Lately I’ve had a bit more breathing room, so every time I come back to Korea I’ve been trying new wines with a friend who’s into wine. On this visit we threw a small party at my friend’…
I went to Uchida, an izakaya in Shinsaibashi (the sign reads Shukoudokoro Uchida). At a Japanese izakaya you can try all sorts of dishes with all sorts of drinks, so it can actually be a better place to enjoy …
I went to Imai, which has been selling udon right in the heart of Dotonbori for decades. Apparently they built an eight-story building out of udon sales… impressive stuff. Osaka has always been known for…
Ippudo, the famous ramen shop from Fukuoka, has been opening branches all over the country. Just like Ichiran. There was one in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, so I went in. The sign. It was late at night, but the place…
Rikuro Ojisan’s shop, where I went on the morning of the first day. Apparently it’s their 50th anniversary this year… quite the old man. Lots of people were coming to the shop from early in …
Sushi Yoshi is a down-to-earth Osaka sushi place with great value for money. It’s near Fukushima Station, one stop from Osaka Station. The sign The starter The little dressed dish that came out was app…
Even Matsue in Shimane Prefecture, where I live, has one restaurant that’s famous nationwide, so I went to check it out. (It took me six months of living here to find even one, sob.) The place is called …
I didn’t actually want to go to a Japanese restaurant in Korea, but around Gangnam the only places I knew that were cheap, had a nice atmosphere and served food worth eating were this one and Mokran in A…
This is Nolboo’s fairly well-known duck restaurant chain. There are branches all over the city, but the one I went to was in Sillim-dong. Just like the lamb place before it, I dropped in here to build up…
It’s summer and I was feeling a bit run-down, so I went looking for something restorative and ended up at Lamb House, a lamb specialty restaurant in Bangbae-dong. I ate plenty of eel in Japan, but it doe…
This is a naengmyeon place that’s fairly well known in Incheon. It’s not near any tourist spots, so the customers are mostly locals, but every summer it’s always packed and you have to wait q…
I’ve got a few bottles(!) of wine ready for this trip to Korea. Getting them ready meant digging through a mountain of info on French and Italian wines, plus wine retail listings in Japan and Korea. Alon…