食い倒れ,くいだおれ Kuidaore - A Kansai Original

This year I started learning Japanese. It’s something I have wanted to do for years, and for a long time I worried I would never be able to get a grasp on it. I’m happy to say that I picked up quite a lot during the first term.

It is an unusual language in so many ways, making sense of it is tricky but underneath the layers, the words and phrases with multiple meanings eventually start to make real sense. I was due to visit the Kansai region this past March, with the most perfect week planned, beginning in Osaka and then travelling on to Himeji, Kobe and Kinosaki Onsen. Of course, the trip had to be cancelled with world travel on total pause at the time.

My thoughts during that week while isolating at home were all on what I was missing each day, so well planned was my trip. It was torturous. But it did lead me to think about an expression I originally heard during my first visit to the city.

Nothing prepares you for some of the expressions that come to light when you visit Japan. On analysis, to Westerners, many of them seem very humorous. And this one, is the doozy of them all. It may, in fact, be my favourite expression of them all.

食い倒れ,くいだおれ – KUIDAORE (pronounced “kwee-dou-reh”)

There are several variations on the translation, all of which I love, and wholeheartedly embrace.

There is the understandable, and possible:

“Eat till you drop”

There is the frighteningly possible:

“to eat yourself bankrupt”

There’s the overly dramatic, visually thrilling but doubtfully possible:

“Eating till your gut explodes”

Then there is the glamorous, gluttonous and glorious:

“to ruin yourself with extravagant food”

Of course, it’s this last version that I most relate to. It’s the most common and considered the official translation. I would say that I’ve been on a firm path to achieving this state of bliss. I mean, what a way to go!

The expression originated in Osaka, the undisputed capital of food in Japan, a food-lovers paradise where the art of eating is taken to extraordinary levels. The city is known as tenka no daidokoro 天下の台所 – the nation’s kitchen.

Eating is the number one pastime of Osakans. Their passion for food is an obsession. The quality and variety on offer unparalleled.

I first heard the word Kuidaore when I was wondering down Dotonbori, one of the world’s great eat-streets. It is common for locals and visitors to do a “crawl” between street vendors and small shops specializing in every individual Japanese delicacy.

Such is the love of food in Osaka that Kuidaore has firmly entered the Japanese vocabulary. I love that! Of course, it could be applied to any of the world’s great food cities, but it is Osaka that truly owns it.

Only in Japan would you find an expression like this one. And only in Japan is it of such relevance.

Kuidaore really was my mantra for this trip that would have been. I had managed to secure reservations at some notoriously hard to get into restaurants. I practically had a team working around the clock, determined to fulfil my requests, from my wonderful Japanese concierge professional at American Express in Australia, to the concierges of the hotels I was booked in to. On some days, I had a 12noon lunch slot booked, followed by a 6.00pm dinner booking. My trip was entirely focused on food discoveries and pleasures.

Dotonbori, Osaka, Japan.

Osaka is a city where finding bad food seems impossible. Like everything they do, the Japanese strive for perfection, and this could be no more apparent with the thousands of chefs and cooks throughout the city. Ingredients are carefully considered, and nothing is wasted. Food is held with the utmost reverence. Hundreds of shops and vendors are perfecting the famed street foods of the city, including Takoyaki, delicious fried octopus balls, often crispy and gooey all at once. Then there’s Okonomiyaki, doughy savoury pancakes lavishly topped with mayonnaise and sweet sosu, a Worcestershire style sauce, cabbage and a heady array of fillings, and Kushikatsu, deep-fried breaded meat and vegetables on skewers.

With these foods on high rotation with the public, one can certainly imagine the possibility of being “ruined” by overindulging in them. They are also the very best drinking foods. Nothing is more satisfying than sake, shochu, beer, or just about any tipple, before, during and after devouring these dishes.

Breaking down the meaning of Kuidaore, it actually makes sense. Visiting Osaka with an empty stomach will be very short lived. It won’t be long until the street food delights beckon. Once you start there is no going back. The pull is irresistible. It’s true that stopping eating in Osaka is not easy. The more time you spend in the city, the more you will eat. Your stomach will soon be full and your wallet empty by the time you leave the city.

Let’s just hope your gut doesn’t explode as well.