Food, Glorious Food!

Food Sake Tokyo by Yukari Sakomoto

Say ‘Tokyo’, and most people’s association is immediately with food, and who can blame them when the dining scene in the Japanese capital has hit stellar heights, boasting a staggering 293 Michelin stars, and upwards of 160,000 restaurants. Add a bewildering number of tiny stores, whose shelves are stocked with the most perfectly formed and beautifully packaged produce, and cavernous food hall basements or depachika where you’ll find bunches of immaculate Kyoho grapes scumbled with the finest of blooms and wrapped like exquisite gifts.

You may even glimpse the world’s most fabled and expensive grape, the Ruby Roman, with each individual fruit weighing an astonishing 20 grams, with a recent bunch selling in Tokyo for a cool USD6,000.

But how can you possibly find your way to all these goodies in a city as large and complex as Tokyo? Step forward then, Yukari Sakamoto and her wonderful first book Food Sake Tokyo. Trained as a chef and sommelier, Sakamoto has produced the perfect gourmand’s companion, not just to the city’s finest restaurants, but to its food shops and specialists.

Find everything from handmade crackers to the sharpest knives, the best wagashi confectionery to the rarest shochu (distilled spirit), along with extremely handy hints on dining etiquette and rituals, and masses of insider knowledge like the best place for sushi at world-famous Tsukiji market. Food Sake Tokyo is not just a guide to Tokyo’s food scene, it’s the guide to Tokyo’s food scene. Don’t go without it.