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November 22, 2024
 

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Robbie Swinnerton
Robbie Swinnerton has been living, eating and writing about food in Tokyo for over 30 years. His column, Tokyo Food File, has run in The Japan Times since 1998.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 12, 2001
The life of spice in the big city
Our column last month on looking for laksa in Tokyo generated a good number of comments and recommendations. One correspondent felt we had not properly pointed out that these spicy noodles are also hugely popular in Singapore, not just in Malaysia. It was certainly not our intention to ignore or slight...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2001
A trattoria that's simply delizioso
Delizioso Italia is a pretty unimaginative (and possibly ungrammatical) name for a restaurant. But there's very little else that feels out of place here. It's not a clone of the cheap-chic Capricciosa concept but a fine and friendly trattoria that turns out some highly enjoyable cucina.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 29, 2001
Hong Hu Asian: The cafe of Asian delights
The idea of the Asian-themed izakaya, complete with basic hawker food and crass giant Buddhas, has been with us for several years now. But Hong Hu is surely the first place in Tokyo to reinterpret Southeast Asian street food in the guise of a sidewalk cafe-bistro.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 22, 2001
A many-splendored world of tofu
Tofu is cooling, tofu is healthy and, best of all, tofu is cheap. And suddenly this sultry summer season, tofu is also totally trendy. Just like Shigezo Syoutou, in fact. Such is its popularity, it took us three attempts to snare a reservation at this laid-back basement dining-bar, despite the location...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2001
For those about to tapa . . .
In Spain tapas are much more than just food, they're a way of life. There's even a verb -- to "tapa," as it were -- to describe the act of progressing from one tapas bar to another until the wee hours, balancing your intake of alcohol with a succession of light snacks -- always standing up, of course....
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 8, 2001
Hot on the trail of spicy laksa
How can it be that laksa, one of the classic dishes of Southeast Asia, still has not achieved recognition in Japan? You would think a nation that worships the noodle in any shape or form -- and is no longer afraid to flirt with "ethnic" (that is to say, Asian and hot) flavors -- would have embraced laksa,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2001
In praise of traditional values
Rustic, welcoming, friendly, relaxed -- these are not the adjectives you associate most readily with Daikanyama these days. Long since gutted as a neighborhood, there's precious little sense of community left among all the brand-name boutiques and slick, designer restaurants that have taken over the...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 24, 2001
A simmering passion for oden
If MSG is the Viagra for flaccid taste buds, then katsuo dashi is the complex natural chemistry of full-force pheromones at the raging height of the rutting season. It awakens, stimulates and arouses those parts of your palate that the other flavors just don't reach.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2001
On a mission from Korea
Kimchi is not just a daily food for Koreans, it's a potent symbol of national identity. Hence the outcry when the news broke of Japanese companies marketing ersatz versions not made according to the traditional process. This was sacrilege on the same order of trying to pass off carbonated grape juice...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2001
Saikabo: On a mission from Korea
Kimchi is not just a daily food for Koreans, it's a potent symbol of national identity. Hence the outcry when the news broke of Japanese companies marketing ersatz versions not made according to the traditional process. This was sacrilege on the same order of trying to pass off carbonated grape juice...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 10, 2001
Zetton: A buzz that can't be resisted
Call it what you like -- drawing power, charisma, sex appeal or the Koizumi quality -- new restaurants need that extra something to succeed, no less than populist politicians with big, Beethoven-look hair. Zetton, the hot new place just up from Shibuya-bashi in Ebisu, has just the right sort of buzz....
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 3, 2001
Kihachi China moves uptown
When Kihachi China moved a few blocks across Ginza last November, it was not just a change of address -- it signified a definite change of status. The old premises, hidden away behind Printemps, were smart but lightweight. The new restaurant is a mere five minutes' stroll away -- just around the corner...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 27, 2001
A ristorante close to heaven
Arriving at Ca Angeli for the first time, you will be forgiven for wondering which is more important, the kitsch or the kitchen.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 20, 2001
Time to get back to the garden
Can it really be the season for beer gardens again already? Well, not really. But what's the point in waiting, when there are so many perfectly fine evenings at this time of year. Seize the night, we say. And, anyway, we were impatient to revisit our longtime favorite summer drinking spot, the wonderful...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 13, 2001
Sit back, relax and let life pass you by
Summer's on its way, and none of us need any encouraging to make the most of it. There's no better way to celebrate the onset of the hot weather than with a leisurely lunch in the open air. Nothing too heavy, nothing too complicated -- this is the season to start lightening up the diet, anyway. Here...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 6, 2001
Issei: It might as well be spring
Issei's exterior is almost too picture perfect. The entrance is overhung with thatched eaves. A large white lantern dangles above a complex flower arrangement, and an indigo noren stretches across the rustic sliding wooden door.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 6, 2001
It might as well be spring
Issei's exterior is almost too picture perfect. The entrance is overhung with thatched eaves. A large white lantern dangles above a complex flower arrangement, and an indigo noren stretches across the rustic sliding wooden door.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 29, 2001
The pride of the neighborhood
Mannebiches is the Tokyo neighborhood bistro par excellence. Tucked away, well off the main drag, in a part of town better known for its traditional shitamachi values, it does not trumpet its presence to the city at large. Instead, it is content to serve up first-rate French food without fanfare or pretension...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 22, 2001
Underground Mr. Zoogunzoo: A cave of wonder, down under
Underground Mr. Zoogunzoo has an interior to match its singular name. The walls are daubed with adobe designs, as if decorated by aboriginal dot artists. Light diffuses from opaque lamp shades resembling irregular crystals or the seed pods of an alien life form.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 15, 2001
Yamato: Notes from the underground
Call it the B1 syndrome, if you will, or perhaps the bargain-basement phenomenon. But the sad truth is, you don't dine well at the bottom of a building.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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