One piece of sweet simmered fried tofu, and nothing else on top of it. The broth underneath is clear, made from kelp and dried bonito, seasoned lightly. The tofu on it has been cooked hard in sugar, soy sauce and mirin until it is dark and heavy with liquid. A pale thing and a strong thing, put in the same bowl and asked to get along.

It is said to have been thought up by a noodle shop that opened in Semba, in the middle of Osaka, in 1893. There is a stone outside the premises that says so, which is a level of confidence not every dish can manage.

The same dish exists in Tokyo and is not the same dish. There the tofu is fried in sesame oil and browned deliberately, and it comes out richer and less clean. Two explanations circulate for the name, which means fox. One says that fried tofu is what foxes are supposed to like. The other says the colour and the shape of the piece resemble a fox sitting with its legs folded under it. Neither has beaten the other and both get repeated.

In Osaka some people order it as ketsune, sliding the vowels around. That is not really an accent. It is done deliberately, as a small affectionate joke, and the shop understands it perfectly well. A dish has to be very close to the everyday before people start playing with its name at the counter.