J.J. O'Donoghue - The Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET

Oct 19, 2016

Views from Kyoto: Who would you like to see win the U.S. presidential election?

People in Kyoto talk about who they would vote for if they could in next month's U.S. presidential election.

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Oct 7, 2016

Tempura Endo Yasaka: Deep-fried morsels in a downtown teahouse

After reading the recent review by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold of Tempura Endo's Beverly Hills restaurant I thought it was high time I went to the original. Tempura Endo Yasaka in Kyoto is housed in an ornate wooden teahouse south of Gion; waiting staff in delicate light blue kimonos...

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Oct 7, 2016

Sarasa Nishijin: A curious cafe in the bones of an old bathhouse

Sarasa Nishijin is a sentō (bathhouse) — well, it used to be. But using the past tense here belies how much of its old spirit still lives on. The waters may have drained away — replaced by sofas, tables, chairs and people lounging about fully clothed — but the sentō's old life is revealed in...

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Sep 23, 2016

The Panhead's Heaven Saloon: Gigantic burgers fit for a biker

We need to talk about calories. They are, in the words of "Panmas" — the avuncular owner and chef at The Panhead's Heaven Saloon — the "concept" upon which his towering burgers are built. By his count, the Cheese-Bomb has more than 2,000 units loaded into it. Bear in mind that the average male requires...

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Sep 23, 2016

Galleria: Neapolitan-style pizza made with Hokkaido flour

Galleria is a pizzeria with two outlets in Osaka Prefecture — one in Umeda and the other in Tondayabsahi. Their classic pizzas are prepared Neapolitan-style, with wafer-thin dough in the middle, thick crust and smothered in tomato sauce and olive oil. As with Neapolitan pizza, your order arrives quickly....

LIFE / Digital

Sep 17, 2016

Emoji: The evolution of emoticons

The ideograms that were once eyed with skepticism have transformed into a universally accepted part of daily communication.

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Sep 9, 2016

Moriwaki: Blissful sashimi in a compact family-run eatery

One of my favorite occasions to eat out in Japan is after returning from a long trip abroad. I have learned to empathize with those Japanese tourists who can't wait to get home and eat Japanese rice after a whirlwind tour of Europe.

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Sep 9, 2016

Hyakushokuya: The wagyu joint that only makes 100 meals each day

Hyakushokuya, "100 meal shop," makes 100 meals a day — and that's it. The daily challenge for staff is to make and serve them as fast possible, so that they can take the rest of the day off. It seems that this is typically accomplished by the end of lunchtime, at which point a chalkboard is placed...

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Aug 26, 2016

Atariya makes stopping at Shin-Osaka Station a treat

For most people, Shin-Osaka Station is a transit stop rather than a destination. That's understandable as there's not too much to stick around for. But if you're at a loss for food options, at least there's Atariya, a family-run soba restaurant that's a 10-minute walk from the station.

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Aug 26, 2016

Cheap meat is what everyone's talking about at Nikusakaba Buzz

In an attempt to stand out from the multitude of pubs and restaurants packed in between Takatsuki's two train stations, Nikusakaba Buzz describes itself as neither a steakhouse, bar nor restaurant — it's just a chill place to enjoy meat and booze.

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Aug 12, 2016

Grill Aoi serves up the most Japanese Western food in its Little Rich Lunch

The Japanese guriru ("grill" meaning a restaurant, not a cooking tool) is an interesting mix of new, borrowed and adapted ideas. Grill Aoi, a family-owned diner tucked away on a quiet side street between Gojo and Shijo, has no shortage of such ideas.

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Aug 12, 2016

The telltale signs of a terrific Thai restaurant

When you've been to enough Japanese restaurants, you come to realize that a bowl of rice or miso soup can foretell the quality of an establishment's other dishes. I like to think this rule also applies to a serving of pad thai at a Thai restaurant.

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Jul 22, 2016

Fukushima Mori: Slow 'kaiseki' beside a minimal rock garden

I'm seated at one end of a wooden counter, hewn from the dark wood of a bubinga tree and streaked with hues of purple and red. The white pebbles in a nearby rock garden fan out around a patch of moss shaded by a single Japanese maple tree. And on my other side? Three empty seats. Beyond that, all Fukushima...

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Jul 22, 2016

Bahnhof: Specialty coffee, crafted by certified 'meisters'

One of the first and only sentences I mastered in three years of (not) learning German was "Wo ist der Bahnhof?" ("Where is the station?") I never thought I'd have a chance to put this into practice in Japan, but my hopes were raised when I heard about Bahnhof, a specialty coffee shop. Sadly, as it turned...

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Jul 8, 2016

Sara: Where daintiness gets a good grilling

Midway through lunch at Sara, a family-run restaurant in northern Kyoto, I started to suspect that the chefs subscribed to a philosophy of daintiness. The food was as pretty as it was good to eat, but the portions were decidedly petit.

LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Jul 8, 2016

Chocolat Bel Amer: Head-turning desserts in an old wooden town house

First established in Tokyo, Chocolat Bel Amer has now opened a boutique in a gorgeous traditional machiya (town house) fronted by a Japanese maple tree. In a rather bold move, it is directly opposite Inoda, an institution among Kyoto's cafes. What connects both these places — besides the street —...

CULTURE / Stage

Jul 7, 2016

New butoh venue aims for intimacy

Butoh has found a permanent home in Kyoto. Appropriately, for a form of dance that originated in Japan but has flown under the radar here, that home is a tiny 154-year-old kura, or storehouse, hidden down an alley and squeezed between a medical college and residential buildings slap bang in the middle...

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Jun 24, 2016

Kakomi: the hushed, abstract art of 'kaiseki'

I have worked in my fair share of kitchens over the years. At some stage while toiling at each, someone — usually a chef — would lose their temper with me and regain it only after loudly roasting me with words not fit for a newspaper. I thought of these episodes while sitting at the counter of Kakomi...

LIFE / Food & Drink

Jun 24, 2016

English wasabi could put the heat on Japanese chefs

Wasabi, according to the late food writer Shizuo Tsuji, grows best on the banks of cold, clear streams.

LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Jun 24, 2016

El Zocalo Burrito: A Mexican Valhalla in downtown Osaka

El Zocalo Burrito is, as its name implies, all about burritos. Located on a quiet street west of Shinsaibashi Station, it offers a reprieve from the never-ending throng of tourists wandering the nearby Dotonbori shopping district.

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