New York's Greatest Deli?
In every gritty Police Procedural drama I’ve ever seen on TV, the protagonists end up at that icon of all things New York - a deli! And New York certainly has a lot of them. When I told friends I was heading to New York, they recommended several delis considered the best of the best. One of them was Carnegie Deli.
Carnegie first opened in 1937, and a look at the decor and staff suggests it hasn’t changed much since then.
The Quest for World's Greatest Burger Continues
In a world saturated with chain and franchises of every conceivable kind of burger bar, finding an authentic independent burger joint is getting harder and harder. The quest continued in New York, where I was sure I could find something close to the perfect burger joint. Strolling for a few blocks past Times Square, as the ubiquitous chain stores petered out, I spotted The Counter, which proclaimed itself the custom burger bar.
Raku - The Perfect Izakaya
The Japanese have many great ideas, and wonderful traditions. Chief amongst them (at least from a gourmand perspective) is the Izakaya - 居酒屋. There’s no perfect translation into English, but a good approximation is “Bar with awesome side dishes and snacks”.
Raku is one such Izakaya, and sits in the ski fields of Hokkaido, in Niseko / Hirafu. I normally don’t worry with giving florid descriptions of the locations, and I only mention it at length this time because I couldn’t work out a way to smuggle this entire bar home in my luggage.