The first time Mele and I stepped into a car in Japan was at the Kochi City train station. Josh met us in front of the Anpanman Terrace, and after we awkwardly waved hello at each other from two feet away, our host led us toward his tiny car, a white Daihatsu with enough horsepower [...]
Do Japanese kids ever beg their parents for a six-piece takoyaki meal? I suppose this question begs another: How often do Japanese kids beg their parents? McChildhood culture aside, Otafuku‘s takoyaki beckon the cravings center of my brain anytime I’m within a few blocks from E. 9th St. At this Japanese take-out counter, these fluffy, [...]
Ramen Kuboya will probably be known as “that place right next to Minca” for quite a while. Owner Hiroshi Kubo may have opened his noodle-centric restaurant on 5th Ave. in homage to a French restaurant that used to inhabit the space, but by operating just steps from the veteran ramen-ya, his fledgling project has faced [...]
Being bedridden with sickness for a week is one good way to confirm the myth that life in New York moves faster than it does anywhere else in the United States. As I spent the past 10 days contracting, realizing and recovering from a particularly nasty infection, countless food and drink events – some of [...]
I want to go to Japan to get drunk. You’d think I’d have overcome my immature overseas American mold by now, but that’s reason numero ichi that the far east sits at the top of my To-Go list in recent years. It is not due to my appreciation of Japanese beers, my ambivalence toward sake [...]
In shifting from the new-wave New York dining scene in Williamsburg to the comparatively sleepy restaurant rows of Park Slope, I’ve rediscovered the joy of the humble neighborhood spot. Yet, while I was prepared to celebrate a superb New York bagel (at The Bagel Hole) and dig into a historic Brooklyn slice, I had no [...]
During my freshman year at college, in the Berkeley student haunt known as “the Asian Ghetto,” Felix, proprietor of a Pan-Asian stir fry joint called The Satay House (R.I.P.), decided on an almost nightly basis to give chopsticks to all of my Asian friends and a fork to me. Every night, I would ask Felix [...]
A few weeks ago I competed alongside three other food bloggers in Japan Society’s Clash of the Foodies. You can now watch the entire program online, beginning with my shitty cartwheel and ending with the Taste Buds taking second place. Our prize, bottles of Zen Green Tea Liqueur, couldn’t have been a better match – [...]
On Saturday, April 10, I will join forces with The Feisty Foodie, Umamimart’s Payman Bahmani and Puff and Choux‘s Mary Ann Porch as part of Japan Society’s “Clash of the Foodies” live game show! The show, which begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Japan Society theater, is one of a sprawling set of events that [...]
One food group I’ve sorely neglected as a New York resident is sushi. I came into the sushi game extremely late in life; even so, after having great and affordable sushi in California, it’s tough to man up and shell out for comparable sushi here in the city. Most options seem mediocre for the price [...]
