Politics & Diplomacy
Hashimoto to retract sex suggestion for U.S. military
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto aims to retract his remark that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa should use its adult entertainment industry to avoid committing sex offenses.
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Jan 30, 2009
An intoxicating temple in Kyoto
by Nicholas Coldicott
Evil cometh from the north, they say. Maybe it was sunlight streaming from the south that gave ancient theologians such a notion. Or perhaps the Arctic is gushing malevolence (compare and contrast: Australians and Scandinavians). Regardless, it was a fear of southbound evil that ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Jan 30, 2009
An intoxicating temple in Kyoto
by Nicholas Coldicott
Evil cometh from the north, they say. Maybe it was sunlight streaming from the south that gave ancient theologians such a notion. Or perhaps the Arctic is gushing malevolence (compare and contrast: Australians and Scandinavians). Regardless, it was a fear of southbound evil that ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Dec 26, 2008
Hot and tasty to keep you toasty
by Nicholas Coldicott
“Basically, no,” said the bartender at one of Kyoto’s ritzier drinking establishments when I asked if he could make something hot. I could have fancy juices, cream, egg whites or yolks in my cocktail, but I could not have heat. Even in winter. Bartenders ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Nov 28, 2008
Brown rice befits chef's cake, beer
by Nicholas Coldicott
“He was a wise man who invented beer,” said Plato. It wasn’t his greatest line, but it sets this story up nicely: the tale of a talented man who sort of reinvented beer. Kimio Nonaga is the third-generation chef at Nihonbashi Yukari, a kappo ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Oct 24, 2008
Stir up memories in bars of yore
by Nicholas Coldicott
In hard times such as these you can always find solace in a drink; just make it one that reminds you of better days. Here are eight great Tokyo bars that ooze nostalgia. Some serve classic cocktails, some survived the war, and most of ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Sep 26, 2008
Red Carpet treatment
by Nicholas Coldicott
Like Da Vinci or Mozart, every bartender wants to make something that lives on after they die,” says Takahiro Watanabe of the Keio Plaza Hotel’s Polestar bar. “A bartender’s dream is to make a cocktail that appears on every bar’s menu.” Of course, Da ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Aug 22, 2008
The perfect gin and tonic
by Nicholas Coldicott
“A gin and tonic is an entry-level drink,” said the ladyfriend recently. It’s easy to understand, she said, easy to drink. Like Kahlua milks and Moscow mules. A drink for people who haven’t graduated to whiskeys or rickeys. But enough of her snobbery. The ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Aug 22, 2008
Ten things you never knew about gin
by Nicholas Coldicott
1. Gin derives its name from jenever, the Dutch word for juniper. 2. Gin’s invention is usually attributed to a Dutch chemist working in the 1650s who distilled grain and infused it with juniper as a remedy for kidney and stomach ailments. However, English ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Jul 25, 2008
Cooling it down with Tokyo's best
by Nicholas Coldicott
“Go around the beaches and let’s have a list of the best seaside bars,” said my editor. In this heat? Not a chance. But here’s something better: five refreshing cocktail recipes from a quintet of great bartenders. Each of these invigorating drinks was designed ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE Jun 27, 2008
Eau contraire: no two waters taste the same
by Nicholas Coldicott
From the marketing bumf, you’d think all mineral waters tasted alike. The aquifers are ancient, the nature is untouched and blah blah blah. But H2O is such a great solvent it steals a bit of anything it passes through, resulting in a shelfload of ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE May 23, 2008
Bottled water: It's naughty, but nice
by Nicholas Coldicott
I know, I know, bottled water is terribly unethical these days. Pinching a natural, life-sustaining resource and flying it to rich people in faraway lands is a bit naughty, all that packaging is trashing our planet, and our taps dispense safe water for less ...
Food & Drink | LIQUID CULTURE May 23, 2008
Japanese malt scotches rivals
by Nicholas Coldicott
If you know Nikka Whisky only as the producer of the extraordinarily cheap peatless Black that fills the nether regions of Japan’s whisky market, you might be surprised to learn that the company makes around 40 other styles — and one of them has ...