A few years ago Kurogi san, the owner of the then Michelin Two Star restaurant bearing his name, mentioned that October was the very best month of the year for food in Japan. That particular evening we were seated at the counter at the restaurant’s previous location in Yushima (it has since moved to Daimon). I like sitting at the counter over tables as you can not only watch what’s going on (and learn!) but also converse […]
Read moreHappy Xmas (War is Over) While walking around my home neighborhood of Ningyōchō this evening, and pretty much every evening since October 1, I keep thinking of John Lennon’s old song “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” a song that was originally meant to be a protest of America’s war against Vietnam but evolved into more of a song to celebrate Christmas. I do not think of the song in a Christmas context, not here in Ningyōchō, especially […]
Read moreA month or so ago the owner of Lapin, bistro type restaurant in Nakakaruizawa where we had dinner, recommended a couple of soba restaurants he liked. One of them was a bit out of the way, so we had to wait until we returned this past weekend to drive out towards the city of Komoro to try Kirishita Soba. Actually, the full name is Jigonaya Kirishita soba (地粉や 霧下蕎麦), the name meaning something like locally produced soba made […]
Read moreMy wife and some friends and I finally made it to the fairly new French bistro En Face. And it was great, with copious portions of wa-fu French fare with plenty of very good and affordable wines to go with it. En Face opened in late 2019 in a newly built space that had been a parkaing space for as long as I could remember. The owner is a local guy, from Kakigarachō, his home maybe 250 […]
Read moreDining Out in Tokyo, Mid-August, 2021 My wife and I wanted to go out for sushi the other night here in Ningyōchō. We needed someplace close, as it was getting close to 7:00, currently the time for last order at restaurants in Tokyo under the current corona restrictions. Or at least I think it is 7:00 last order; it is sometimes hard to tell by looking at what is happening most evenings with local places. I had […]
Read moreEdomasa Open Again! This past Saturday, July 3, I went to my favorite yakitori place, Edomasa, tiny shop in Higashinihonbashi that has been around for nearly 100 years.. They had been closed since the start of the most recent so called state of emergency was imposed as it just wasn’t worth opening up to do take out only yakitori, especially when their most famous item, nama (raw minced chicken) can’t be sold for takeout, at least not […]
Read moreSezanne I was recently invited to a pre-opening lunch at Sezanne, the new French restaurant located in the Four Seasons Hotel next to Tokyo Station. If the real meals are anything like the trial lunch we ate it won’t be long before Sezanne has a Michelin star. I’m not really a big fan of French cuisine, and I don’t know a lot about it, probably because I rarely eat it, at least French French cuisine rather than […]
Read moreIn the past year or so there has been something of a bakery boom around Ningyōchō, a pan pandemic of sorts, practically pan pandemonium, pan being the word for bread Japan long ago borrowed from French. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, five or six new bakeries have opened recently, bringing the total, according to my count, to twelve, each shop offering something different in addition to standard bread products. Not bad considering the Nihonbashi area, the core of […]
Read moreGoodbye to 3Bis July 1, 2021 3Bis, one of my favorite places to sip nihonshu has come to an end. Pronounced in French as trois bis (トワビス), this tiny former one car garage was a side project of the owner’s main business, the excellent French (or wa-fu French) restaurant Irreel (thus the French pronunciation of the word three). Although very small with no room even for stools to sit on, let alone chairs, this stand and drink […]
Read moreThe other day as I was riding down Shinohashi Dori past the site of the former Tsukiji wholesale (inner) market I saw that it now has a new use: a mass vaccination center. Thanks to the corona virus the site finally has found a new purpose. At least it will benefit the people able and willing to be vaccinated, although with the Olympics looking more and more likely to take place, I don’t know why anyone would […]
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