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Yukari Sakamoto's Tokyo Guide - And Her Summer Somen!

Chef, educator and food journalist Yukari Sakamoto has just published a new book: Food Sake Tokyo, a fabulous guide to the city's eats. Go Yukari!

August 24, 2010

Notes from Tokyo Taste

Hollywood has its paparazzi. So, apparently, does food. I took the shot above at last week's Tokyo Taste event in Japan, where a ruck of photographers rushed to snap dishes prepared by famous chefs. What a sight.

February 13, 2009

Tokyo Station Sake

March 24, 2009

Where to Eat in Tokyo

November 11, 2009

Tokyo Curry

November 19, 2009

Where to Eat in Tokyo

January 16, 2010

Tokyo Bike Ride & Shabu Shabu

September 19, 2009

Old School Tokyo Hot Pot Joints

March 12, 2009

Old-School Tokyo Shopping Street

The intense, caramel aroma of freshly roasted hojicha tea is what first stopped me in my tracks on Amazakeyokocho Street.

July 3, 2010

Where to Eat in Tokyo

January 16, 2010

Japanese Food -- Food Lover's Guide to Tokyo

May 17, 2009

Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass

March 28, 2009

Eating Out In Tokyo With Jon

April 28, 2010

Katsuura Morning Market

Here's some of what I found at the Katsuura morning market, an hour and a half outside Tokyo: Just caught horse mackerel, anchovy, bonito, tuna, orange-colored kinme and metallic-skinned sanma shaped like the blade of a knife. Three foot wild yellowtail (buri) and young wild yellowtail (warasa) resting in tubs of slushy ice.

November 2, 2008

Tonkatsu: Deep Fried Pork Cutlet

Located in Shitamachi, once the "town below" Edo Castle, where the craftsmen and fishermen lived, it's in my favorite part of Tokyo, one proud of its Edokko sensibility, and chock full of traditional shops and eateries. A hole-in-the-wall there I particularly loved was a tiny joint run by crusty husband and wife that specialized in just one thing -- tonkatsu, deep fried pork cutlet.

April 11, 2011

Sharpening Japanese Knives

I love working with Japanese kitchen blades. I've visited blacksmiths before and have written about them, and own several blades. Right now I'm in Tokyo for a few months apprenticing at several restaurants (more on that soon), and cutting every day for hours. Chefs here have been graciously instructing me on my technique.

May 3, 2009

Cooking at Takegami

For the past three weeks I've been working as a shugyo, a trainee, at Takegami, a traditional ryotei in Tokyo's Akasaka district.

May 25, 2009

kyushu style fried chicken

Takako Kuratani is a prodigious chef who designs menus for Japanese restaurants around the world, styles food for Japanese movies and TV commercials, develops recipes, teaches Japanese cuisine -- and never stops cooking and experimenting. I was fortunate to meet her last year at her test kitchen in Tokyo where she and her team treated me to a fantastic dinner. (Ah, the joys of writing... :)) Besides being incredibly talented, Takako is utterly gracious and kind, and thorough emails has been teaching me about Japanese ingredients and cooking. She just visited New York and one of the things she brought with her was a slender red notebook -- her own personal cookbook, where she records her recipes and cooking inspiration. While she was here, Takako planted herself in a kitchen, cracked opened that little red book and prepared a wonderful homey dinner for a bunch of friends. Her theme: the down-home cooking of Kyushu, Japan's own Deep South.

May 5, 2008

Cooking with Chef Ooe at Kozue

"Japanese cooking is simple," Chef Ooe told me as we stood in his kitchen at Kozue, the stunning Japanese restaurant of Tokyo's Park Hyatt. "Only cutting, dashi, grilling... simple." The hard work of achieving this simplicity? Well, that's why I was in his kitchen...

May 4, 2009

Tuna Marinated in Soy Sauce and Mirin

God, this looks good, doesn't it? And it's just the leftovers! When I saw local tuna for sale at the farmers market, I remembered a technique the amazing Tadashi Ono taught me called maguro zuke, an old Tokyo style of marinating tuna, which he serves to great acclaim at Matsuri restaurant.

September 13, 2009

freestyle hotpot

After I wrote about nabe, or home-style hotpot cooking, last month, I asked a friend in Japan to research the many regional varieties of this social and comforting soul food. She just sent me a list of twenty styles of nabe, dishes prepared with salmon, tuna, octopus, pork, chicken, root vegetables, even wild boar and snapping turtle. These hotpots all reflect local foods, customs and geography, and their histories and lore are absolutely fascinating: One traces back to the cooking of Japanese pirates, another originated with bear hunters. There's a nabe invented by sake makers living inside breweries during production season and one that's supposed to be eaten in the dark (yikes!). There's even a nabe invented in 2005 to commemorate the merger of three cities. Like I said, fascinating.

January 28, 2008

traveling japan

November 16, 2007

66 Ways: How to Cook Miso Soup

In Japan, miso soup reflects the full bounty, breath, spontaneity and endless creativity of the cuisine -- the varieties are mind boggling and delicious. Case in point, the list that follows, sixty six miso soups that a Japanese cookbook editor and fabulous cook named Nobuko-san just sent me.

December 29, 2009

hotpot 101, or window into japanese cuisine

"There are no rules for making nabe," said Chef Ono, as we got to talking about Japanese hotpot cooking to me the other night at Matsuri restaurant. I've been fascinated by this homey soul food, as readers of the Report know (see posts here and here), and wanted to learn more -- and understand what hotpots say about Japanese cuisine as a whole.

February 4, 2008

Miso Clams Over Rice, From "Dashi and Umami"

When I worked on a story on dashi last fall, I searched mightily for all the English-language information I could find on kombu and katsuobushi (dried kelp and dried, shaved bonito), the elements that make up a classic Japanese stock. I wish "Dashi and Umami" was available when I was writing my article.

March 13, 2009

Authentic Soba

I've only recently discovered Soba Koh, a tiny spot in New York's East Village where you can watch Chef Hiromitsu Takahashi roll and cut soba by hand as you walk into the place. I don't know what took me so long.

October 21, 2009

Chowing Down at Japanese Baseball Stadiums

Susan Hamaker, a Japanese Food Report reader and self-described "half-Okinawan Tar Heel living in New York" who writes the Shrinecastle blog, contributed this fabulous account of eating a Japanese baseball stadiums. Hot dogs and pretzels? Oh, so much more!

October 12, 2009

kyoto's soul food

I was thrilled that Saveur included my item about Mrs. Sachiyo Imai in their latest "Saveur 100" list. Scholar, educator, TV host, and most importantly, accomplished cook, Mrs. Imai has worked tirelessly for the past quarter century to preserve Kyoto's traditional food culture. She is amazing. I wanted to share this piece I wrote about her efforts to save Kyoto's obanzai cooking:

March 17, 2008

Remembering Karatsu Potter Jinenbo Nakagawa, 1953-2011

The first time I traveled to Japan it wasn't for the food, but for the pottery. Back when I was a TV news producer in Washington in the early nineties, I caught a number of phenomenal Japanese pottery shows at the Smithsonian's Sackler-Freer Galleries that simply blew me away.

December 26, 2011

real pushcart flavor

February 18, 2006