author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 17, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Twitter

@tokyofoodfile

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
Sep 21, 2007
Seigetsu: Great balls of cedar promise good sake
...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 17, 2007
Summertime and the grazing is easy
It's holiday time and the Food File is off for a break, but not before tidying up a few loose ends. This column is a summer miscellany — call it a chop suey (from the Cantonese shap sui, meaning "odds and ends") — on a few of the places we've visited and enjoyed in recent months.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 3, 2007
Sumile: Al fresco dining above the crowds
Shibuya is not the neighborhood that springs to mind most readily when planning a mellow evening of al fresco dining — and certainly not anywhere in the vicinity of brash pedestrian street Center-gai. And yet why not, when the tranquil terrace at Sumile lies just steps away from all that relentless...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 20, 2007
Rak Thai Pheng Roi: Thai 'food stall' keeps it casual
At this time of this year, every day feels like casual Friday. And as the humidity rises and the perspiration drops, simple is the way we like it. That means food that's light and flavorful, preferably with a good spicy kick to it — and strictly no dressing up for dinner.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 6, 2007
Eating your way along the coast
The ocean sparkles; the beach beckons; a breeze stirs the appetite. And the Shonan coast — an hour or so south of Tokyo by train — looks mighty appealing, especially the secluded inlets down the peninsula in genteel Hayama. That's where you'll find the Food File.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 15, 2007
Tofuya Ukai: Below the Tower a Garden of Edo
Tofuya Ukai is one of those "only in Japan" experiences. In the heart of the city, minutes from Roppongi and at the very foot of Tokyo Tower, you round a corner and find yourself in front of a samurai-era merchant's residence, its low-slung wooden gateway announced by an imposing white lantern and a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 1, 2007
Butagumi: In hog heaven with the pig gang
Gourmet tonkatsu. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, as implausible as haute cuisine hot dogs or Michelin-starred jellied eels. Surely those breaded, deep-fried "cutlets" of pork can be nothing but comfort food: fatty, filling and reassuringly easy on the budget.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 18, 2007
Viron: Bread and rosé in Marunouchi
Whatever happened to Tokyo's love affair with the cafe-brasserie? A decade ago, the entire city seemed ready to embrace the Gallic ethos of sipping coffee and nibbling on croissants (or pastis and salade nicoise) while indulging in the leisurely sport of people watching.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 4, 2007
Manuel Churrascaria: Portuguese bistro-casual with a grill
Another week, another new building complex. After working our way through Tokyo Midtown, Velviakan in Ginza and the new Shin-Marunouchi Building, we'd had it with the hype and the crowds. Craving simple, honest sustenance in a quiet neighborhood setting, it came as a pleasure to return at last to Manuel...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 20, 2007
Kinsai: Nakame's hip new super kitchen
...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 6, 2007
Kin-no-saru: In any season, a park-side classic
We had it all planned. We'd spend the afternoon in Kichijoji's Inokashira Park, strolling and sitting under the cherry trees, with maybe a dram or two of sake to inspire lofty thoughts, before adjourning for dinner nearby. But we hadn't counted on the weathermen getting their predictions so wrong.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 16, 2007
Restaurant Khyber: Subtle spices from the tandoor grill
The tandoor oven has come a long way from its humble roots in northern India and what is now Pakistan. Basic but so effective, its design has remained unchanged for thousands of years: a simple terra-cotta cylinder, maybe a meter high and 25 cm across, surrounded by thick insulation to keep the heat...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 2, 2007
Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musee: given the museum treatment
The wraps came off the new National Art Center in late January, revealing Kisho Kurokawa's tour de force in all its glory. The sinuous, bulging facade is remarkable enough, but it's the vast atrium inside that undulating skin of celadon-green glass that really stops you in your tracks.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 16, 2007
Fired up for a Chinese celebration
The bunting and decorations are in place. The fatted calf has been slaughtered, the fatted lamb, piglet, chicken and duckling, too. The Chinese New Year is upon us, and close to a third of the world's population is ready to party.
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 2, 2007
No need to shell out for these oysters
No prizes for guessing what's on the menu at Tokyo Oyster Bar. The name is succinct, businesslike, almost generic. You would imagine it to be sleek, perhaps a bit impersonal, and definitely a bit pricey -- after all, that's the image most other oyster bars in the city aspire to. You'd be wrong.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 19, 2007
Ebisu Imaiya So-Honten: Skewered or simmered, rare birds
The evenings are long and dark. Icy winds whip through the streets. Comfort food is called for, and it pays to know where to find it. If we're in Ebisu, as often as not we head straight to Imaiya So-Honten.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 12, 2007
Wine bars you can't afford to miss
Tokyo is awash with wine these days. Any restaurant that wants to be taken seriously -- and, more importantly, has high overheads to cover -- must boast a well-stocked cellar, preferably glass-fronted, carefully illuminated and strategically placed in full view of the dining room.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 5, 2007
Kamakura: slow food on the coast
We spent this new year, as is our custom, in Kamakura. We helped to toll the joya-no-kane bell at our favorite hillside temple. At a little shrine under a steep, wooded cliff, we made our ritual hatsumode obeisances. And then, needless to say, we feasted in auspicious style.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 15, 2006
Reminiscing on a year at the table
The solstice is upon us, and the holiday season is closing in fast. But before we take refuge under the mistletoe and give ourselves over to the usual Yuletide overindulgence, we must first clear the clutter from the Food File desk and tidy up all the loose ends.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 10, 2006
Guidance from a master brewer
THE BOOK OF SAKE: A Connoisseur's Guide, by Philip Harper. Kodansha International, 2006, 96 pp., 2,940 yen (cloth) How the global culinary pendulum does swing. It was not so long ago that drinking sake was considered as exotic, or even as ill advised, as eating raw fish seasoned with green horseradish....
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
China’s economic growth comes in worse than expected
Pedestrians in the Wangfujing shopping area in Beijing on July 11, 2024. China's economic growth in the second quarter was lower than forecast, adding pressure on Chinese leaders to lift confidence at the Chinese Communist Party's third plenum this week.
Kansai airports to increase takeoff and landing slots ahead of Osaka Expo
Kansai International Airport in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture. The upper limit on the number of takeoff and landing slots at the airport as well as Kobe Airport in Hyogo Prefecture will be raised in spring next year ahead of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Festival overcomes a nuclear accident and COVID
Festival overcomes a nuclear accident and COVID

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER