The sanma (Pacific saury) that's caught at this time of year is rich with heart-healthy oils, and is considered a quintessential autumn delicacy in Japan. But unlike other fall delicacies such as matsutake mushrooms, sanma has traditionally been considered affordable. This national favorite is in crisis, however, and seems to be ...
Somtum Der is unlike any other Thai restaurant in the city. It's not just the look, though the bold red facade certainly stands out in the drab Yoyogi backstreets, and the chic, bright interior reflects a contemporary sensibility, not one rooted in the cliches ...
Banh Mi Bakery stands right across the road from Ebisu Yokocho. But with its colorful typography and bottles of nuoc mam fish sauce arrayed in the window, it looks like it's been beamed over straight from the streets of Saigon. Better yet, it smells ...
Beloved burger chain Shake Shack recently announced plans to use automated kiosks in lieu of employees to take orders at its new Astor Place location in New York. The news rather awkwardly coincided with the announcement that the chain's founder, Danny Meyer, has raised $200 ...
7-Eleven Japan's cream puff is the ideal convenience store dessert. It's basic but satisfying, offering just the right amount of sweetness. Maybe most importantly, it's also affordable. Few treats balance simplicity and tastiness quite like it, and the konbini chain has wisely experimented with ...
Hakodate occupies a unique place on the Japanese landscape, both literally and gastronomically speaking. Facing the Tsugaru Strait from its position on the southern shores of Hokkaido's Oshima Peninsula, the city grew from a small Ainu fishing village to become, in 1854, Japan's first port ...
Taj Mahal Everest, an Indian and Nepali restaurant, near the place where the Kyoto Sanga football club plays their home games in the western part of Kyoto, manages to divide their menu fairly between the two neighboring countries. On a recent visit we caught the ...
There are nearly 30 Starbucks in the city of Kyoto, but only one of them has a doorman. Admittedly, it is the prettiest one — the Starbucks that is. The Nineizaka Starbucks opened to much media fanfare back in June, partly because of its location ...
Sachio Egawa is a Renaissance man of sorts. A spry 68-year-old with a jokey manner and a full head of black hair, he raises his own cows, grows rice and cultivates giant yamame trout in a pond on his farm in northern Iwate Prefecture. In ...
The airport might not be the first place you think of when craving sweets. Yet all those souvenir stores dotting the concourse conceal some truly tasty treats. It might not be socially acceptable to tear in to a box of individually wrapped goods, but ...
Early one September morning, Ana Ros, Slovenia's most famous chef, is receiving a crash course in Japanese seafood at Tsukiji fish market. At one stall, she samples two kinds of sea urchin from Hokkaido, along with an assortment of shellfish that includes ishigakegai, a large ...
If you judge restaurants solely by their architecture and decor, you'd probably finger 336 Ebisu as a temple of modern Scandinavian cuisine. The interior is so simple and airy — all big windows, curving arches, light-wood furniture, unadorned walls — that you expect dishes ...
At last, Kentaro Henry Nakahara has an outlet to match the quality of the meat he uses and the scale of his ambition. When he opened the first branch of his eponymous burger restaurant in Daikanyama back in late 2015, the justifiable excitement was ...
