Tag - cuisine

 
 

CUISINE

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 7, 2012
Monna Lisa: Michelin-starred food you can afford
As the dust settles from the annual pronouncement of Michelin stars — and, yes, Tokyo remains the tire company's gastronomic capital of the world — it's timely to remember that stellar dining does not have to mean stratospheric prices, even in the most rarefied of surroundings. A case in point: Monna Lisa's Marunouchi branch.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 16, 2012
Flatiron: Flavor and flair combine in miraculous chemistry
Whenever an exciting new restaurant is launched in Tokyo, usually it's all over the foodie magazines within days. Not so with Flatiron. Though it's been up and running since September, it's been flying well under the radar.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 2, 2012
Kamachiku: Redbrick storehouse as classic as the noodles
For a food with such a long and venerable history, udon gets surprisingly short shrift in Tokyo. Sure, it's not hard to find these long, chunky, white wheat noodles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 5, 2012
A Ta Gueule: French fare born of a one-track mind
The golden age of luxury long-distance train travel is over. The days when overnight journeys were made in exclusive style — complete with Pullman sleeping cars, lounge bar and restaurant on wheels — have gone the way of the steam locomotive.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 7, 2012
Beard: Foodies will grow to love this brilliant brunch
Beard. What sort of name is that for a restaurant, least of all one serving French-inflected food?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 3, 2012
Torishiki: Where a yakitori artisan rules the roost
Arriving for the first time at Torishiki's elegant entrance, you'd be forgiven for thinking you had come to the wrong address. The chic, charcoal-gray facade, artfully illuminated in the dusk; the dwarf maple growing from a ceramic pot; the plain-wood sliding door with its pristine white noren curtain: par for the course for high-end kaiseki or sushi, but for yakitori? Surely not.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 6, 2012
Rokurinsha: A ramen line-up worth dipping into
Even in the middle of the afternoon on a gray, rainy-season Monday, the queue in front of us is the best part of an hour deep and moving at snail's pace. Only to be expected at Tokyo Skytree, you might say. Except we're not lining up for the observation deck: We're there for the new branch of the legendary ramen joint Rokurinsha.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 15, 2012
Takazawa: Food for all the senses
Ever since chef Yoshiaki Takazawa opened his bijou restaurant back in 2005, it has been one of Tokyo's most intriguing secrets, more talked about than actually visited. Lauded more loudly abroad than here in Japan, its mystique has been fueled by the setting, the scale and a palpable sense of exclusivity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 18, 2012
Tonki: Dishing up 73 years of tasty tonkatsu success
Nowhere does tonkatsu like Tonki. Of all the restaurants in Tokyo that serve those ever-popular cutlets of breaded, deep-fried pork — and they number in their thousands — nowhere stands out quite the way Tonki does.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 20, 2012
L'As: New French restaurant does things differently
It is always a pleasure to discover a great new restaurant — and even more so when "new" means a lot more than just "recently opened." L'As is a small place with a young crew and a location that is easy to overlook. But since opening in early February in the backstreets of Minami-Aoyama, it's been generating the kind of enthusiastic word-of-mouth buzz that bigger names in flashier areas would give their iPads for.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 6, 2012
Kita-Kamakura En: Kaiseki course as delicate as blossom
It's been a long countdown, but finally spring has liftoff. The buds and leaves are out, and so are those all-important cherry blossoms. And there is no finer way of appreciating them than from a table with a good menu and a choice vantage point.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 16, 2012
Yoshihashi: Top-class sukiyaki at a fraction of the price
Elegance, refinement, exclusivity: These are qualities only to be expected at any high-end Japanese restaurant. Affordability? Think again. Or, rather, think different. That's the way to approach Yoshihashi.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 16, 2012
Michinoku: Tohoku restaurant serves up a northeastern menu
Zunda-mochi dumplings, hatto-jiru soup, hittsumi noodles: These are far from mainstream Japanese foods, and rarely found on restaurant menus. But they're essential landmarks on the culinary landscape of the Tohoku region. They are also core items on the menu at Michinoku, one of the very few eateries in Tokyo that serves the specialties of Japan's northeastern prefectures.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 17, 2012
L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele: Naples pizzeria serves up a slice of heaven
Is Tokyo becoming the Naples of Asia? It's starting to feel that way, and not just because there's a volcano lurking on the horizon. There must be as many artisan pizzerias here as in all of Campania, ranging in quality from worthy to excellent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 3, 2012
Kanda is crammed with revered restaurants
The narrow pocket of Kanda comprising Sudacho and Awajicho boasts half a dozen restaurants that are among the most venerable in Tokyo. Like Botan, the buildings date from the late 1920s, boast superb wooden architecture and have improbably survived the bombs of war and the clutches of the redevelopers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 3, 2012
Botan: Put a little sukiyaki fire in your belly
On one side of the battered shōji screen with its panels of flimsy washi paper, the sleet and biting wind. On the other, a small old-fashioned hibachi brazier, its coals glowing softly. There's no contest: At Botan, the charcoal wins every time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 6, 2012
Nihonbashi Dashi Bar: A dedicated dashi bar you can put stock in
Nothing is more important in Japanese cooking than dashi, the fundamental cooking stock that underpins every aspect of the cuisine. There are many ingredients that can deliver a boost of umami savor, both natural (konbu seaweed or shiitake mushrooms) and artificial (various powders out of jars or sachets). But nothing compares to the richness of dashi made with traditional katsuobushi (bonito flakes).
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2011
Saudi Arabia's old regime grows older
The contrast between the deaths, within two days of each other, of Libya's Col. Moammar Gadhafi and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz is one of terminal buffoonery versus decadent gerontocracy. And their demise is likely to lead to very different outcomes: liberation for the Libyans and stagnation for the Saudis.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 21, 2011
Suzunari: Who says kaiseki ryōri has to be stuffy?
Kaiseki ryōri, Japan's traditional multicourse "haute cuisine," is known for its rarefied elegance, its depth and subtlety of flavor, an exquisite focus on the seasons and, too often, for being as much fun as a funeral. But there is also another kind of kaiseki, one that's simpler, less formalized and far more approachable and affordable. That's the style you get at Suzunari.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 7, 2011
Kyotei Daikokuya: The most satisfying soba in temple town
Few visitors to Asakusa venture beyond the shops and temple precincts around Sensoji. But for aficionados of artisan noodles, the grid of backstreets tucked away behind the mighty temple holds an extra attraction: Kyotei Daikokuya, a quaint little soba restaurant that many consider among the best in the city.

Longform

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