HIDDEN GEMS

Focus Osaka:

Bread in Osaka, Japan- Home Bakery Brunnen - go to Nakazakicho on the Tanimachi line. Go out Exit 1. Inside the arcade to your right, on the opposite wall, a few doors down is the tiny bakery. Ask for the Sesame Walnut loaf- it's the best bread in the world. Don't worry, they speak English.

Nepalese food, Osaka Japan: The best "Indian" food I have tasted in the Kansai area is actually a Nepalese restaurant named Kantipur near the bakery Brunnen. It's in the same Nakazakicho mall, the one purported to be the longest in Osaka. From Nakazakicho Exit 1 on the Tanimachi line, turn right and go four short blocks into the mall and take a left. You should be able to smell the Tandori oven and you'll see a green tent of a building with a plastic entrance. The phone number is 0663-593-884.

Pizza, Osaka Japan: If you crave pizza, like I do, at the very bottom of the Namba Nankai station in the Namba City mall, at the very back is the best pizza place in Osaka. Their pizza is a true Italian thin crust pie that comes very close to pizza we've had in Italy because the family that owns the restaurant sends their son Shunsuke around the world to taste different foods and learn how to prepare them for their various restaurants. Shunsuke was educated in the US so his English is excellent and he speaks Spanish to boot. The name is La Campagna.