Tokyo Takeaway

The food can be broken up, very broadly, into three types: yakitori, noodles and rice. Choose depending on your degree of hunger. Yakitori are grilled, like kebabs, best accompanied by a glass of sake or whatever your poison is. When deadlines were tight and time short, the little skewers kept me going; pork, crackling skin, fish, chicken; some just meat, others wrapped around spring onions.

How different is it from the yakitori in India? Not very, apart from the prices. You can get the same variety here and, since they use imported meats, the quality is as good. Though quality could probably be maintained8212;and prices lowered8212;with Indian ingredients.

What you don8217;t get here, for obvious reasons, is the beef bars. When the hunger bites harder, but it8217;s not yet mealtime, the beef bars come in very handy. Very simple stuff: a bowl choose your size, just point on the menu of sticky rice topped with grilled beef, with a mug of miso soup8212;the ultimate comfort food8212;and pickles on the side. Think dal-bhaat, rajma-chawal, poori-alu; I could have it every day, and almost did so! All this, for the equivalent of Rs 130.

For some strange reason, sticky rice here isn8217;t that sticky, the consistency not very conducive to using chopsticks even a first-timer can use chopsticks with sticky rice as long as you observe the many rules involved.

Finally, the noodles8212;or ramen. Usually sloppy, like a big bowl of soup, and topped with a variety of meats, vegetables and fish. A meal in itself; the dicey part is figuring out what8217;s what. The restaurants, even the small ones, have wax impressions on display but, though lifelike and amazingly colourful, they don8217;t really tell you what8217;s what. So go by instinct.

In fact, do that with everything Japanese you eat. The one thing you can assume is that, unlike Korean or Chinese cuisine, there isn8217;t much that is pungent or will put you off through smell or taste. Plunge in and enjoy.