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January 21, 2025
 

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Simon Daly
"A Very Asian Guide to Japanese Food" is the first edition of the Asia-centric series to focus on rice balls, fermented soybeans and other Japanese staples.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 19, 2025
For kids, Japanese food ‘is a doorway to exploration’
Begun as a response to Asian-directed violence during the pandemic, the “Very Asian” series of cookbooks-slash-cultural primers turns its gaze toward Japan.
Pan-roasted baby beets, carrots, turnips and orange may be an otherwise American dish, but Sonoko Sakai's addition of lemon-miso yogurt turns it into a 'wafū' (Japanese style) marvel.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 12, 2025
The case for Japan-ifying everything you cook
“Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style” coins the term “wafuing” — shorthand for bringing Japanese flavors into anything and everything.
The central Hokkaido city of Asahikawa made headlines this year when one of its suburbs was named as the best place to live in Japan — a ranking earned in part due to the community's many outstanding restaurants and cafes.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 28, 2024
How Hokkaido quietly became a culinary treasure trove in 2024
Food trucks, morsels with cutesy cues from nature and more helped Japan’s northernmost island have a stellar year.
This cakelike dessert is, in fact, not a cake at all and, being flourless, is gluten free.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Dec 1, 2024
For holidays in warm weather, a light, rolled meringue fits best
In the topsy-turvy seasons of the antipodes, Christmas is in summer and fresh fruit medleys make sense for this dessert.
Despite its somewhat grisly inspiration, this decadent cake would fit into most holiday menus.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Nov 24, 2024
A buttery pound cake to die — or kill — for
As a nod to author Asako Yuzuki, I’ve elevated this recipe inspired by her 2017 bestseller with a little of Japan’s yuzu citrus.
This cake whisked me back to my own childhood in the way only taste and smell can.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Nov 17, 2024
A Danish 'dream cake' inspired by Japan's headline news
Every holiday gathering needs a good cake, and this one takes inspiration from news stories in both Japan and abroad.
Cream-filled 'maritozzo' buns are just one of the many sweet treats on offer at Japanese convenience stores.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 3, 2024
Exploring the ‘B-gourmet wonderland’ of Japanese convenience stores
Tourists who obsess over 7-Eleven and FamilyMart can seem a bit absurd, but there's no denying the integral role these stores have in daily life in Japan.
Hokkaido cuisine is so much more than milk bread and regional ramen — as this humble yet delicious deer ragu shows.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Oct 20, 2024
Deer ragu straight from Hokkaido’s fields
Adapted from a recipe from chef Chihiro Naito, formerly of L’Effervescence, this dish brings the essence of Hokkaido game to your table.
There's nothing like a tangy sandwich to see the last gasps of summer fade into a crisp Japanese autumn.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Oct 6, 2024
Get yourself in a pickle with this uber-tangy banh mi
As a sandwich, this banh mi is a great hot weather lunch for those last few gasps of summer.
Deployed properly, uncooked rice can be a secret weapon to imbue your favorite cocktails with a certain je ne sais quoi.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Sep 29, 2024
The secret ingredient in this cocktail? Rice.
Using uncooked rice as an additive for mixing cocktails is a fun way to uncover subtleties in your favorite sips.
Hokkaido's cuisine and the culture that underpins it get top billing in Tim Anderson's newest cookbook.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 15, 2024
‘MasterChef U.K.’ winner’s new cookbook puts Hokkaido cuisine on vivid display
Tim Anderson's cookbook covers a lot, but its strength is in presenting Japan’s largest prefecture as a detailed tapestry via straightforward recipes.
Yes, this parfait is a decadent treat, but with the addition of some 'ume' (plum), it can actually help you weather the worst of summer's last throes of heat.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Sep 8, 2024
Ditch labor-intensive ice cream for this whisked-together parfait
The only kitchen gadget that is essential for making a parfait is a thermometer.
Roasting cauliflower can seem daunting when its already hot outside, but the flavors here more than make up for slaving over a hot stove for a bit.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Aug 25, 2024
With a bit of Japan's 'national mold,' cauliflower becomes a superstar
Picallili is a style of lightly spiced cauliflower mustard pickle, the result of South Asian flavors integrated into colonial British cuisine.
There are no rules when it comes to making a bibimbap adapted to your own personal tastes.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Aug 18, 2024
With the humble bibimbap, do as you like
With broccoli florets as part of our bibimbap topping, we can also make a quick pickle of the stalk, meaning this meal is practically without waste.
Japan is one of the great mushroom countries of the world, so it pays to know how to make the most of these morsels in your kitchen.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 28, 2024
‘Mushroom Gastronomy’ makes sense of Japan’s fungal diversity
“Mushroom Gastronomy” by mycological gourmand Krista Towns demystifies the world of fungi in Japan and abroad.
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Boiling Point
Jul 13, 2024
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
The one thing everyone can control when the mercury rises is their diet.
There are numerous iterations of 'rāyu' (chili oil), and they all have in common a complexion fiery enough to easily ruin your favorite T-shirt.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Jul 7, 2024
I can’t believe it’s not restaurant ‘rāyu’
With just a few common kitchen items, it couldn’t be simpler to create a unique chili oil right in your own Goldilocks zone.
Any fruit can work as a base here — if, for example, the dad you’re cooking for this upcoming Father’s Day avoids raspberries.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Jun 15, 2024
Cobble together this Father’s Day raspberry dessert
Each spring, higher elevations, forests and countryside backroads are inundated by foragers in search of mountain vegetables, fruits and berries.
Serve this savory parfait chilled with rustic bread, crackers or other charcuterie.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Jun 8, 2024
Broaden your parfait horizons with chicken liver
Spices and herbs can be adjusted to individual tastes or even omitted, but the gelled wine topping is fairly classic, set here with seaweed extract.
"Rintaro: Japanese Food from an Izakaya in California" is a welcome reminder of how Japanese basics are best done and, perhaps, how to get a little closer to how things still should be.
LIFE
May 26, 2024
A California dreamin’ cookbook of 'izakaya' favorites
In an age where traditional knowledge is being forgotten, “Rintaro: Japanese Food from an Izakaya in California” is a treasure trove.
Chinese buyer of Okinawa island to make visit in summer
Yanaha Island in Okinawa Prefecture as seen from a ferry.
More bird flu cases found in Japan; 1.44 million birds to be culled
Officials with the agriculture ministry hold a news conference in Nagoya on Friday following an outbreak of avian influenza in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, earlier this month.
Fuji TV loses more advertisers amid inquiry into host’s behavior
Fuji TV is losing more advertisers following allegations about inappropriate behavior by a celebrity host and questions about its handling of the case.
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
Top sumo pros to enter the ring in Paris in June 2026
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (right) alongside David Rothschild, the promoter of an upcoming tournament in Paris, on Sunday in Tokyo
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

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Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high
Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high

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