Thanks Mao and Akiko for your responses. About me, I'm a white male, and a professional cook trained in european cuisine. My conversations with Japanese friends and co-workers who have traditional japanese training(kaiseki) and french as well always seem to lead back to the point that restaurants here in new york fail to produce what one could refer to as an authentic "taste" of traditional japanese food as it is experienced in Japan. Many times this is considered a result of lack of authentic ingredients; e.g. quality japanese rice, or the fact that in new york, restaurants are approached with a more buisness-like approach. I have never had the opportunity to travel abroad so i can't make these comparisons myself. For example, I mentioned a ramen restaurant (rai rai ken) to a japanese co-worker and said that i thought their broth was good. He laughed a little and said that there was no place in new york to get ramen that would have "real" ramen taste. I dont know if this is a bit of Japancentricity or not, but he was very adamant on this point. Now I know enough about broths to know whether or not it was good- it was; the question for him was more about whether it tasted at all like what is available in any number of noodle joints in a major Japanese city. This is why i was wondering about your opinions of Japanese dining in new york, Mao. The interest for me is in having the experience of tasting Japanese food in an authentic manner, to have a correct map of flavors from which to refer. Well, I hope that explains a bit more about my questions, thanks again.
