"We do lunch at Matsuba Sohonten, a rowdy, fluorescent-lit kushikatsu joint that is equal parts Madrid marisquería and Irish tavern, with cigarette butts and napkins on the floor. Mandy shouts out orders of shiitake, quail's egg, and prawns to the surly staff, while we squeeze aside regulars to down mouthfuls without even removing our winter coats. “This is how Osakans really eat,” Mandy says, dipping a chunk of crispy fried lotus root into a metallic vat of inky brown sauce under a sign that reads “No double dipping!” in hiragana, a style of Japanese lettering."
