Wagyu literally translates as "Japanese beef," but that translation doesn't quite do it justice. It's a word that calls to mind images of rural Japanese cows being fed beer and massaged daily, and richly marbled ruby-red steaks, shot through with fine ribbons of glistening ...

As a native of southern California, I have long lamented the dearth of good Mexican food in Japan. It's too heavy to take off here, people say. To which I have to wonder, then why not fish tacos? Fish tacos, stuffed with fluffy white fish ...

People who have lived in the capital for more than a few years generally claim to know Tokyo pretty well. We discover a forgotten side to the city that suggests they may not know it quite as well as they think.

This month A Taste of Home is taking a field trip to Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture. Oizumi, an otherwise ordinary town, is home to roughly 4,000 Brazilians — about one-tenth of the local population. Most of them work in nearby factories (Subaru is a big ...

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside ...

When it comes to Tokyo food trends, four years is almost a lifetime. Back in 2010, when Yoshihide Matsubara wrote "The Burger Map," the definitive guide to burgers in the capital area, hamburgers were still generating a fair amount of buzz. Then came pancakes ...

New Zealand is famous for its lamb, pasture-fed on the country's rolling green hills. Lamb being hard to come by in Japan, a New Zealand restaurant is a good bet if you're craving lamb chops. There are two big ones in Tokyo: Wakanui (B1F, ...

Over the past few years, several American-style pancake joints — Eggs n’ Things and Cafe Kaila, for example — have washed up on Tokyo’s shores. Now, the tide is going the other direction.

I thought I missed hummus. By which I mean: I missed being able to pick up a tub at the supermarket. But to hear an Israeli acquaintance talk of it is to learn that there is so much more to miss. "Eating hummus reminds me ...

"After 11 years I finally found it," a German colleague told me over lunch the other day. He wasn't talking about the perfect job. He was talking about currywurst, sliced sausage smothered in ketchup and curry powder. It's a diner or street-food dish, most ...