Of the many things that Scotland has bequeathed to the world — golf, kilts and the baffling culinary phenomenon of fried Mars bars — my favorite by far is whisky. I have an enduring fondness for peaty and powerful Scotch whiskies from Islay and ...
At 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday in Milan — the height of the aperitivo hour — the courtyard of the stately Chiostri dell'Umanitaria building was filled with people sipping drinks. As the late-afternoon sun splashed over the trees, the scene was bathed in the warm ...
Five years ago, Hiroyasu Kayama developed a fascination with absinthe. Shortly before opening his bar Ben Fiddich in July 2013, he took a pilgrimage to the famous absinthe-producing town of Pontarlier, which lies on the French border with Switzerland. Now, the 30-year-old mixologist wants ...
Newly in paperback, history professor Jeffrey W. Alexander's 2013 book charts the rise of beer in Japan, from early Dutch influence and the barrels brought by Matthew Perry in 1854 (described by the Japanese as "bitter horse-piss wine" — well, it was American beer) ...
"Vinegar wine" sounds pretty much like what happens when wine goes bad — not exactly something you would want to drink with a steak. But when I discovered that a new place called Marni Baru in Shimokitazawa was serving what it called vinegar wine ...
Shucking an oyster is harder than it sounds. A fair amount of dexterity is required to pry open the mollusk's tight-lipped shell and liberate the flesh. The one time I tried to open an oyster with a shucking knife, I ended up smashing it ...
This book is not just for sake lovers; it's a must read for anyone interested in Japanese culture. Exploring sake from a variety of perspectives in short but informative essays, John Gauntner here distills his 25 years of knowledge and experience living and working ...
While some bars have live music to bring in customers, newly opened Hackers Bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district holds live computer coding events to bring in the programmers. The bar's owner and founder, Akihiro Nakao, is an entrepreneur who had dabbled in programming since he ...
While it may be coincidental that a limited number of Red Bull's The Blue Edition (¥206) drinks were out in convenience stores just as the World Cup kicked off last week, you can feel as if you're showing your colors and supporting Samurai Blue ...
Contrary to expectation, the Blue Cheese Martini at the Akasaka branch of Code Name Mixology is a subtle concoction. The cocktail is clear, served in a delicate crystal glass, with three olives on the side. The cheese aroma hovers faintly on the nose, but ...
Once a month, Night Gallery Cafe Crow in Roppongi becomes a horror scene straight out of a George A. Romero film, as zombies descend upon the small venue. For more than two years, zombie performance unit Zombiena has been renting out the place every ...
Akasaka's restaurants are an eclectic mix. Cheek-by-jowl with the raucous pubs, ramen counters and Korean kimchee kitchens, you find inscrutable anonymous facades, many of them exclusive ryōtei (traditional restaurants) reserved for politicians and captains of industry. Kagura does not operate at that rarefied level. But ...
