Shinsekai Classic · No Double-Dipping Skewers
Kushikatsu
Photo: Ajay Suresh / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
The communal sauce trough at the table comes with one hard rule — one dip per skewer, no matter how much sauce is left on the stick — and regulars will genuinely scold a stranger who breaks it.
Bite-sized cuts of meat, seafood and vegetables are skewered on bamboo, coated in a thin layer of breadcrumbs and deep-fried, then dipped once each into a shared tonkatsu-style sauce and eaten with free cabbage on the side.
Why it's made this way: Born around 1929 in Shinsekai, Osaka's working-class entertainment district under Tsutenkaku Tower, kushikatsu was designed as cheap, hot, fast food for laborers, and the shared-sauce, one-dip system kept costs down (and the sauce sanitary) while feeding a crowd quickly.
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