People call it Osaka's kitchen. Kuromon Market stretches about five hundred and eighty meters, lined with some hundred and fifty shops of fresh fish, meat, fruit, and prepared foods. If Kyoto has its kitchen, this is Naniwa's kitchen, where chefs come to buy every morning. What makes it Osaka is the closeness: shopkeepers call out loudly, I'll knock the price down, try a bite of this, hailing you whether or not you buy. Pufferfish, conger eel, tiger prawns, fine ingredients line the stalls. Since the Edo period this market has sustained the food culture of the Kansai region. In recent years more shops grill their wares for you to eat on the spot, so you walk along with a mouthful of the sea. Osaka is a town that eats itself broke, and here is its kitchen. Haggling, too, is part of the flavor.