Tokyo (archive) - The early bird gets the fish

Tsukuji fish market is a buzz of activity from the early morning and one benefit of jet lag is that you'll be up early to make the trip to this little gem in Tokyo. You have to have your wits about you though as the action is frenetic and getting run over by a trolley of fish is a real possibility.

By the entrance of the market there are a handful of tiny sushi restaurants. These consisted of just a counter from behind which the sushi chef worked. Now strangely some of these restaurants had huge queues outside whilst others were virtually empty. Given that the majority of these queues didn't look like locals I suspect this was the 'lonely planet' effect. I doubt, to the casual sushi eater, the quality between these establishments would be noticeable.

Tokyo (archive) - A world away

Whilst the next journey is some way off it's time to access the archives of my memory and look back over some past trips and the food encountered. Back in October 2007 I managed to get away to Japan for a couple of weeks taking the Shinkansen across Honshu and visiting a few major cities en route. So over the coming summer months I'll be posting some food photos and reliving some of the culinary experiences in the land where I feel tall.

Arriving in Japan it's a world away both by distance and culturally from the streets of London. Like London it's a massive city with thousands of people on the streets so things do seem familiar - but everything is just a tiny bit different - and arriving after a 12 hour flight it all adds to disorientation of a Christmas party hangover proportions.

With the brain not fully functioning and on standby mode it could be hard to find something to eat when you can't speak or read the language and English is hardly spoken. Thankfully, there are small local restaurants which use vending machines where you slot in your money and press the button of the dish you want. How do you know which dish to choose if you can't read the description on the button? Well, it's food by numbers as nearby there will be a display of plastic food and a corresponding number.

It is at this point you notice one of those tiny subtle differences between London and Tokyo. In Tokyo the vending machine actually does something rather gobble up your money offering nothing in return and no sight of a refund. The vending machine will print out a little ticket in return for your money! After the machine spits out your ticket you hand it over to the chef behind the counter and in a few minutes...hey presto...a hot bowl of noodles.

London - Fantasy Feasting

Based on the free papers on the Tube celebrities are forever eating out at restaurants. They may even be blogging about it for all I know. With all these celebrities forever feasting there is a good chance us mere mortals will see them whilst dining out.

It finally happened to me recently.

Before you scream 'what were you doing at the Ivy?' I have to tell you the location was a Dim Sum restaurant in the o2 centre on Finchley Road, North London, and the celebrity was Frank Skinner's other half, David Baddiel. (I'm sorry David but we're not exactly talking Hello magazine front page). I'm just happy we got a table after fighting our way through the paparazzi buzzing about outside.

Now the restaurant is part of a small chain in London so the menu is very familiar. I thought the dim sum was actually better cooked than the other restaurants in the chain and actually pretty good. The service though was poor with some our dishes never arriving.

Would I recommend this place? Well I have to say no as just getting there involves been stuck in a traffic jam in a car park. We must have been trying to get out for close to an hour; we even saw a couple of car prangs within the car park - no doubt caused by the frustration of the traffic jam (or maybe they were paparazzi?)

Traffic jams in car parks? Not really ideal for the quick celebrity get away after leaving the restaurant. No wonder it was only David rather than Kate Moss.