Tokyo Food Pages

Tokyo 's more ethereal food offerings

'So that'll be two bowls of 'moon viewing' broth( tsukimi wan) some 'fox' noodles (kitsune udon), and a serving of 'Badger' noodles (tanuki)' - you'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd stopped off at a diner en-route to Alice 's Wonderland. Elizabeth Andoh, writing for the Tokyo Food Pages, sets out to de-mystify the poetic allusions inherent in Japanese restaurant menus, and finds that they're not only reserved for the loftier establishments. Even lowly McDonald's has a "moon-viewing" burger( tsukimi baaga) on its menu during the autumn - it's simply a dish containing a poached egg.

The Tokyo Food Pages takes you on a series of armchair culinary adventures. This includes a visit to Tokyo's first Aqua Bar, located in Seibu Ikebukuro Department Store, one step on from the Oxygen Bar, where punters queue up to buy. water. Or there's always the Yokohama 's Ramen Museum. Proving that there's more to Japanese food than sushi and tempura, there's an introduction to Japanese speciality cuisine such as grilled eel(unagi), a delicacy eaten on hot summer days to build up reserves of stamina, as well as accompanying recipes.

If you haven't had your fill by now, there are reviews of over 1,000 of Tokyo 's finest restaurants, each of them linked to a map so it's easy to pinpoint them at street level.

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