Michelin Japan today held a press conference in Tokyo about the Michelin Guide of Tokyo 2010. according the the news, Tokyo again stayed on the NO.1 status of the world Gourmet Cities judging from the 3 star restaurant number ( 11 restaurants ) and the total star numbers of restaurants shown in the guidebook.
It’s not fair to decide the NO.1 status only by Michelin because it’s often a judgement of Westerners taste. However, this could be a good news for Tokyo because this city wants more foreign travelers from all over the world.
Most of the renowned restaurants in this book are Japanese traditional type restaurants but there are small restaurants too. Also this time, Japanese taverns or Yakitori place ( Izakaya ) are also selected. Izakaya is a really standard Japanese restaurant style. They drink beer or Japanese wine, Sake, at Izakaya and chat with friends all for a long time. There, the main food is often Yakitori( Grilled Chicken with kebab). To be honest, as my personal opinion, we don’t think Yakitori bar’s food is always good. Yakitori restaurants are for drinkers or chatting people( sometimes for arguing guys).
Like that, I often thought I’ve had Sushi enough, No more Sushi please !
When I talked with Japanese food fans in California, they thought I was lying or joking. I was serious.
BUT, now I live in foreign places. I do think Izakaya, Yakitori, Sushi, Unagi, Soba, Tempura, Teppanyaki, Udon, Ramen and even Takoyaki or Okonomiyaki are real gourmet food that Japan produced.
Japan has so many kinds of foods. Also, rude restaurants or simple restaurants often must withdraw from competition of food business. They are always battling with each other targeting the best of the bests.
Even the casual restaurants or fast food stand places must compete to survive. Competition is on the taste first, then,the quality of the restaurants, staff, or impression will be competition points next. Probably it’s really hard for food business to win prefect satisfaction from users.
Like this, we are always very objective to restaurants in Japan. That’s why I often say I don’t need Sushi restaurants any more, or No more Yakitori,etc.. Being far away from Japan, I can say with confidence that Tokyo is the NO.1 gourmet city at least for me, and we can recommend this city for gourmet people in the world.
If we go to the restaurants with star(s) of Michelin, we will be able to taste the history, mind and spirit, education, and professionalism in taste by the experience at the places. As an important note, there are far more fantastic restaurants than shown in the Michelin Guide book Tokyo. Even if there is no star rank on the other restaurants, I can promise there are uncountable numbers of gourmet taste restaurants in Tokyo. It’s really amazing.
I understand with no surprise that Tokyo is the world top gourmet city, putting aside Pris or NYC. And if you feel enough of Tokyo ( maybe the day will not be coming forever if you are gourmet eater), you can explore Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Sendai, Yokohama, Kobe, and more small cities in Japan. They all have really nice restaurants only for local people, and you can expect real tear-dropping experience by the taste of food.
I’ve taken some of my friends from USA or Hawaii to Japanese Soba, Tonkatsu, Yakitori, Tempura, Unagi, or more restaurants in Tokyo or some other cities. I can’t correctly remember how many times I’ve heard them say ”This is the best taste I’ve ever had in my life!!!” It’s not a joke, one of them really got teary when he had melting taste of Unaju ( grilled eel ). He said he was really moved by the taste.
Not all the people know the taste of Japanese food yet. If Michelin could be a help to this new ( or strange) taste world, we are very pleased because food is certainly our history and culture. If they like it, it means our culture and history are not that bad at all.
