Famed restaurant Akimitsu offers all tendon all the time. The first North American location of Shitamachi Tendon Akimitsu (or Akimitsu for short) has just opened in Toronto, and whether you’re relatively new to tempura or a card-carrying tempura lover (like me), you’re in for a treat. The restaurant was born of owner Akimitsu Tanihara’s experience as head chef for a famous Asakusa restaurant that has been specializing in tendon for more than 120 years. There, Chef Tanihara perfected the texture and flavour of his famous tempura through painstaking experimentation. Out of this work was born his ..read more

A hike and a delicious meal in a traditional Japanese setting make for a perfect outing. When in Japan, cities like Tokyo and Osaka are must-see places—but they’re not all the country has to offer. Though Japan is known for the neon magnificence of its cities, sometimes you just want to get out of the concrete jungle and enjoy some of what nature has to offer. Fortunately, opportunities to enjoy nature abound just beyond Tokyo’s urban core. Mt. Takao, just outside central Tokyo, offers not just the opportunity to take in a hike, but also to enjoy some delicious sustenance thanks to the restau ..read more

Hattendo brings its ridiculously delicate cream buns to Toronto. Toronto foodies craving the next tasty Japanese trend: you’re in for a treat. With shops in Singapore, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and China, Hattendo is already a food craze in Asia. Although the brand dates all the way back to 1933, the new location in Baldwin Village is its very first shop in North America. The story of Hattendo starts three generations ago with the founding of a little confectionery shop in the city of Mihara in Hiroshima Prefecture. Now, Hattendo has become a famous brand in Japan that is synonymous w ..read more

In our last article, we learned about how new Japanese tea trends got started. This second installment is all about some of the newest matcha experiences that have come to Japan in recent months. Some famous global companies are celebrating the matcha and green tea trends by including Japanese matcha and green tea in their newest product lineups in Japan, where the craze all began. Here’s what we’re finding. Häagen-Dazs opens a pop-up restaurant featuring green tea courses For two weeks in April and May 2019, Häagen-Dazs treated Tokyo to a pop-up restaurant called “Matcha Salon.” The ice cream ..read more

オンタリオ産のクランベリーが酒に合う。 ほんのり柚子で和風の味わい。 It’s about to heat up in Toronto. To cool off while you celebrate our longawaited summer, put a bottle of Sakepolitan on ice (or keep one handy in your fridge) and enjoy! Sakepolitan is a pre-mixed sake-based cocktail with truly local origins. In this beverage, Ontario cranberry juice meets Junmai sake brewed by Toronto’s Ontario Spring Water Sake Company using Muskoka spring water. Sakepolitan is inspired by the well-known Cosmopolitan cocktail, but with sake as the star rather than vodka. With fresh cranberry and yuzu flavours, Sakepolitan has a sweet and ..read more

  Spice up your next meal and add pep to your step with a versatile ingredient that livens up just about any dish. By June, spring is in full swing. You can see it in the flowers stretching toward the sun. You can feel it in the gentle breeze that brushes your face. You can hear it in the sounds of gleeful children running and playing in the streets. And you can taste it … in the form of a tongue-tingling pepper? That’s right—in Japan, the fresh leaves of the sansho (zanthoxylum piperitum, also known as the Japanese pepper) tree are said to represent the spring season and can be found garnish ..read more

精米60%の山田錦使用の純米吟醸生酒。滑らかで、ほのかに洋梨が薫る味。 Ontario’s first sake brewery uses traditional Japanese brewing methods and pure Ontario spring water. Ontario Spring Water Sake Company imports timehonoured practices as the first sake brewery in Ontario. By combining ingredients and methods vetted in Japan for centuries with the pure spring water of Northern Ontario, the company makes high-quality sake locally accessible. Ontario’s debut sake company makes its home in Toronto’s Distillery District. It was founded in 2011 and though relatively new to the sake game, the brand launched under the tutelage of Mi ..read more

オンタリオ産のクランベリーが酒に合う。 ほんのり柚子で和風の味わい。 It’s about to heat up in Toronto. To cool off while you celebrate our longawaited summer, put a bottle of Sakepolitan on ice (or keep one handy in your fridge) and enjoy! Sakepolitan is a pre-mixed sake-based cocktail with truly local origins. In this beverage, Ontario cranberry juice meets Junmai sake brewed by Toronto’s Ontario Spring Water Sake Company using Muskoka spring water. Sakepolitan is inspired by the well-known Cosmopolitan cocktail, but with sake as the star rather than vodka. With fresh cranberry and yuzu flavours, Sakepolitan has a sweet and ..read more

Obaa-san used to make First there was teriyaki, then sushi and ramen took over—now it’s time for udon to enter Toronto’s food space. Udon is a type of noodle common in southern Japanese cuisine, made with wheat flour and served in a noodle soup or as a salad with a variety of toppings. The noodle has been enjoyed in Japan since as early as 1241 when a monk introduced flour milling to the country. Today, it remains one of Japan’s most popular dishes, whether it’s being served hot in the winter—often in one of the many regional varieties of soup—or chilled in the summer. Hailing from the south ..read more

Spice up your next meal and add pep to your step with a versatile ingredient that livens up just about any dish. By June, spring is in full swing. You can see it in the flowers stretching toward the sun. You can feel it in the gentle breeze that brushes your face. You can hear it in the sounds of gleeful children running and playing in the streets. And you can taste it … in the form of a tongue-tingling pepper? That’s right—in Japan, the fresh leaves of the sansho (zanthoxylum piperitum, also known as the Japanese pepper) tree are said to represent the spring season and can be found garnishin ..read more