Osaka is a revelation. Less high-rise than Tokyo, its grid system of one-way main avenues courses with a steady flow of yellow cabs past big brand stores and hotels. Blink and you could be in downtown New York. Duck off these spines down any of the side streets, with their entertainment-hungry crowds and winking neon vertical signage, and you could be in Hong Kong. It’s a heady blend.

In terms of prize sights, for a city that’s part of an urban sprawl housing no fewer than 25 million people Osaka is fairly provincial. An aquarium with a whale shark, a castle and Spa World top the bill. They’re the sort of offerings that would be way down the list for visitors to any of the world’s great cultural capitals. But this clears space to concentrate instead on eating, shopping and wandering.

Japanese food has never had the mass appeal of the likes of Chinese and Thai cuisines in Britain. On the whole, we are wary of raw ingredients and chilled savoury dishes not to mention pungent pickles. With its easy orientation and East-meets-West feel, Osaka offers the ideal base for an introduction to Japanese cuisine.

A superb starting place is the food hall in the basement of the elegant Daimaru department store. A “national library” for food, it’s more upmarket, and therefore pricey, than the city’s partially covered street market but gives the visitor an ordered overview of the sheer range and quality of ingredients found in Japanese kitchens. In the mould of the cosmetic beauty concessions upstairs each section, from miso to tofu, is staffed by an expert (though not an English-speaking one) and most offer samples.

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Starting with fruit and vegetables, at the height of summer in late July, with the rainy season drawing to a close, there are 3ft-long spring onions, amber-coloured sweet potatoes, smooth asparagus spears, crinkly Goya cucumbers, tubular radishes the size of a caveman’s club and ruddy ginger roots with their leafy stems in tact, as well as washed-out red beefsteak tomatoes, baby aubergines with the silvery blue skins of fresh sardines and bouquets of edamame beans.

The fruit is striking not so much for its exotic nature as for its size. The dark Kyoho grapes from Nagano are like monster blueberries and fist-sized yellow peaches with kiss-shaped pink smudges are amplified versions of what we are used to in British supermarkets. Prized Northland Red and Noble crown musk melons from Hokkaido are capped with gold bows and retail at 10,000 Yen (£70) each, while watermelons are grown in the shape of cubes and pyramids.

The honey-flavoured pickled plums are an acquired taste managing to combine salty, sour and sweet flavours in one bite. They are served with salad and a soft-white Hokkaido risotto rice. Dinky bottles of pickled plum ketchup are a sweet addition to the store cupboard back home.

There are 40 different types of tofu available, the most expensive made with organic soya beans and 130 sakes (Japanese rice wine), many boxed and wrapped, and a few flavoured with local citrus fruits. It’s a good place to try before you buy. And piles of miso pastes, the basis of the ubiquitous soup, ranging in shades and texture, depending on the beans used, from dark chocolate to treacle.

The meat counter has mainly thin-cut beef marbled with fatty veins, known as sashi, the best of which is said to come from Matsuzaka in the grassy Mie prefecture where female cows are slaughtered before being bred. The meat has a rich almost creamy taste and is very tender.

On the fresh fish counter is men tai ko, a crabby tasting fish that’s good with rice and beer. Numerous authentic stalls offer sushi, soba noodles, tempura, bento boxes and there’s a whole floor of sweets downstairs – these gelatinous, bean paste, palm wrapped sweets are a whole new realm for most Westerners.

Although the first ever Michelin restaurant guide to Osaka (and Kyoto) is published this month, locals are said to love their street food.

“The people of Osaka have an eye for a bargain and a taste for no-nonsense food,” says Harumi Kurihara, cookery author and Japan’s answer to Delia Smith. It’s a fair summary given that Osaka’s culinary legacy to the world includes conveyor-belt sushi and instant ramen noodles, both invented 50 years ago.

Not to be missed and available in the hot food section of Daimaru, although more popularly consumed from street stalls or in the dazzlingly lit arcades of Namba, takoyaki is Osaka’s signature snack. These pillowy batter balls are filled with a bubbling hot milky centre, bits of octopus and finely chopped spring onion. The batter is cooked on a hot plate until it puffs up into billowing omelette-style dumplings. They are eaten half a dozen at a time slathered in brown sauce and mayonnaise and sprinkled with flaked bonito tuna fish and daikon pickle. There’s even a museum dedicated to takoyaki.

Kushi katsu, found in the old entertainment district of Shinsekai, is another Osakan favourite made from strips of skewered meats, fish and vegetables covered in fine breadcrumbs and egg, deep fried and served as a savoury snack. These crispy bites are eaten dipped in a shared bowl of tonkatsu sauce, a sort of Worcestershire sauce made from pureed apples and spicy Japanese mustard. Daruma is the most famous kushi katsu restaurant in Japan and has a sign warning customers in English against “double dipping”.

Eat them together with okonomiyaki, another Osakan speciality that has become popular throughout Japan. It’s a type of yam flour pancake/tortilla filled with shredded cabbage and chopped seafood or meat and flavoured with a teppanyaki-style brown sauce. Of the 4,000 or so okonomiyaki joints in Osaka, family-run Mizuno in Dotombori is said to serve the best in town.

For more refined palates the first Michelin guide to restaurants in Kyoto and Osaka features one three-star restaurant (Hajime), 12 two-star restaurants and 52 one-star restaurants in Osaka.

Jean Luc Naret, director of Michelin guides said: "Osaka is well known for its street food but our team of Japanese inspectors also found talented chefs who receive a good culinary education and offer original and creative cuisine."

For more information about travel in Japan visit the Japan National Tourism Organisation's website www.seejapan.co.uk

Finnair has daily flights from London Heathrow to Tokyo; they also fly to Osaka and Nagoya airports in Japan (www.finnair.co.uk or 0870 2414411).

Cross Hotel Osaka is well located in the main shopping district Minami, doubles from £80, crosshotel.com.

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