Talking Tokyo

Also: A great new restaurant. A vintage menu. Ireland! And a food product that is not for consumption.

Since I’ve been thinking about Japan a great deal at the moment, I thought I might post the piece I wrote about Tokyo after my second visit there in 1982. It’s an old article, and sadly both the great Tsukiji fish market and its restaurants are now a thing of the past. But most things change slowly in Japan, and much of what I wrote then is still true.

This is what I remember best about that trip; Paul Schrader was about to shoot his movie, Mishima, and my friend, the late Tom Luddy, was producing it. Tom was one of the most generous people I’ve been lucky enough to know, and he included me in a number of meals with people working on the film. One night we had dinner in a Tskuji restaurant with an elegant, beautifully dressed and very modern woman, so I was utterly unprepared for what she told me.

“Most women here,” she said, “marry men chosen by their families.”

“But this is 1982,” I replied.

“I know,” she said philosophically, “but Japanese divorce laws are really draconian when it comes to women. If you are left on your own you’re in trouble - especially if you have children. When you marry someone chosen by your family, they will take care of you. If you don’t…” She made an eloquent gesture with her hands.

“So,” I asked, “are you planning to let your family choose your husband?”

“No,” she replied. “I’m going to marry the man I love. But I’ve made a deal with my parents. I’ve promised to take care of my grandmother when she is too old to care for herself. In return, they’ve promised to take care of me if my marriage doesn’t work out.”

I was speechless. When I related this to my husband on my return to America I said, “I think the women are going to change Japan.”

To this day I wonder what happened to Tom’s friend. I hope her marriage worked out.

This is meal I had at Coi in San Francisco that I remember with particular pleasure. Sadly, Daniel Patterson’s restaurant closed two years ago, a victim of Covid.

It’s been quite a week of eating; in the next edition of La Briffe I’ll tell you about the lavish, star-studded 20th anniversary party at Per Se…

But right now I want to talk about New York’s most grownup new restaurant. Cafe Carmellini occupies a grand, high-ceilinged room where you can settle into the luxury of gracious service in a place vibrating with energy while remaining quiet enough to allow for conversation.

And the food! I’ve been a longtime fan of Andrew Carmellini’s cooking, but here he’s hit his stride. The crab millefeuille above is just a start; I loved every bite. Don’t miss the chicken for two or the pistachio gelato.

This is a food product, although it’s not something you can eat. But these days I walk around smelling of coconut because I’m so enamored of Bubbsi whipped coconut oil lotion that I slather it all over my face and hands.

It’s intended for babies. Which pretty much says it all.

My friend Colman Andrews is taking a few lucky people on a gastronomic tour of Ireland this spring, and if I weren’t going to be on book tour I would certainly sign up. Friends who went on Colman’s last trip to Barcelona said it was really swell. You can read about it here.