Japanese Food and Cooking

How Good Are Brooklyn's Japanese Noodle Spots?

The ramen ride

Fat, Shiny (Rice) Balls

Brown rice isn't the most glamorous of grains, but when you watch someone fastidiously mold it into a fat, geometrical shape and wrap it in a shining sheet of seaweed, it begins to take on a certain allure. Like the onigiri at Brooklyn Flea from Rice & Miso Everyday.

Say Hello To Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar, Bugs

Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar at the Mondrian SoHo opened today. It's Sicilian food by executive chef Victor LaPlaca, who spent the last 17 years opening restaurants with Todd English. Signatures off Isola's trattoria menu will include cuscinetto with goat cheese and black olive, baby heirloom tomato ... More >>

Postcards from China: Kumquat Rice Cake

Welcome to Postcards from China, a series of delicious snapshots from my summer in China and Taiwan. Location: Xiamen Item: Kumquat Rice Cake Flavor: Kumquat-flavored mochi In searching for desserts specific to Fujian, I came across these kumquat-flavored rice cakes. They're very similar to mochi ... More >>

Zutto: Slurp That Meaty Liquor

Joshua Smookler brings tonkotsu ramen to Tribeca

Rai Rai Ken Moves Two Doors Down, Transforms Itself, But Only Slightly

Pork buns, one of the new additions to Rai Rai Ken's menu. Hmmm, where have we seen those before? Without much fanfare, Little Tokyo old-timer Rai Rai Ken has moved into semi-luxurious new digs, just two storefronts east of its original East Village location on 10th Street. Bright red door-banners ... More >>

Yuji Ramen's Seafood Mazemen Ramen

Yuji Ramen, a pop-up noodle shop nestled in a back corner of Williamsburg's Kinfolk Studios, will most likely become your favorite ramen joint come summer. Its specialty dishes feature a style of brothless ramen called mazemen, which is catching on in Tokyo but is still uncommon here. In Yuji Ramen' ... More >>

Gingersnap's Organic's Nori Rolls: Riceless, Fishless Sushi That's Actually Tasty!

Vegan cuisine can often leave much to be desired in the flavor and excitement departments. Kale salads and sprout medleys can only go so far. Which is why we were pleased to discover Gingersnap's Organic (170 East 7th Street, 212-533-9939), a newish (opened in November) casual café in the Eas ... More >>

Vegetarians, Vegans, and Pescatarians Rejoice! You'll Find Lots to Eat at Family Recipe

For this week's review, I headed to the Lower East Side to check out Family Recipe, a cute little spot run by Akiko Thurnauer that dishes up home-style Japanese fare. What makes this eatery worth a trip is that it offers a (relatively) large number of both vegan and vegetarian dishes, a rarity in ou ... More >>

Kobeyaki Offers Rolls, Bowls, Burgers, and Buns to Lunchtime Crowds

Having recently checked out ShopHouse, a/k/a Asian Chipotle, we were intrigued to learn about Kobeyaki, a new fast-casual Japanese joint directly across the street from the Fashion Institute of Technology that specializes in "rolls, bowls, burgers, and buns." Wanting to see if it followed the ShopHo ... More >>

What's Happening This Week: Sushi & Sake; A Month of Cheese

Our weekly dining and drinking newsletter features all the hottest epicurean events in the city. Sign up for it here! Sushi & Sake 101 SUSHISAMBA 7 Tuesday, October 4, 7 p.m. The sushi-and-sake series is back, with dates throughout the fall. Learn how to make sushi rolls at home, and how to pair yo ... More >>

Prepare to Slurp Some Noodles at Ramen Misoya, Opening Friday

Toyohara / FlickrMmm, miso ramen​With Rai Rai Ken, Ippudo, and Ramen Setagaya all located in the East Village, you'd think the neighborhood had reached its peak of noodle peddlers. Well, get ready to add one more to the bunch. Ramen Misoya, specializing in miso-flavored ramen, will open at 12 ... More >>

Make Koi's Edamame Dumplings, Like Chef Nick McCoy (Or Eat Them There and Help East Africa)

Edamame Dumplings at Koi​All three Koi locations -- in Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas -- are hosting a fundraising effort this month to help famine victims in East Africa. Through August 14, half the proceeds from the sale of two new menu items will go toward the U.N. World Food Programm ... More >>

A Brief Guide to Some "Gay" Foods Around Town

flickr/Sifu RenkaShrimp tempura apparently equals gay ​What better way to celebrate Gay Pride week than eating some gay foods? But, what, exactly, constitutes gay food? Honestly, there isn't such a thing. So let's just go by name alone. Behold some of the city's "gay" dishes. Whether the g ... More >>

Fork in the Road's Favorite Ramen in New York City

flickr/xxHxxOodles of noodles makes for a yummy meal​ It's time for Tuesday Toasts, our weekly feature highlighting the Fork in the Road team's favorite versions of popular dishes and favorite spots in the city for a given activity. They might not be the best or the coolest or the newest, but ... More >>

Naruto Ramen: New in Brooklyn

Naruto ramen​Until now, Park Slope and the surrounding area has had only one ramen to chose from--ZuZu ramen, which serves a delicious, though expensive and not particularly traditional, green curry ramen. Naruto Ramen, a branch of an existing place on the Upper East Side, recently opened wi ... More >>

Xiao Ye's Fried Tofu and Unagi Grilled Corn

​After reading about Eddie Huang's Xiao Ye for so long, it was almost a relief to finally stop in there for the first time last night and have a taste--we discovered that we love the fried tofu, like the idea of the unagi corn, and overheard a manager telling friends that Sam Sifton has alread ... More >>

Sable's 'Lobster Sushi'

Sable's rolls up something odd...​"Lobster sushi," proclaims a sign set above a container that looks, at first glance, to be filled with maki rolls.

Our Nine Best Ramen Restaurants

Ippudo's karaka-men, spicy ramen with ground pork ​In the port city of Yokohama, Japan, there is a large museum dedicated to ramen. There, one can learn the story of ramen's genesis between slurps of noodles and broth: Though the noodle is now practically Japan's national dish--popular enough ... More >>

Ichiban-Tei: New Takoyaki (Octopus Ball) Restaurant Opening in the East Village

​Otafuku will soon have competition in the East Village octopus ball market. Ichiban-Tei is under construction on 13th Street at the northeast corner of First Avenue, and the restaurant will specialize in takoyaki, those fried octopus fritters often topped with bonito flakes and sweetish brown ... More >>

Our 10 Best Things to Eat on St. Marks Place in the East Village, NYC

​Like the sign says: New York's Best Egg Cream St. Marks Place is only three blocks long, but packs an astonishing 63 places to eat along its truncated and colorful length, some of them nearly invisible. It constitutes one of the city's foremost tourist destinations for the under-40 crowd, th ... More >>

Hanover Cafe on St. Marks Now Open, Serving Kimchi Casseroles, Ramen, Tuna Salad

​ The somewhat mysterious Korean megaplex that's been under construction on St. Marks is now partially open.

Report on Last Weekend's Family Meal (Makanai) at EN Japanese Brasserie

​The tofu salad gave one an opportunity to scarf huge quantities of EN's signature substance. (click to enlarge) Last Saturday evening at 10 pm En Japanese Brasserie hosted a makanai, or restaurant family meal. The food was presented buffet style at the sold-out event in the resetaurant's bar ... More >>

Our 10 Best East Village Restaurants

​A sushi assortment from Kanoyama shimmers, with huge eel filets slithering down the center of the plate. The East Village is swarming with restaurants, many of them excellent. The mixture is as eclectic as anywhere in town, with 30 or so ethnicities represented, and price levels ranging from ... More >>

Slurp Tokyo-Style O-Zoni Soup for Good Luck in the New Year at EN Brasserie

EN Brasserie's o-zoni​ Many cultures have certain foods traditionally eaten at the new year, believed to bring luck to the next 365 days. In the American south, it's Hoppin' John made with black-eyed peas; Spaniards eat a dozen grapes for every strike of the clock at midnight; and other cultur ... More >>

The Good Fork's Sohui Kim on her Best Meal of the Year, the Contents of her Refrigerator, and Favorite Restaurants

Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesSohui Kim tells us her picks for pizza, sushi​ Yesterday, we caught up with chef/owner Sohui Kim about the state of The Good Fork on its fourth anniversary, and the challenges of juggling her jobs as restaurateur and executive chef with a family. Today, we tal ... More >>

Chatting with David Bouhadana on Being a Young Sushi Chef, The State of NYC Sushi, and Why Sushi May Disappear

Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times​David Bouhadana is the 23-year-old executive chef of Sushi Uo, a new sushi restaurant on the Lower East Side. Earlier today, we showed you a few of Bouhadana's dishes. Here, we talk with him about how he's gotten where he is at such a young age, the state ... More >>

The Re-Opening of Panya: Get Ready for Japanese Breakfast

A gutbomb for sure: corn-tuna-mayo roll​ The recently re-opened, expanded Panya includes a large, glassed-in kitchen, whence come all sorts of puffy white breads, cakes, and stuffed rolls, like this corn-tuna-mayo explosion, above. But the kitchen will soon be churning out a much more elabora ... More >>

Real Osaka Udon Coming to Midtown

OiMax/flickr​According to Midtown Lunch, Onya, an outpost of the Japanese udon chain, will be opening on East 47th Street next Monday, the 14th. Its owners claim that it will be the first restaurant in the city to serve fresh, authentic Osaka-style noodles, saying that "they will do for Osaka ... More >>

Snackshots: Valentine Tasting Menu at Zenkichi

Yes dear reader, we summoned our courage and braved the Valentine's Day dining scene this past weekend. And while the blogs are on the hunt for V day horror stories, we had quite a nice dinner at Zenkichi (77 North 6th Street) in Williamsburg, a lovely little izakaya serving delicate bites in indivi ... More >>

On a Stick! The Early Word on Daruma

Signature Foods of the 1980’s

Restaurant Opening Delays and Experimental Ramen

Love the Lovely Ramen

What is Going on at BarFry?

Last Meal: Morimoto has a Recipe for You

Setagaya's Back End Opens Thursday

Ramen Heads, Brace Yourselves

Our Man Sietsema: 'a mouthful that resembles the aftermath of a blowjob'

It's a Good One: Green Tea Popcorn

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Dueling Dragons

Antique Nipponware