THE WORLD DIGESTED

Gone with the wind and time—we say good bye to Tsukiji, to the sea, to edomae and to the fish. Forgotten and foregone is the art of nimono and the artisanship of tsume, pushed over and brushed aside by the fatty richness of yellow tail, salmon and, of course, tuna. The modern hunger knows no bounds.

"I observe how fast the people eat higashi," says Mr. Kita, as it was his gauge for the dryness of the customer's mouth, he explained. "Japanese have less saliva than the Westerns, and men less than women. That is why Japanese men are not fond of sweets, like women are, and why We...

The origin of this famous gateau can be traced back to the Duchy of Savoy at the foot of the eponymous Mont Blanc, naturally, but the original recipe was actually a dessert – a mountain of pureed chestnuts squeezed into thin vermicelli on a plate, then covered in an avalanche of crème de Chantilly (...

ut a jar of jam is not just a jar of cooked fruit, is it? It is a magical mixture where nature meets art: made of only sugar and fruit, the human creativity has elevated it from a mundane but necessary food preservation into an artisanship. It is artificially made, but with all and only natural ingr...

Now, there is no argument that ceremony is dead: it is dead in Japan, it is dead in the U.K., and it is dead just about everywhere and anywhere in this narrowing world. Ceremonious has become synonymous with cumbersome; and if at all, curtesy is performed clumsily. Get rid of the suits and throw awa...

In the heart of quaint Ningyo-cho, one of the few districts in Tokyo which still wears Edo on its sleeve, or a shield against modernity, is “Kotobuki-Do” – a Japanese confectionary shop. The name Kotobuki-Do means an “Auspicious House,” and it must have conferred its auspice quite adequately as the...

So, what has happened to “shigaragi?” We don’t know. What will then happen to “shigaragi?” We don’t know.