Ohba

Frozen mixed vegetables remind me of every dinner hall, canteen and crap restaurant I've ever eaten at. The bin is the only place for them.

Just a couple of extra things - though I know nothing about knives: I think there IS a knife shop in the main Kappabashi street. Kappabashi aside, you can find Japanese knives just about anywhere in Japan, small towns included. Try department stores, hardware stores, and even supermarkets. It wasn't clear in your first post what you're after: modern/traditional, cheap/expensive, professional/home user, all-purpose knife/sashimi blade. Hard even to hazard a guess as to what you'd find in the US. More information on those kinds of things can be a lot of help to anyone who wants to answer. There's been a Japanese knife thread on the Gullet which had a load of information. It would be a good starting point.

Korea would be a notable exception though. Their winters are very cold but chillies are an essential part of Korean food. The parts of China where the food is spiciest don't all correlate to a hot climate either, or a north/south divide. But as chillies aren't much of a cold weather plant, its popularity in tropical and subtropical regions could be more to do with availability.

Damn, I like that answer!

Kid, this is a forum, not a chatroom. You'll put fewer backs up if you adopt a less half-assed style of requesting assistance. Have a heart. There are old people reading.

I hope Robyn won't mind me adding a few comments to her excellent overview, not intended as contradictions, as such, but where my experiences diverge from hers. Subways/rail Yes they can be terribly crowded, but I think that's part of the fun of getting around in Tokyo, and it's the way that most locals do it. You can also heave a sigh of relief that it's not part of your daily commute. And usually, it's the easiest route to your restaurant. I hardly use taxis at all in Tokyo, though if you're planning on being out past 11.30 at night, you'll need them. That's a really good point. Visitors should really try something a little outside the travel-guide recommendations. Tokyo is a great city for exploring the food scene, and few travel guides cover it at all well. Also be extremely suspicious if any recommendation claims a particular restaurant is the best of its type in Tokyo, or has the best [insert dish/food ingredient here] in the city. I think Metropolis and Tokyo Food Pages do a pretty good job, because they're based in Japan and their reviewers seem to know their food. I suggest you also try at least one or two places on your own initiative. Ebisu/Daikanyama would be a good place to start, although there are so many other possibilities across the city. There is of course a lot of cloning, but there are many, many restaurants dedicated to turning out the best damn food they can, and they don't all charge a lot for the privilege, either. I can sympathize with anyone who wants to eat Japanese only, though it's not my policy when I travel to restrict myself to the local food. And it would only be fair to mention that the quality of Italian and French food available in Tokyo can be high. Really, really high. There are dozens of high-end Italian places across the city, and many more that are inexpensive but still extremely good. Laugh if you like, but try it first, and then let's talk about mayonnaise. Not many of the places I go to have fixed menus. And in addition to their a la carte choices, there are daily specials - no surprise there, really - which are well worth exploring, as Japan still highly values the fresh and the seasonal. So I personally wouldn't want to order ahead, but mainly because I hate the idea of my food being decided before I've even left for the restaurant. A last couple of things that occurred to me, not related to Robyn's comments: for anyone in the habit of bar hopping, it's standard practice for a bar to accommodate only as many customers as there are seats in the bar. Bars often turn away customers they can't seat - a combination probably of not wanting to be overcrowded, and wanting to give the customers already there the best service they can. You will soon get the hang of which places allow standing customers and which don't. And there are of course the tachinomi bars, for standing-only - also worth checking out. And I don't think anyone mentioned Obon yet, but if your August trip coincides with it, some places may close for up to a few days. There'll be a multitude of alternative choices though, so I'd say it's barely a consideration.

There are a lot of reviews at the following link. Also look into bars, as food on offer in Japan's drinking establishments can be of very high quality indeed, and the distinction between a restaurant and bar is often, erm, blurred. Even if you don't try out any of these places, it will make fun reading before your trip. Metropolis (By the way, you might need to navigate around the site a bit to get the full range of articles - no time to post the best link at the moment)

I'm glad to see so many people mention new potatoes. I'd go so far as to say that you haven't tasted potatoes until you've tasted new potatoes.

Granted you say it's a minimum, but nine (not ten?) is just over a mile a day, which can be done by venturing all of half a mile from the house and back again. For most people, especially if their diet is less than optimal, that's really not going to make much of a contribution to their health.

Edawerd, I suspect that the waiter in Japan may have accepted money to prevent further embarrassment to both parties. For gratitude, read politeness. It is emphatically NOT the done thing to tip here, and those who know and still insist on trying to tip anyway are doing nobody any favours. I understand, however, that there are many people who are so habituated to tipping and the culture surrounding it in their own countries that it seems wrong to leave the restaurant without doing so. However, in Japan, there's no need to tip. Really. Long may it stay that way, considering how tipping poisons the atmosphere in those countries where it is the custom.

I can only agree with the poster who said they wonder why some people bother eating at restaurants at all. Do you really think all restaurants should disinfect the tabletop after each group of diners?

It would take a big influx of foreigners to swamp the Tokyo dining scene.

Sounds like a good idea. I'm moving house next week (within Japan), so I'll be starting the garden all over again, in a slightly colder climate than where I presently live.

I like the context given upthread about the FCC chef! It's not a total surprise, if you've read much of Justin McCurry's other writings on Japan. I wonder if the Michelin guide will gain the influence here that it has in Europe. Personally, I don't think the practice of starbagging, either by chefs or diners, is a particularly good thing. It will also be interesting to see how they approach such a different food culture. One thing's certain: Japan doesn't actually NEED the Michelin guide.

You may be confusing several strands of information here, OP. Olive oil has a relatively low smoke point, so even leaving aside flavour, it isn't much use for something like stir frying. It is also considered wasteful to cook with a good, fruity olive oil (extra virgin, which is usually more expensive - though not where I live) because most of the flavour is lost. Cold, in salad dressings etc, the full flavour can be appreciated. And really, olive oil is about food, not health. That's the main reason for its popularity - on its home turf, at least.

I suggest you post over in the India section of the forum, and you'll probably get more detail than you can handle. Since it's a fairly "generic" question, it's best to check for previous posts first. You can also look around on the Web, there are good resources out there for Indian recipes. To start with, Pat Chapman's Curry Club website should keep you busy for a few days, but there are plenty of others.

Pro-lager sounds right. And it's true about variety - in good pubs, anyway. A real ale fan tends to value the smaller companies over the giants, naturally enough, but just as important in making a selection are the variety, its alcoholic strength, and the reputation of the pub for taking care of and serving the good stuff (affected by transportation, storage, and pumping, as explained by CAMRA again). It sounds esoteric, but you don't have to be much of an expert to differentiate the good from the bad. Compared to wine, it's a nice, unsnobbish, easygoing field, and real ale is one thing we Brits - no, hell, we ENGLISH - can be truly proud of.

In Britain that comment would have most people scratching their heads, not least at CAMRA. Ale is simply an another word for beer, of which bitter is one of the types. Oh, and to be pedantic, if you were pro-bitters....(click)

There's some excellent British cheese, but you may well be right, and you're spot on that British food probably doesn't deserve too much praise. Actually, the only two things I can think of where we bow to absolutely no one are beer and whisky. Otherwise though, when I hear people talking up our wonderful and varied regional specialities, I have to admit I cringe. The food renaissance that some speak of looks to me like little more than a mild revival, and in some fairly limited areas. The general food situation in Britain is really not that good, either in restaurants or the home. And a handful of world-class British chefs, for all their advocacy of good food, is no substitute for a decent food culture that everyone can be a part of - the type of thing you can find in many parts of Europe or Asia.

"The media" in Gordon Ramsay's case would also have to include his own use of television as a method of self-promotion. He was very keen to stress in an early series that he was not a "celebrity chef" (he used Gary Rhodes as an example of what he meant), but that's exactly what he became, eclipsing Rhodes in the process, and his television programmes played a big part. It's not as if he did just one series and then knocked it on the head, either. Part of the problem is that he looks as if he's trying to play it both ways. He cares desperately about what the reviews say - his series show him more than once going to get the first edition of the morning paper to see what's been said about his restaurant. He badly wanted his third Michelin star, which again, was worked into the series. He also seems happy enough to let selected press or photographers into his home (would you?), put his wife and kids up to be filmed, etc. In short, if you were casting round for a term to describe him, "media whore" might spring to mind - the very thing that he wants people to believe he is not. And his programmes might be engrossing, but it's very debatable whether they could be called high quality television - in which case, who can draw the line on what is garbage and what isn't? His programmes show staff being totally humiliated, which to me is very uncomfortable to watch. The perfectionist argument can only be used so many times before it wears thin. He insults staff, often repeatedly, about their physical appearance, during his harangues - people who are fat, bald, foreign, whatever difference he can find while he works through his frustration. It's not pretty watching someone who has the power to fire on the spot, and is known to do it, daring his staff to answer back, calling them cowards when they don't, grabbing them, bitching about their salary... that's not training, it's bullying, whatever pressure he's under (cf the Buddy Rich tapes). There was an incident in one series that showed the same pattern of wanting it both ways - he took 5,000 pounds as the appearance fee to do a 30 minute cooking demonstration with Bramley's apples. On camera for his own series, he talked about selling out, substituted a different kind of apple for Bramleys, acknowledged that it was about the easiest money he'd ever made, and referred to the Bramleys board representative as a "plonker". I think those are the kind of things that the media pick up on when they write stories in a negative light. To not do so - say, to only talk about his reputation for inspiring loyalty in his staff, or his many acts of generosity, or his undoubted talent, would be less than the whole truth. His adversarial relationship with the media is inevitable, in other words, and he's largely to blame for it by choosing to live in the public eye and rigging his kitchens up with television cameras.

Unfortunately, many people can't see this fact. And are put off irrationally because of this. I know all of this has been said before, so I've been reluctant to add to this thread since its rekindling, but I would like to add the following in the spirit of the "philosophy" aspect of its title. While I agree with you fundamentally, Mikeb19, I think that you're not adequately acknowledging that aesthetic facet. The compounds and techniques popularly ascribed to MG do not define MG. This too is a common misconception. MG is more a way of thinking about food than the realization of said techniques. MG is about changing/challenging perceptions and understanding food on a more complete level, and in this way cannot be so simply reduced to a "haute application of industrio-commercial compounds and techniques." ← It's not irrational. People eat, and pay for, what they want to eat. So if molecular gastronomy goes out of fashion - hardly difficult to conceive - it will simply shrivel up and disappear; to put it crudely, because there's no longer money in it. The main thing going for it at the moment, speaking from the customer's end of things, is image. At a guess, I'd say it will not be terribly long before the phrase "molecular gastronomy" becomes commercial poison, and it will be interesting then to see how many chefs still want to be associated with the name.

You're talking about a city that arguably has few rivals anywhere in the world in terms of the number of restaurants, bars, and izakayas, and other places offering food of exceptional quality. It's very hard to give a 'must-try' without seeming to exclude others of similar quality or claim to fame - unless you narrow down your preferences, budget, and location. There's just too much good stuff. If you don't already have any other candidates for sushi places, though, just try the Tsukiji area. You won't be disappointed. It doesn't automatically follow that the place with the biggest lines is the best, either.

I read that thread for the first time today. I thought some interesting points were raised, but my feeling that pride in the positive achievements of Chinese cuisine unnecessarily crossed the line into cultural arrogance was reinforced once I got to the comment that the Japanese learned everything they know about cooking from the Chinese. Breathtakingly patronizing, of course, and not helped by the racist language. Such things are mercifully rare on the Gullet. Still, at least it demonstrated the futility of the original premise.

Din Tai Fung is fine, the food is very good, but be prepared for a place that is small, crowded, always busy, and entirely accustomed to tour buses turning up. And they're a bit of a marketing phenomenon, with restaurants in locations across Asia - Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo (7 of them!) Singapore, Kuala Lumpur - and one in Los Angeles. Keep it under your hat though, or Dubai will want one. They make "the best" soup dumplings in Taipei, apparently, and everyone seems happy to go along with that. I have no actual restaurants to recommend, but while you're there, try a Taiwanese breakfast from a street stall or restaurant. They're often rather grubby looking places, but it's a good start to the day, and dan bing, a kind of egg pancake, are just great. You should also look for a nice teahouse, of the type that serves fine oolongs. They may seem expensive at first glance, but they're good value for the quality of tea and the length of time you're likely to spend there. They're very calm places if you need to unwind; and the staff will help out if you don't know what you're doing with the pots, cups and bowls. Wisteria is a favourite, and justifiably: do a quick Google search on "Wisteria Teahouse Taipei" if you want the address, and there are also some good pictures on someone's photography site. For an overview of the food options in Taiwan, look at Wikipedia's Taiwanese Food page, and there are some links at the bottom to a couple of food blogs. There really are so many options, from street food, which I find better and more varied than anywhere else I've visited, SE Asia included, to expensive restaurants. All worth trying, but you can do very well indeed even with inexpensive options. Random choices will be rewarding, too.

I think my end-of-season garden is looking a little too ragged for me to post pictures of it on a public forum! Maybe next year. I might well go with raised beds. We'll have the winter to do a bit of planning and preparatory work, so that's definitely an option.