Searching for Singapore: Chicken rice and more in Tokyo
Considering that Singapore is famous for being one of the world’s most delicious cities, it is surprising that Singaporean food doesn’t have more cachet, or at least more of a presence, in Japan. As...
View ArticleTokyo has California-style burritos all wrapped up
Nothing gives me greater pleasure, as a California native, than to discover a new burrito shop. I'm not talking about the kind of burritos served on a plate in a restaurant.The post Tokyo has...
View ArticleForaging for steak frites in Tokyo? Follow a Frenchman
A friend — a French chef who happens to be Japanese — once told me that the reason so many Japanese chefs chose French was because it was considered the world’s most challenging cuisine. But the same...
View ArticleThere’s more to British food in Japan than fish and chips
Authentic British food is hard to come by in Japan, and the food at the theme-pub chains isn’t often great. However, there are a handful of expat-run places that get it right — and should hit the spot...
View ArticleWhere to find brunch in Tokyo, and just the way you like it
It’s terrace season, and the thought of a drawn-out weekend brunch — sunglasses on, cocktail in hand — is likely to make any American go weak in the knees with homesickness. Fortunately for those in...
View ArticleIn search of a steamed morsel or two of Hong Kong fare
Bamboo baskets of steaming dumplings, fluffy buns stuffed with sweet-and-savory barbecued pork, crisp spring rolls and endless pots of jasmine tea … Dim sum (or yum cha), that Hong Kong tradition, is a...
View ArticleA delicious Caribbean vacation for your taste buds
“There are no palm trees. It looks like a typical Caribbean restaurant. Like home, not the beach,” says Petra Laptiste, a Canadian of Caribbean descent, describing her favorite Caribbean restaurant in...
View ArticleBarbecue like they do it in the South
“Hamburger shops are a dime a dozen in Tokyo these days, but there are very few places doing barbecue,” said Lauren Shannon, owner of Bulldog Barbeque (www.bulldogbbq.jp). By barbecue, Shannon doesn’t...
View ArticleKorean treats that predate the Wave
Forget Shin-Okubo’s Koreatown. When I asked Korean friends and acquaintances where to go to find authentic Korean food in Tokyo, several pointed me in the opposite direction, to Akasaka. Specifically,...
View ArticleWhere’s a New Yorker to find a decent slice in Tokyo?
I heard a rumor that there was a New York-style pizza shop in Tokyo Station that was importing water from New York City. That’s how hard they were trying to make their pizza taste authentic. This was...
View ArticleDig into 400 years of local history with a roast beef dinner
A peculiar culinary milestone took place last month: the 400th anniversary of the first English roast beef dinner served in Japan. You’re forgiven for missing the fanfare; there wasn’t any, save for a...
View ArticleWhere would Santa find Finnish flavors in Japan?
Dear readers, I have made a wonderful discovery: Finnish cinnamon rolls, korvapuusti, are not just cinnamon rolls. They are cinnamon and cardamom rolls and they are delicious. Also, korvapuusti...
View ArticleJuicy Chinese dumplings will Shanghai your taste buds
People have opinions about xiao long bao. And for good reason: xiao long bao (or XLB, or soup dumplings, or shoronpo as they’re called in Japanese) are enchanting: semi-translucent satchels of dough...
View ArticleEating Hawaiian in Japan, with or without the pancakes
Something newsworthy has happened (well, newsworthy if you follow dining micro-trends): A new restaurant from Hawaii has opened in Tokyo and it doesn’t serve pancakes.The post Eating Hawaiian in Japan,...
View ArticleWhere German-sausage fans can find the best of the wurst
“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...
View ArticlePining for the communal flavor of Israeli cuisine
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....
View ArticleTokyoites needn’t be sheepish about New Zealand cuisine
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...
View ArticleGunma’s ‘Brazil Town’ offers a carnival of cuisine
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...
View ArticleBowing out with a San Diego favorite — fish tacos
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...
View ArticleHankering for the grills and thrills of Greek cuisine
Few things in this world are more pleasurable than sinking your teeth into heavily herbed, charcoal-grilled paidakia, the fabled lamb chops adored and revered by the Greeks. “The art is in the...
View ArticleSearching out the subtle but scorching spices of India
Turbaned and bejeweled Kashmiri princes recline on soft nan pillows, sipping chai as servants scamper over rugs of a luxuriant weave and between silk curtains rippling and fluttering in the light...
View ArticlePizza the way they make it in Naples — more or less
With pizza, as with many things in life, simple is often the best. And it doesn’t get any more minimal than a true pizza Napoletana. A handful of blitzed San Marzano tomatoes, a well-tossed sourdough...
View ArticleFinding comfort in a Belgian bowl
The mercury has dropped and the nights are getting longer. As the temperature plummets so does the need for culinary sophistication. Filigree garnishes, amusingly carved vegetables and light bonito...
View ArticleEmbark on a Peruvian adventure without boarding a flight
Sitting in the wood-clad, dimly lit dining room of the Miraflores restaurant, I begin to feel like I’m planning a year volunteering abroad. A glance at the Peruvian flag on the wall, the figurines on...
View ArticleSingapore food fling provides ‘messy and satisfying’ feast
It’s Friday night and I’m staring death in the face. The face in question happens to belong to a red snapper, and it’s peeking out from the dark depths of powerful tamarind broth shimmering with...
View ArticleSwedish cuisine: so much more than meatballs
Some Swedish delicacies, such as lutefisk (dried cod treated with lye), attract comments that are less than flattering. And when I say less than flattering, I mean downright slanderous. “Reminiscent of...
View ArticleJapan’s French bistro dining keeps the focus on the food
Each year, approximately 20 Japanese tourists are struck down by a rare and mysterious disorder. At least 19 of them will be idealistic young women in their early 30s. They will suffer acute, gnawing...
View ArticleDiving into the potent flavors of Japan’s Iberian Peninsula cuisine
The seaside town of San Sebastian, in Spain’s Basque Country, is well known as a crucible of culinary experimentation. It’s a town where bars offering pinchos (small snacks) groan under the weight of...
View ArticleThe best places in Tokyo to taste Vietnam in a baguette
Remember that rumor about “Mama” Cass Elliot from the Mamas and Papas? The one about how she died in bed while munching on a sandwich? I heard that as a child and for years I took it as a cautionary...
View ArticleBritain’s food revolution hits Tokyo
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that, generally speaking, English meals are bad.” So begins Nozomu Hayashi’s best-selling 1991 treatise on British food, “Igirisu wa Oishi” (“England is...
View ArticleAs the mercury drops, comfort food means pie, pie, pie
In this new monthly column I’ll be hunting down home comforts from around the world. And when the weather turns abruptly cold, the American mind turns to Thanksgiving, that annual feast of rare origin...
View ArticleHot and steamy soup — winter’s most satisfying meal
How nice does a steaming-hot bowl of soup sound? Not a teacup-sized serving of clear broth or that shocking yellow shot of sodium otherwise known as corn potage, but a hearty, home-style soup that...
View ArticleRecipes for a new life in Japan
Nwe Nwe Kyaw arrived in Japan 12 years ago, the wife of a political refugee from Myanmar granted asylum in Japan. In Yangon, she had been a teacher; here she had to figure out something else to do....
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