Read this article, walked over to Katagiri from my E. 46th St. apartment, and am tucking into my Bomb right now, with a side of fried chicken. Heaven.
Omusubi Gonbei has several branches throughout Tokyo, including a shop in the governmental office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The shops are open early for breakfast.
Ah, roe, Grasshopper!
We visited the Paris branch last weekend. Very good
1
@ Agnostique Europe
I was glad to read your comment that confirms well recent reports in the Parisian daily Le Figaro on the rising appearance of Japanese restaurants and closer ties of some so-called great chefs to Japanese cuisine. There was in the 19th (?) century a craze of Japanese furniture and items of interior decoration in Paris. Maybe it is a contemporary revival of that trend, refocused from the eye to the stomach.
@Tuvw Xyz
"There was in the 19th (?) century a craze of Japanese furniture and items of interior decoration in Paris."
Not only Paris, and not only the 19th century. See: James Abbott McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room in Frederick Leyland's house in London (now found at the Freer Gallery). Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. The Japanese Exhibition at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and its influence on Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1900s. Just to name a very few.
2
@ Suzanne Fass Upper Upper Manhattan
Thank you for this reminder. Alas, my "memory no longer holds a seat in this distracted globe" (Hamlet, 1:5, slightly paraphrased).
1
The Omusubi Gonbei in Edgewater at Mitsua is Very good and an excellent addition to the already excellent mitsuwa food court. Ugh im going there after work.
3
Ah, onigiri. During a month-long stay in Tokyo recently, the plum and salmon varieties were the only food I (celiac) could safely eat beyond the food I bought and prepared myself in our apartment kitchenette, because they don’t contain tamari (ordinary Japanese tamari has wheat in it). Available fresh everywhere, I probably ate 2–3/day while traveling. I’d love to have them again.
5
There's a Katagiri at Grand Central? How did I miss that?! Wonderful!!!
2
@ Suzanne Fass Upper Upper Manhattan
I would recommend that they open a branch at the great Japanese food store Shirokiya, in Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu.
1
There are several little places specializing in musubi around town in Honolulu. Worth trying next time you're there. Growing up there I never imagined it would become a nationwide 'thing' as we say these days.
3
Not in Grand Central — on 41st near Lexington.
2
"Hungry City" sounds like the title to a dystopian novel. Cheers!
3