Tag Archives: viking.ramen

Soul Food for Thought

8 Apr Miss Maude's

Elias Corner octopusEthiopian
Burger JointBLT Lamb Merguez Burger

On my recent, brief trip to New York to visit family and friends, I had a checklist of specific foods I wanted to eat there; I wanted nothing but good food experiences – nothing mediocre, nothing mundane. To these ends, the trip was beyond satisfactory. Fork-tender Greek-style grilled octopus, colorful piles of Ethiopian curries on spongy injera, a lowbrow burger, a highbrow burger, and butter beans with bacon and crème fraîche all made their way into my gullet, washed down with a variety of uniquely American indulgences: high-gravity craft beer, bottomless cups of coffee, and the notorious Twinkie milkshake, which was probably conceived either by some mad genius chef, or somebody’s six-year-old child.

Twinkie milkshakeBottomless coffeeBrooklyn beersBottomless coffee

Yes, it was a five-day feeding frenzy on fantastic food – a very successful trip in my book. And though it’s hard to choose highlights from such a delicious holiday, my two favorite meals were probably a sampler plate from Miss Maude’s Spoonbread Too and good ol’ Akamaru tonkotsu ramen from Ippudō.

Miss Maude's

Miss Maude’s sampler plate included fried chicken, fried shrimp, barbecue short ribs and baby back ribs, candied yams, black eyed peas, and collard greens, a burly plate of food that was so good and perfect it could be in a museum – an exemplary soul food meal, Harlem, circa 2009. The ribs fell off the bone as if they couldn’t wait to be eaten, and the shrimp had a brilliant, fresh flavor that burst through the solid crunch and spice of its breading. I was especially impressed with the humble greens, wilted yet firm and unexpectedly tinged with a hint of smoke, like they had been cooked over a fire.

Akamaru

And then the Akamaru – well, we all know how I feel about Ippudō. Or do we? Ippudō is legendary. It was among the first bowls of really exceptional ramen I had in Tokyo, and it remained a favorite – somewhere in my top three, I’d reckon – over the course of the two years I lived in Japan, even after countless bowls of worthy competitors. The creativity displayed in Ippudō’s kiwami shin’aji and the ramen en flambé at its sister restaurant, Gogyō, cemented Ippudō’s status in my mind as one of the greatest ramen shops in existence. It seems silly, in retrospect, that I even considered not going there while I was in New York – the only city outside Japan lucky enough to boast an Ippudō.

Both of these meals (and yes, a bowl of ramen is definitely a meal – welcome to the site!) are sold as soul food. Miss Maude’s is soul food in the typical American sense of the word (and pardon my glib definition here): simple yet hard-to-get-right cuisine with loads of fat, protein, and carbohydrates originating in Southern Black households. The literature on Miss Maude’s and other restaurants serving this kind of traditional soul food often play up its homemade history; menus and reviews alike deploy comfort-food clichés such as “like Mom used to make,” “home-cooked taste,” and “just how you remember it” so repeatedly that crackers like me almost think that we actually did eat really awesome soul food growing up. Don’t we wish.

With this homey image in mind, the claim on Ippudō’s website that “Ramen is Japan’s Soul Food” struck me as a misappropriation of the term. Ramen, while hearty, frequently full of lard, and often relatively simple, it takes too much time and effort to cook at home (except, obviously, for the instant version); this, I thought, disqualified it as soul food. A Japanese visitor to Ippudō New York who could truthfully claim that his bowl of Akamaru was “just like Mom used to make” would have been raised by a very outstanding mother indeed.

Then I thought: what if the idea of “homemade” is allowed to extend outside the actual, physical home? While ramen isn’t really something that is cooked in the home in Japan, it is cooked at home in the sense that every town in Japan has a ramen shop, and, importantly, every region produces a different version of the dish that becomes a part of local culture and identity. Also, ramen is accessible – it’s cheap, fast, filling, and warming, and it provides a wonderful mélange of textures and flavors that just seems to make people a bit happier; in other words, it’s comfort food. So while ramen probably won’t elicit memories of the smell of pork broth wafting out of their kitchen when they come home from school, it’s likely to evoke a more generalized but no less affectionate nostalgia for their furusato, their old home – which may be their town, their prefecture, or (if they’re in New York), their country. And, for what it’s worth, Ippudō NY was just how I remembered it.

An Introduction to Ramen (In Fukuoka Prefecture) （福岡県の）拉麺入門

14 Jun gogyo

This is an article I’ve been working on for FukuokaJET.com, a resource website made for JETs living in Fukuoka prefecture, especially new recruits. The information here focuses on Fukuoka, but I think it’s a fairly good survey of the major ramen styles for anybody who’s interested.

Tonkotsu (Pork Bone) 豚骨・とんこつ

Tonkotsu ramen is the richest of the four main ramen broth varieties, and the ramen for which Fukuoka is famous. The greyish white soup is made by boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen over high heat for hours on end, suffusing the broth with a hearty pork flavor and a creamy consistency that rivals milk or melted butter or gravy (depending on the shop). Most shops, but not all, blend this pork broth with a small amount of chicken and vegetable stock and/or soy sauce. The original tonkotsu ramen, from Kurume, actually has a small amount of powdered bone and marrow in the broth, giving it an even stronger pork taste, chalky texture, and characteristic “stink.” Hakata-style tonkotsu generally does not contain bone and is characterized by thin, straight noodles that can be ordered to the firmness of your choice. Another characteristic of tonkotsu ramen shops in the Fukuoka area is kaedama 替玉, an extra helping of noodles that customers can order after they’ve slurped away the original serving. Typical tonkotsu toppings include red pickled ginger, green onions, and tree ears, along with the standard chāshū (sliced pork). Some shops also provide customers with minced garlic or even whole garlic cloves and garlic presses so they can give their soup the freshest garlic flavor possible. Currently the latest trend in tonkotsu toppings is māyu マー油, a blackish, aromatic oil made from charred crushed garlic. As ingredients and methods vary from shop to shop, it is said that no two bowls of Hakata ramen are alike, so try as many as you can!

Many of Hakata’s ubiquitous yatai 屋台 (street stalls) sell tonkotsu ramen, often with side dishes like gyoza and fried rice. Yatai advertising Nagahama 長浜 ramen are some of the most popular, as the Nagahama style – named for the working-class area northwest of Tenjin – is a bit lighter than basic Hakata ramen.

Where to try it in Fukuoka:

Ippūdō (Original Daimyō Shop) 一風堂大名本店
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Daimyō 1-13-14
092-771-0880
11:00-02:00, Sundays and holidays 11:00-24:00
Recommended ramen: Akamaru Kasane-aji 赤丸かさね味 (¥800), Kiwami Shin’aji 極新味 (¥1300)

Isshin Furan 一心不乱
(Original Shop)
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Daimyō 2-6-5
Tenjin Nishi-dōri-kan 1F
092-733-3768
11:00-02:00, Sundays and holidays 11:00-24:00
(Canal City Shop)
Fukuoka City Hakata-ku Sumiyoshi 1-2
Hakata Canal City 5F, Ramen Stadium
092-271-5166
11:00-23:00
Recommended ramen: Kuro no Koku Tonkotsu Ramen 黒のコクとんこつラーメン (¥600)

Taihō 大砲
(Original Shop)
Kurume City Tōrihoka-machi 11-8
0942-33-6695
11:00-21:00; closed every second and fourth Thursday of the month
(Tenjin Imaizumi Shop)
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Imaizumi 1-23-8
093-738-3277
11:00-23:00
Recommended ramen: Ramen ラーメン (¥480), Mukashi Ramen 昔ラーメン (¥500)

Tōyōken 東洋軒
Kitakyushu City Kokurakita-ku Kogane-machi 1-4-30
093-931-0095
11:00-15:00, 16:00-21:30; closed Wednesday
Recommended ramen: Wantan-men ワンタンメン (¥700)

Ajisen 味千拉麺
Fukuoka City Higashi-ku Hakozaki 5-1-8
Rakuichi Kaidō Shopping Center
092-632-6212
11:00-02:00; Friday and Saturday 11:00-03:00
Recommended ramen: Paikū-men パイクー麺 (¥850)

Tonkotsu-based wantanmen from Toyoken.

Shōyu (Soy Sauce) 醤油・正油・しょうゆ

Shōyu ramen is the most traditional variety, with its roots in the Chinese immigrant community of Yokohama. The broth is typically brown and clear, based on a chicken and vegetable (or sometimes fish or beef) stock with plenty of soy sauce added for a soup that’s tangy, salty, and savory yet still fairly light on the palate. Shōyu ramen usually has curly noodles rather than straight ones, but this is not always the case. It is often adorned with marinated bamboo shoots (menma 麺媽), green onions, kamaboko (fish cakes), nori (seaweed), boiled eggs, bean sprouts and/or black pepper; occasionally the soup will also contain chili oil or Chinese spices, and some shops serve sliced beef instead of the usual chāshū. Shōyu ramen is ubiquitous around Tokyo and Yokohama, but in Fukuoka it is not as popular as the hometown favorite, tonkotsu. Still, there are several shops across the prefecture that serve a good bowl of shōyu ramen – some richer than usual to cater to local tastes.

Where to try it in Fukuoka:

Fujiō 藤王
Kitakyushu City Kokurakita-ku Uo-machi 2-4-18
New Fukusuke Building 2F
093-511-2800
11:00-20:00 (last order 19:30); closed every third Wednesday of the month
Recommended ramen: Chūka Soba 中華そば (¥530)

Ranshū 蘭州
Kitakyushu City Kokurakita-ku Furusenba-machi 5-21-103
093-531-6999
11:30-14:00, 19:00-24:00; closed Sunday and closed for lunch on Wednesday
Recommended ramen: Yakuzen Ramen 薬膳ラーメン (¥500)

Chūka Soba Gōya 中華そば郷家
(Original Shop)
Fukuoka City Minami-ku Terazuka 1-26-7
092-541-0266
11:00-20:30 or until the soup is gone, Sundays and holidays 11:00-20:00; closed Wednesday or the following day if Wednesday is a holiday
(Tenjin Shop)
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Watanabe-dōri 5-25-11
092-713-1333
11:00-23:00, Sundays and holidays 11:00-22:00; closed Wednesday
Recommended ramen: Karanegi Ramen 辛ねぎらーめん (¥650)

Mengekijō Gen’ei 麺劇場　玄瑛
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Yakuin 2-16-3
092-732-6100
11:30-14:30, 18:00-24:30, Sundays and holidays 11:30-22:00
Recommended ramen: (Ushio-kaori) Shōyu Ramen (潮薫)醤油拉麺 (¥800)

Shoyu ramen with spinach and egg from Fujio.

Miso 味噌・みそ

Miso is a fairly recent development in ramen soup, a specialty of Hokkaido and northern Honshu that originated in the 1970s. Those familiar with miso soup from instant soup packets or sushi bars may expect miso ramen to be fairly light and healthy, but actually miso is second only to tonkotsu in terms of richness. Copious amounts of miso are blended with oily chicken or fish broth – and sometimes with tonkotsu or lard – to create a thick, nutty, slightly sweet and very hearty soup. Miso ramen broth tends to have a robust, tangy flavor, so it stands up to a variety flavorful toppings: spicy bean paste (tōbanjan 豆板醤), butter and corn, leeks, onions, bean sprouts, ground pork, cabbage, sesame seeds, white pepper, and chopped garlic are common. Noodles are typically thick, curly, and slightly chewy.

Where to try it in Fukuoka:

Sumire すみれ
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Imaizumi 1-3-1
TY Building Imaizumi 2F
092-741-4685
11:30-23:00; closed Tuesday
Recommended ramen: Miso Ramen 味噌ラーメン (¥780)

Hakata Mendokoro Takadaya 博多麺処 高田家
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Yakuin 2-2-28
092-716-0670
11:00-02:00 (last order 1:30), Sundays and holidays 11:00-23:00
Recommended ramen: Kogashi Miso Ramen 焦がし味噌ラーメン (¥800), Miso Butter Corn Men 味噌バターコーン麺 (¥850)

Kawabata Dosanko 川端どさんこ
Fukuoka City Hakata-ku Kamikawabata-machi 4-229
092-271-5255
11:15-19:55; closed Tuesday and every third Monday of the month
Recommended ramen: Tokusei Miso Ramen 特製味噌ラーメン (¥600)

Miso ramen with tripe.

Shio (Salt) 塩・しお

Ubiquitous in southern Hokkaido and Niigata but rare in Fukuoka, shio is the lightest ramen out there, a pale, clear, yellowish broth made from plenty of salt and any combination of chicken, vegetables, fish, and seaweed. Occasionally pork bones are also used, but they are not boiled as long as they are for tonkotsu ramen, so the soup remains light and clear. Shio is generally the healthiest kind of ramen; fat content tends to be low, and fresh vegetables like cabbage, leeks, onions, and bamboo shoots typically adorn the simple soup and curly noodles. Chāshū is sometimes swapped out for lean chicken meatballs, and pickled plums and kamaboko are popular toppings as well. However, some shops do add lard or oil to make the broth richer or offer a topping of butter and corn for a popular and similarly bad-for-you variation. Noodle texture and thickness varies among shio ramen, but they are usually straight rather than curly.

Where to try it in Fukuoka:

Shionoya 汐のや
Fukuoka City Hakata-ku Hakata Station Chūōgai 6-12
Yodobashi Camera 4
092-432-8171
11:00-22:30
Recommended ramen: Shio Ramen 塩ラーメン (¥600), Tokusei Shio Ramen 特製塩ラーメン (¥850)

Menya-sanshi 麺８−３４
Kitakyushu City Kokurakita-ku Muromachi 2-11-5
093-571-6634
11:30-16:00, 18:00-21:00; closed Tuesday
Recommended ramen: Shio Ramen 塩ラーメン (¥500), Tori Paitan 鶏白湯 (¥500)

Neo-Ramen ネオラーメン

Recently, chefs across the country have been getting increasingly creative with ramen. Some chefs play around with different kinds of broth, some employ unusual ingredients or cooking methods, and some simply push the limits of richness, flavor, and volume. These new ramen experiments are often called “neo-ramen” and include innovations such as: curry ramen, burnt ramen, black miso ramen, motsu ramen, chanpon-style ramen, yakisoba-style ramen, tonkotsu-fish stock blends, chili-infused noodles, and toppings like fried chicken, gelled pork broth, grilled chāshū, pork cutlets, pork collagen, shellfish, shark fin, yuzu peel, chawan mushi, and cheese. Some neo-ramen offerings are simply weird, but many are pleasantly surprising and genuinely delicious.

Where to try it in Fukuoka:

Gogyō 五行
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Imaizumi 1-18-26
092-735-4152
11:30-02:00; Sundays and holidays 11:30-01:00
Recommended ramen: Kogashi Miso Men 焦がし味噌麺, Kogashi Shōyu Men 焦がし醤油麺 (¥850 each, ¥1000 during dinner hours)

Chururu Chu-ra ちゅるるちゅーら
Kitakyushu City Yahatanishi-ku Satonaka 1-6-10
093-611-2666
11:30-22:00, Tuesday until 15:00
Recommended ramen: Tonkotsu Otoko-aji Chā-churu Hige-jī 豚骨男味チャーちゅるヒゲじい (¥950), Gyokai Tonkotsu Aka-māyu Churu-chura 魚介豚骨赤マー油ちゅるチュラ (¥600), Gyokai Tonkotsu Churu-chura 魚介豚骨ちゅるチュラ (¥600)

Fūgen 風玄
Kitakyushu City Yahatanishi-ku Yatsue 5-3-18
093-691-1141
11:00-23:00
Recommended ramen: Tomato Ramen with Garlic Toast とまとラーメンガーリックトースト付 (¥750), Yahata Red 八幡レッド (¥700)

Menmi 麺美
Kitakyushu City Moji-ku Minato-machi 5-1
Kaikyō Plaza East Building 1F
093-321-3020
11:00-20:00
Recommended ramen: Crab Ramen かにラーメン (¥1000), Mentaiko Ramen 明太子ラーメン (¥1000)

La-men House Shōmaru LA-麺HOUSE 将丸
Fukuoka City Chūō-ku Maizuru 1-8-2-1
092-714-3939
11:30-14:00, 19:00-03:00
Recommended ramen: Kuro La-men 黒LA-麺 (¥550), Wa La-men 和LA-麺 (¥550), Shōmaru SP 将丸SP (¥950)

Burnt shoyu ramen at Gogyo.

Hiyashi Chūka, Reimen, and Tsukemen 冷やし中華、冷麺、つけ麺・つけめん

To attract more customers during the sweltering summer months, many ramen shops offer chilled noodle dishes called hiyashi chūka, reimen, or tsukemen. Hiyashi chūka and reimen (literally “chilled Chinese” and “cold noodles,” respectively) are blanket terms for any cold noodle dish, but they usually refer to a ramen-like cold soup of noodles and fresh vegetables in a thin, usually soy sauce-based broth. Tsukemen specifically refers to a salad-like dish inspired by zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodles) consisting of cooked, cold noodles, julienned chāshū, vegetables, and egg that customers dip in a cold sauce, often based on the shop’s ramen stock. Cold noodles are usually available starting in May or June until the end of September, but some ramen shops sell them year round; many Korean restaurants are also reliable sources for tasty, refreshing reimen.

Planet Tokyo: The Gastrosphere 東京星の食圏

17 Apr

The food geek universe has recently been abuzz with the news that Tokyo has more Michelin stars than any city in the world, including Paris. In fact, it has twice as many as Paris. I couldn’t really offer anything beyond mere conjecture as to how this happened, as the publishers of the Michelin Guide are notoriously conservative, and their decisions are often mysterious and controversial.

But it doesn’t really matter anyway. The point that should be taken from this honor is that Tokyo is a really, really amazing city when it comes to food, from those noble three-star French meals to simple (or not-so-simple) bowls of noodles.

Let’s discuss the noodles first.

I had five excellent bowls of ramen over the course of the week. First off was Ramen Jiro‘s ラーメン二郎 notorious, voluminous, and delicious pile of raggedy hand-pulled noodles, tender pork chops, cabbage, bean sprouts, and shards of raw garlic softened in a stock so heavy with pork fat you could use it as a substitute for axle grease. I am no stranger to super-rich ramen – my love affair with tonkotsu has been going on for many years now – but honestly, I could barely get through half the bowl. Worldramen.net reports: “some Jiro fans would claim ‘Ramen served at Jiro is not a ramen! It is an independent food called Jiro.’” and I am tempted to agree. At least in terms of sheer intensity, Jiro stands alone. Astoundingly, they also offer a larger portion, which I have never seen, but I imagine it could comfortably feed a family of four for at least three meals. I went to the original Jiro outpost, but I hear other locations offer cheese as a topping. Crazy.

The ramen is extraordinary in and of itself, but the context of the tiny, dirty shop heightens the whole Ramen Jiro experience: outside, a formidable queue of hungry college students and businessmen wraps itself around the block; inside, the air gurgles with voracious slurping, the walls are brown with fire and grease, and in the middle of it all, two seasoned, sweaty cooks stir huge pots of bubbling liquid with wooden beams and bandaged hands. How I wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera at the hotel that day.

Later in the week, Sam and I took a trip to Yokohama to visit the ever-popular Ramen Museum, which three years ago inspired me to write my senior thesis on food museums. Each shop in the museum’s nostalgic, meticulously detailed “downtown” area offers a conveniently sized mini-bowl, perfect for sampling a variety of ramen over the course of an afternoon. We had three: Hachiya‘s 蜂屋 stock was ripe with the salty tang of soy sauce, roughed up by the bittersweet, carbonized flavor of barbecued lard; Ryū Shanghai 龍上海 offered pudgy handmade noodles in a thick, nutty miso soup perforated with a confetti of aromatic seaweed, minced garlic, and red chili; and Ide Shōten‘s 井出商店 suprisingly meaty soy sauce-tonkotsu blend tasted like the delicious drippings from a lovingly slow-cooked beef brisket.

Finally, just before heading to the airport to fly back home, Laura and I lunched at Shodai Keisuke 初代けいすけ, a rambunctiously creative nü-ramen joint that focuses on black miso. Keisuke’s basic stock was greenish-black and almost pasty in its thickness–imagine split-pea soup from the wrong side of the tracks–with a mysterious pesto-like herbal quality. Its flavor was so rich and robust that it even overwhelmed the yolk of a soft-boiled egg I ordered as a topping. Mine also came with shredded cheese, which helped to glue bits of vegetables and miso directly to the noodles for extremely satisfying, textured, salty, and flavorful mouthfuls.

I would have been pretty content just eating ramen all week, but luckily Emiko, our true gourmet navigator, had other, far more ambitious and wonderful culinary plans in store for us. On Don’s birthday, we began the day with a beautiful sushi breakfast at a shop just outside Tsukiji Market. We chose a place stuck in a slot between two apparently more famous (or lucky) competitors, both of which had long queues waiting outside their doors. But of course, sometimes popularity is a poor measure of quality, as it was hard for me to imagine how sushi could get much better than it was at this unassuming little shop. I ordered the chirashi set, which included (among many other things): solid, juicy hunks of crab; extremely fresh, hearty katsuo; some of the sweetest, saltiest salmon eggs I’ve ever eaten; and my favorite, a huge scallop with a gorgeous, silky texture and an almost chickeny flavor perked up by a thin slice of kabosu. The chūtoro tasted like ōtoro, and the sea urchin tasted like no sea urchin I’ve ever had before. It was exceptionally delicious, and exceptionally satisfying.

That night we had another amazing meal at arranged by Emiko, at Les Saisons in the Imperial Hotel. Actually, “amazing” isn’t quite the right word. I mean, it was amazing, but to me it was also a revelation as to how beautiful, delicate, and artistic cooking can be. And that’s saying something, because I’ve had my share of kaiseki meals. Let me put it this way: the chef, Thierry Voisin, warmly introduced himself to us before the meal, and at the end I wanted to meet him again so I could shake his hand and thank him dearly. Actually, a hug would have been a more accurate expression of how I felt, but at any rate, he had already gone home by the time we finished.

First off was an inscrutable amuse-bouche consisting of a cold jelly that tasted something like potato soup with chives, and a bite-size croquette with the same taste, but a very different, crunchy-creamy texture. Next came the appetizer, which… well, actually I’m going to write about my appetizer in a separate post because it was just that beautiful and special. Moving on, my main course was a plump chunk of rare lamb shank served with a salty relish of tongue confit and onions atop a fluffy custard of green peas. It was yummy, but even more yummy was Laura’s beef, topped with parsley paste and baked in buttery puff pastry, like some sexy cousin in the Wellington family.


After that, Laura and Emiko ordered dessert while Don and I indulged in some outstanding cheeses. I don’t know what kind of cheeses they were, except one: a three-year-old French Comte that had most of us convinced it was Pecorino before I asked our server what it was. Ah, Comte, of course! Not salty enough, too dark, and a tad too floral to be Pecorino. Anyway, it was superb, as were the other mystery cheeses: a very balanced Roquefort-like blue-veined goat’s milk cheese; a different sort of goat cheese with a blackish green rind and mellow, fruity flavor; and a gooey, lightly stinky washed-rind cheese that tasted something like Pont-l’Évêque, but with an agreeably sticky mouthfeel. Figs, apricots, and red wine provided a sweet, tangy counterpoint.

The cheese was followed up by petits fours, espresso, chocolate, and Don’s birthday cake. (I was glad I opted for cheese instead of dessert!) The petits fours and chocolate were too diverse to describe, but needless to say they were all very delicious, especially taken between sips of pungent black espresso. The cake was a happy marriage of light texture and rich flavor, a structure of dark chocolate, lush mousse, and cocoa-flavored mille-feuille. It was balanced, elegant, and addictive; I had no problem cleaning my plate despite the fact that I was already stuffed like a Christmas goose. Stuffed and oh so happy.

The next night, Emiko treated us all to yet another exceptional meal, this time at a Chinese restaurant in Ginza. The dinner began with a creamy and subtle shark’s fin soup, followed by shrimp in a snappy chili sauce and oil-scalded green beans with sesame seeds. It all led up to the climactic pièce de résistance: (strike gong here) Peking duck! The noble bronze bird was wheeled to our table on a cart, then ceremoniously carved into glisteningly moist slices before our eyes. But before we indulged in the actual dish, we were all served a few shreds of the duck’s skin, which we were instructed to dust with a spoonful of sugar. It seemed odd at first, but wow, what a charming little morsel that turned out to be; I was amazed at how nuanced a flavor came from the the simple combination of sugar, fatty meat, and melt-in-your-mouth crispness.

But that was just the teaser. The duck itself was tenderloin-tender with a fine, brawny taste, sweetened by a rich plum sauce, brightened by shreds of leek, then wrapped up in a fine pancake and thoroughly enjoyed. Each sumptuous bite reverberated with the glossy baritone of that venerable skin and the taut tenor of its condiments.

These meals I’ve described are only the highlights from a solid week of fond food memories: grilled corn, tres leches and matcha donuts, three kinds of agemanjū, bacon and eggplant pasta, cappuccino-flavored popcorn, straight-from-Tsukiji kabayaki, and fabulously tasty oysters paired with Guinness Draught.

As far as I can tell, Tokyo deserves every one of those stars, possibly more. Just think, what if the Michelin Guide included places like greasy ramen shops, street stalls, and random sushi bars? Tokyo would be untouchable. Paris should consider itself lucky.

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