. I remember the name is..."

The auxiliary unit enlarged the screen and enlarged the small characters that were originally unreadable.

"はなだこ"(hanadako)

"If you want to eat here, it looks like it will be troublesome?" Haihara Ai looked at the long queue and asked worriedly.

"Not only is it troublesome, but you can only eat it standing up..." Qianyu's mouth twitched. "Also to be honest, I don't particularly like the sauce of takoyaki - I don't like the sweetness produced by this sauce."

The taste of Osaka-style takoyaki is generally the same - sweet, which is not Chiba's favorite taste.

"So let's see if there are any small shops with fewer people inside?" Haibara Ai was obviously worried about the rather scary length of the queue.

"There are some stores where you can eat, so don't worry - there are even some stores where the food can be packaged, and we can even take it back to eat again." Qianyu replied. "There is one thing about the stores here -

—Most of them are time-tested and time-honored brands, and their ability to be active here is due to the quality of the food in their stores.”

If we simply talk about time-honored brands, there is actually a very famous shop here - Mizume, which was founded in the first year of Honghua (1844). This shop, which has been established for 150 years, should be regarded as the oldest oden shop in Japan.

But this is also the reason why Qianha will not choose this store - as a Kanto native, there will always be something wrong when eating oden in Osaka, Kansai.

If you want to eat what is called oden here, why would you come to Osaka to eat it? Just find a restaurant in Tokyo and try it...

So the first store Chiba chose was Sakura Sakura (Sakura Assorted Grill). After entering Shoto Street from Sakura, turn left at the last corner, walk forward two shops and you will see one of this store on the left

——There are three Sakura Assorted Yaki stores in total, all of which are located here. (It is worth mentioning that the two large Sakura Assorted Yaki stores are located opposite the toilets and smoking rooms on Shokuda Street, and the third store

It is located next to the smoking room.)

The reason why I chose this store is that, contrary to the oden restaurant above, Sakura Oden is a long-established and popular Oden. It is good at making orthodox oden that is simple but can reflect the characteristics of oden.

"Would you like to sit at the bar?" Qianyu asked Haihara Ai. "I can see the process of making assorted yaki over there."

"I listen to you, you are familiar with this place, you have the final say." Haiyuan Ai just showed a faint smile.

Qianyu nodded, and took Haiyuan Ai to sit in front of the empty bar - it was already after nine o'clock, and the crowds could not be compared with the eight o'clock during the heyday, so he found two empty bar seats

I'm just lucky, not to the point where I need to buy lottery tickets.

"What do you want?" the waiter in front of them asked.

"Hmm -" Chiba glanced at the menu. "Let's take the Egg Chowder (Mitako Tamago)."

"I'll have a piece of this too." Haihara Ai chose the same dish as Qian Yu.

"Are you coming too?" Qianyu was a little surprised after hearing Haihara Ai's choice. "If that's the case, we might be full after eating here."

"What do you mean?" Haiyuan Ai was a little surprised, but he immediately reacted.

Next to them, a pair of young men and women who are obviously lovers are sharing the same piece of assorted yaki. As long as you use the cutlery shovel here to cut the assorted yaki into several pieces, even two people can share the same portion of food.

"Eating a little from each store and tasting more of the specialties of several stores is a classic practice here," Qianyu glanced at the direction Haibara Ai was looking at and said after realizing that he should have understood what he meant. "How about it?

?Or just order one?"

"If you order one portion each, you may be full at our place," the waiter suddenly intervened. "If you two order one portion, you can also taste food from other stores."

"Then you order one," Hui Yuan Ai nodded. "You and I will have the same portion."

In this way, Qianyu and Haihara Ai sat quietly in front of the bar, watching the waiter in front of them start the process of making assorted yaki.

There is nothing fancy, just the simplest and most direct actions of stir-frying, modulating and scooping cakes. During this process, the waiter's movements are quite powerful.

"I probably understand why you brought me here," Haibara Ai said, looking at the waiter's actions. "Compared with the modern Shinsaibashi place, this place has a more... simplicity

The smell, when you see this place, you will be reminded of the traditional atmosphere of the golden age."

"Yes," Qianyu also focused on the actions of the waiter. "This place has been like this since it was built, and the overall style was finalized twenty or thirty years ago - here is the person who passed away

The best living fossil from the classical era.”

Shin-Umeda Shokudōgai itself is located next to Umeda Station, and Umeda Station itself is one of the places where commuting salarymen most often gather, so there are a large number of salarymen who patronize this place. It is more modern and peaceful than the Shinsaibashi side.

Compared with the decent style, this place has a very strong atmosphere of the common people.

"But having said that," Qianyu's expression suddenly became a little subtle. "Will that era come back?"

"I don't know," Haiyuan Ai's expression was also very subtle. "But I guess it won't happen, right? At least I can't see the future now."

The style of New Umeda Shokudōgai was mainly shaped in the 1960s and 1970s, which was the peak period of the entire Japanese economy. At that time, Japan was at the top of the world in many cutting-edge technologies, and a large number of technological dividends were also created.

Influx into Japan, many aspects of good news make Japan prosperous.

This is why this era is called the Golden Age - it was Japan's best era.

But now, Japan's economy has not developed so gratifyingly for a long time. Instead, it has become somewhat stagnant, and various problems have begun to be exposed.
Chapter completed!