2012 was a year heavy in Japan which is always a good thing apart from the rabid destruction it causes to your wallet (links to earlier posts on: Okinawa and Nara)

Around two years ago, just before the earthquake, we went skiing in Hakuba in Japan  and 2012 was the first time I’ve spent significant time in Japan since then. It took pretty much that long for my finances to recover. . . Two years ago Hakuba blew me away with its combination of snow, nature and beauty as well as the unexpected discovery of an artisan coffee shop.

Two years later Hakuba did it again. We originally visited Hakuba as it was meant to be less invaded by Australians than Hokkaido and, unfortunately, that is no longer true.

There is now a significant ghetto of Australian bars and restaurants  and there is no doubt that Hakuba is thoroughly discovered. The disappointment is not because I dislike Australians but there is often something special about tourism in Japan and the feeling of cultural isolation it gives. A bunch of other Westerners overrides that and makes it a bit easy. Also please forgive the Roger Moore-esque picture of me jumping below; it felt like I was at least 20m off the ground rather than cm.

Still what makes Hakuba special is still there and just like the French do in the Alps it is easy to avoid the foreign invaders. The snow is overwhelming. Fresh powder every morning. And often by the afternoon again it comes down so heavy. You combine that with Japanese food and onsens in the evening and it is pretty much what a skiing holiday should be.

And the mountains are just so… hauntingly beautiful. The trees appears as though they were etched in charcoal by a great artist sketching a memory.

The slopes are also empty by European standards as Japan’s demographics and sliding finances mean that they overbuilt back in the 1980s.

And as a food blog I have to rave about the food. We are talking ramen which is better than anything you can get in any European city and udon which is the equal of Koya in London. But on a mountain. In most countries what you get is something fried and then refried and beer.

We spent our evenings first soaking our bones in onsen and then in sake. Unfortunately, or thinking clearly, fortunately, you can’t take pictures inside the onsen but soaking in them is something I am mildly obsessive. When back in Europe one of the reasons I loved Italy even more than the people, food and wine was their network of al fresco hot springs. In Hakuba if you go to private ones like in the picture below you also have the inappropriate privilege of being able to drink whilst you soak.

There is not too much more to say. You should just go and then spend the next year trying to repair the damage to your credit cards. There is just time for one more panoramic of the ski slopes.

The insights you have when someone says Japan to you are easy: sushi, J-pop, technology, vending machines selling dodgy things to salarymen and earthquakes. The one no-one ever mentions is ‘nature’ which is strange as it is Japan’s unique relationship with nature which is what strikes me every time I go there.

This is not the tectonic led relationship with nature that has been evident ever since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster but the seasonality and hedged and trimmed intersection of nature throughout daily life. You know what? It is slightly British really.

And so it was with Nara. Nara is in the same Kansai region as Osaka and Kyoto and used to be the old Japanese imperial capital for 74 years back in the 7th century. Despite it only being the capital for a short time it got littered with the kind of temples that are perfect tourist fodder as well as an immodestly large Buddha.

It also comes with the Japanese equivalent of panhandlers: hungry deer. These deer are straight out clever enough to patiently wait by the places to buy deer cookies so they can harass willing tourists. They then have to suffer the indignity of constant picture taking in return.

And these temples, buildings and deer tramps are placed – and the word is placed – amongst grounds that have 1,300 years of refinement to best exhibit them and to make sure when autumn comes you get the entire colour spectrum. Autumn in Japan is one of the great things in the world. Whilst many try to hit the sakura or cherry blossom festival, autumn is a many layered, complex and planned assault on your senses by an over-tended nature. It is outrageously good.

Nara also gave me that slightly eerie sensation that it was a set for a Japanese 28 Days Later. It is empty. If you leave the large park where the historic buildings are focused you can wander round the small city which is also embedded with historic buildings.

The people, are, however, absolutely absent. It is like a film set pre-filming. The evidence of Japan’s demographics which are slowly emptying out the whole nation apart from Tokyo.

The other thing you notice when you wander round the deserted streets is how small everything is. Not in a cretinous, “haha, look Japanese people are small” way but in a “this was the second richest country on earth for 30 years of the modern age and yet there is an intense modesty in everything“.

Buildings are still lined by sheet tin and people live so small in footprint.

Finally, the food. As it was the imperial capital and is in the magic region of Nara nestled between two other foodies and cultural cities – Osaka and Kyoto – it means that it also has a long standing history and pride in its food. I visited just two restaurants in the day there but both were exceptional.

Kappou Kitada (1*)

The first, for lunch, was Kappou Kitada which is run by probably the only high level Michelin starred kaiseki chef hanging out on Twitter and Facebook. If you check out the Facebook page you can get an idea of happy ambience of the kitchen and can see Mr Kitada at the far right of the picture, slightly awkward in the picture, encouraging his staff to embrace web 2.0.

The food in keeping with the autumnal nature of the park in December (hello global warming) played off the colours and the seasonality of nature. Once again it came with an education of every single ingredient and fish from the tomes of Japanese cooking.

Kotan (1*)

Finally there was Kotan which is just a couple of minutes walk away in a fine food enclave by the station. This is a husband and wife team and one of the pleasures of the meal is watching the husband stress/focused infront of you working with a lightening intensity and producing every single dish and variety there and then. No help.

He also served my favourite dish of the entire Japan trip: a mochi rice and salmon roe snack of a dish. The salmon roe being fragrantly and lightly fresh and being the ultimate seasoning to some perfectly cooked rice.

My meal at Kotan was one I didn’t want to end so once I had finished the usual set I started adding one more. And then one more. Sucking in my belly to make it look as though I was not full. The food was something I didn’t want to leave. As with Nagahori in Osaka there was also a focus on the nihonshu which meant there was a slight wobble in my step when I left.

The End

As with Osaka I’ll eventually update the above with restaurant details and addresses etc. If you are going before then all the details are on my Everplaces or you can get in contact and I’ll dig them out.

When I told people I was going to Osaka for a week everyone said “oh, you are visiting Kyoto right?” because Osaka isn’t too high on most  people’s lists. However, every Japanese person immediately smiled in full knowledge that this industrial and ex-commercial centre of Japan has amazing food. This is because Osaka is in the Kansai region – the geographic food capital of Japan – and holds 18 million hungry souls and enough restaurants to feed them all.

So what this meant is a dedicated eating plan of two good restaurants a day – one for lunch and one for dinner – with a bit of wandering in between. In five days, or ten meals, there was not one miss. Not one meal that I regretted. Two of the restaurants left me semi-dazed and in painful recognition that I wouldn’t be able to have a single meal that good for a long while.

Dotonbori

However, first, what is there beside the food? Well there is the Blade Runner-esque mess of Dotonbori.

You will end up there a lot as a lot of the best restaurants and dodgiest bars are located in its tentacled alleys.

Nishishinsaibashi – Streamer Espresso and Gira Gira

To the West of Dotonbori is the hipster enclave of Nishishinsaibashi where you can find what seemed to be the only good cup of espresso at Streamer Espresso and one of the world’s best bike shops: Gira Gira.

It sells classic NJS frames and is one of few places where you can custom order a Nagasawa keirin frame.

Osaka Castle and the Aquarium

Osaka Castle is the final must see. Whilst the central castle is a recreation and a museum, the surrounding stone walls, moat and nature enclave and simply beautiful.

There is also the aquarium which is mean to be one of the world’s biggest. It isn’t really one of the world’s best unfortunately.

Endo Sushi and the Fish Market

Of course you can’t always separate sights and food in Japan and so it was with the fish market. This is no Tsukiji (the Tokyo fish market) as it simply can’t match that scale. What it has instead is a far more open attitude where they actually invite you in to look around and give you demonstrations of how to dissect a fish.

Just outside the fish market is Endo Sushi which has stood the test of a 100 years and serves fish market fresh fish at working man prices from the crack of dawn. It comes in plates of four – like a mini sushi set menu – and is the best breakfast I’ve had in Japan.

Nagahori (1*)

Then I have to discuss Nagahori as this was the standout meal of the trip. It is a simple nihonshu or sake izakaya but what it is doing is outstanding. A long, elegant bar which is made from an ex-sake tank stands between you and chef Shigeo Nakamura. Due to my limited Japanese  my choice of menus and sake was easy: omakase (お任せ).

It astounded me. Unfortunately I didn’t really focus on the ingredients as I was too busy being greedy and drunk and also talking with an excessively generous neighbour who volunteered to translate every dish and guide me through the meal. A neighbour who travels to Osaka once a week just to eat at Nagahori. And he was right. Beautiful and astounding.

Kigawa (1*)

The second meal which was a revelation was Kigawa in the back alleys of Dotonbori. Whilst this was a kappo or counter restaurant it was a touch more formal, a touch more focused and with a real eye to the broths and soups served with or flavouring the food.

When I look back at my pictures I am nervous as I didn’t take notes and trying to pick out certain varieties of fish from a foreign land and which have gone through the pain of dual translation is always doomed to failure. However, the combination of exacting fish standards with the chef who obsessively checked his stocks throughout the meal resulted in something special.

Mizuno

Mizuno was the opposite to the subtle and elegant meals at Nagahori and Kigawa as it featured the tasty mess of okonomiyaki (お好み焼き). Here there is no pretension. It is taking premium ingredients and throwing it together in a batter and grilling it in front of you.

Mizuno, again in Dotonbori, is a very good choice for this. I chose a simple pork and leek okonomiyaki and the pork was worthy of an English bacon sandwich.

Sakurae Toyonaka (2*)

Sakurae Toyonaka was our “big” meal. A clever and extended kaiseki meal with modern molecular influences.

One thing I should point out is that if you are intending to go it is only in Osaka by a ‘stretch’. This was unexpected as I booked without doing the proper research and which resulted in a taxi ride of substantive financial pain.

It is, if you make it out there, really very good. The chef was fanatical and took out what seemed to be the five grandfather books of Japanese cuisine and identified each ingredient, dish by dish, for each of the multitude of courses. Being the “big” meal it was elabourate and pretty and heavily Autumnally influenced. In the end I preferred the immediacy of Nagahori to this but it was one of those elaborate  ritual, experiences that is always worth it.

Funakoshisaketen Wataru (1*)

This was probably the most fun and chaotic meal of the lot. Down one of the backest back streets of Dotonbori is a thin long bar. I stumbled in their half-cut after trying omakase cocktails at the bar opposite and found the owner/ chef relaxing with two obvious regulars.

It went from there. Sake and round after round with lots of toasting. Chaos but joyous.

The End

Whilst there were other meals, these were the ones which I would recommend and revisit. Especially Nagahori and Kigawa and all of the streetfood you can grab to keep you warm. I would also go back to Osaka anytime as the combination of friendly engaging locals and a lack of anything substantive to do is probably my favourite kind of city.

I’ll eventually add the addresses but if you need them in the meantime you can find them all at my Everplaces account here.

One of the hard things about living in Seoul is that it is absolutely not a foodie city. Coming from London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong or even the Spanish provinces to Seoul is a painful experience. I think the only place worse where we have lived would be McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Yes there is Korean food. Unfortunately it is also probably the worst place for Korean food in Korea; expensive and average.

Moreover you might think that as a capital city it has all the other, international, foods. You would be wrong. Every single one of the worst non-Korean meals of my life I’ve had have been here. It doesn’t matter whether you throw time or money at it you cannot have good Western or Asian food here. It is either Korean or Korean and all the while knowing that it is no-where near as good as the food down in Jeolla province. To put it mildly I am disenchanted with the food scene in Seoul. All the invention, the adventure, with Korean food is happening with the US. The US gets Hooni Kim whilst we get a chef who has worked in average middle Eastern hotel chains and a press which lauds hacks like Edward Kwon.

So rather than being disappointed I am going to use this to learn about the basics of Korean food. All of the best meals I’ve had in Seoul have been in old, grotty, and most of all, old places. A restaurant which has stood the test of two World Wars, one Korean civil war and the 80s is generally pretty good. So starting from next week I am going to eat my way chronologically through this book which sets out Korea’s oldest restaurants.

If you find yourself in Korea or in Seoul come along. Just drop me an email. It begins with a restaurant from 1904 which is Korea’s oldest restaurant.

As explained a couple of posts ago the blogging has slightly fallen apart due to the project Jen is filming; SemiPermanent Seoul.

What has been really great about it has been discovering new places and people and there has also been some great feedback from people who are pleased to see something positive about Seoul in English. I’m not going to regularly post them up here as, well, they are weekly and aren’t really about food. However, episode 3 – Live to Eat – is solely about food. So here it is. It features one of our best friends (Sarah Lee/ Seoul in the City) working at our favourite Korean restaurant (Bean Table) and some other odds and ends.

Episode 3: “Live to Eat” from Semipermanent on Vimeo.

The reason I love Bean Table is that the head chef is Korean and young and he isn’t cooking Western food. Instead, despite the low cultural status accorded to Korean food in Korea and the fact that locals won’t pay good money for traditional food, he is doing inventive, organic cuisine here in Seoul.

PS the header picture has nothing to do with the food episode or Bean Table and is actually one of the most atmospheric places to get traditional Korean food from not young chefs (i.e. old Korean grandmothers)

Seoul farmers’ market has been around since late summer and this weekend was its last appearance as “Winter is Coming”. I’ve meandered through it a couple of times and haven’t really been convinced as it just appeared to be the usual kind of stuff you several at every traditional market in Seoul.

However, I had an excuse to go again this weekend and came away a lot more optimistic thanks to a few kindly tour guides. The excuse was Bici Coffee which is a cycle towed coffee stand that has been doing a few ‘outings’ around Seoul and I have conspired to repeatedly miss. If you want to try and hit one of these the best way is to follow their Facebook page here.

So at 10:00am on Saturday morning I started strapped on all kinds of thermals and got on my bike and cycled up there and I’m glad I did. You can even see the bike love of my life hiding and yellow in the background in the header picture.

First, Bici Coffee; the utter antithesis of the mainstream Korean coffee scene. Someone who is trying to learn and do something new with coffee and went so far as to build a trailer in Jeju so he could do just that. Also highly recommended are the cookies by Agnes he sells. I’ll definitely try to make his further outings (minus 20 degrees Korean winter weather dependent).

However, it was not just Bici Coffee which impressed me. The Ko Honey stall obviously recognised that I was a bit lost and showed me around a few of their recommended stalls. Thus I found myself cycling back with some chestnut honey, fresh yogurt and homemade blueberry jam.

I’m not going to pretend it is anything like Borough in London. It would have to be 50x larger and not mainly sell root vegetables to do that. Still, it is a beginning and an initiative that is being pushed hard by Seoul government. I just hope that next year it can grow a bit and have some more independent and unusual outlets like Island East Markets in Hong Kong. Especially as this is promoted by the government whereas Island East Markets is a purely private initiative and all the more impressive for that.

• Details – seoulfarmersmarket.com (you can select “English” as an option but it is high level K-onglish)
• Address – Gwanghwamun Citizen’s Park (광화문 시민열린마당), next to Gwanghwamun Square.

PS Seoulist and Alien’s Day Out have also written about this.

So I’m from London. As in born there, lived there and had to be dragged off to Asia kicking and screaming by the possibilities of good wonton mein. And what this means is that I have an (un)healthy rivalry with North England. I suppose I hate it in a kindly kind of way but with no rational basis.

So this post about Manchester should be a lazy bit of mocking where I sneer through my soft Southern face about Manchester and blather about how the food scene doesn’t compare etc.. Well, forgive me London, it’s not that kind of post. I had one day in Manchester as part of a 36 hour stopover back in England for my best friend’s wedding and I loved it. I am not going to pretend it rivals London in the depth or quality of the food as it fights its battles on different fronts. On livability, beer and beautiful industrial decay. Oh and Mancunians are really nice aren’t they?

I have been to Manchester to visit friends before but had always left them to pick the places and guide me around the city so I had no real idea of its geography. But what is amazing about Manchester is quite how small it is. It is a mere 20 minutes walk from the top to bottom and the Northern Quarter – the bit everyone raves about – is just two or three short streets.

However, this short amble of a city has got that dilapidated in places and renewed in others vibe that I love. You can see its old industrial core in the canals cutting through it which, when you walk along, you revert back to the 19th century. Similarly there are old industrial buildings rotting throughout the city. Rather strangely this ambiance of neglect reminds me most of Portland which is famous for its coffee and its beer ad-midst a once industrial heritage.

The Beer

So it is fitting to start with the beer as this is what slapped me in the face with its glory. Portland may be famous for its beer but much of it is new world over-flavoured and over-hopped muck. Manchester is simple and hearty ales which speak to traditional and long standing experience. Thanks to Twitter (esp @_aka_hige) I was recommended the trilogy of (i) the Marble Arch (ii) Common bar (iii) Port Street Beer House and rarely have I ever received a better recommendation.

Marble Arch is one of those wondrous old restored English beer houses that goes above and beyond beauty. Mosaics on the floors, dark woods, and then resplendently splanky planky tiled roofs. However, they also have a mean micro brewery out the back serving a range of proper and impressive beers. It is the kind of place you want to dissassemble piece by piece – including the sloping floor – and re-assemble anywhere you live.

Common is more of a bright young thing kind of pub/ bar which does a more international selection of drinks in hipper surroundings.

Finally, Port Street Beer House. Wow. This was the highlight of my entire trip and something I would travel back to Manchester for. It is cool enough that it could give lessons to Brooklyn on how to be hipster but does so whilst really serious about beer. As recommended I went straight to 1/3 pints (not very manly) so I could really settle in and start working my way through their range.

I was also lucky that it started raining so I could give up on my plans for the rest of the afternoon. I wish I had written down the names of the beers(s) I tried as they were all different, complex and left me with a heady, slightly wobbly, smile.

The Coffee

The coffee section of this post is pretty short as their really is only one choice – North Tea Power. Before going I searched on CoffeeGeek and other suitably nerdy places for any coffee recommendations and every single place discussed by them had now closed down.

And I think there may be a good reason. I am not sure Manchester needs more than North Tea Power. Not only do they do a great cup of a coffee but they are doing interesting and rewarding things with tea and espresso machines. I had a tea cappuccino that could duel it out with some of the beers from Port Street Beer House for best taste of the trip. Add in nice decor, great staff and well… in a city that takes 20 minutes to cross why go elsewhere?

The Breakfast

Whilst Manchester doesn’t have a great selection of fusion Japanese-Peruvian-Southern-Indian cutting edge cuisine it does old school British culinary thuggery well. So you can get a proper all victorious English fry-up with ease. I tried the two places which feature in most people’s recommendation and both were great and both have their place.

First, Trof, this has won the best breakfast award for a few years in a row but I would recommend it as a place for brunch. The breakfast is everything it should be with hearty succulent sausage and high quality ingredients. However, it also comes in a nice funky bar which can serve you some vicious alcohol to get rid of hangovers.

Second, Koffee Pot, which would be my choice for the dirty fry-up. This is more like a proper dirty kaff where you go Monday to Friday to develop a good British gut. I loved it. I read a terrible tabloid, had a builders’ tea and decided I didn’t want to go back to a continent where English sausages, bacon and builders’ tea doesn’t exist.

The Burger

So finally, some food. I was tipped to Almost Famous off Twitter and as soon as I read about it I thought… oh I see, a Meat Wagon/Easy/ Liquor clone. A semi-hidden pop up vibe burger bar. And I grudgingly went. But it is just plain better than MeatLiquor (as the last incarnation). The burgers are better, the vibe is better, the cocktails are (well actually they aren’t as good).

There was a big sign saying no photography as I went in. The burger was too pretty/ dirty looking to obey.

So that’s Manchester. I also went to the Imperial War Museum. Don’t go as it is Libeskind just taking easy cash and delivering slop.

• The Marble Arch - 73 Rochdale Road, Manchester M4 4HY
• Common - 39-41 Edge Street, Manchester M4 1HW
• Port Street Beer House - 39-41 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ
• North Tea Power - 36 Tib St, Manchester M4 1LA
• Trof - 6-8 Thomas Street, Manchester M4 1EU
• Koffee Pot - 21 Hilton Street, Manchester M1 1JJ
• Almost Famous - High Street, Manchester M4 1HP