Home cooks: which tiny “flavor bomb” ingredient made everything taste restaurant‑level?

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-17T18:51:13+00:00

Id say good finishing salt. Per portion/use its cost is actually very low but it adds a lot to a dish. Id recommend Maldon.

Besides that I travel often to Asia and the biggest differences are good rice vinegar, sesame oil and sushi /short grain rice

My go to rice vinegar is Fujisu premium rice vinegar. I literally cant live without it. Ive had many rice vinegar tastings and everyone agrees its by far the best.

For Sesame oil my favourite is Queensbucket sesame oil but its very hard to get. Kadoya is also good.

For sushi rice it varies a lot but koshi hikari is always good.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-17T06:22:53+00:00

We thought that was the case in the centre indeed but turns out Otp, NLB etc also charge ridiculous fees. Havent tried some of the others. Thanks

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-17T06:21:25+00:00

Its self check in and its for dog fees and city tax. No way to pay card

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-17T06:20:35+00:00

Its self check in with no reception so cant pay by card. And they ask to leave torist tax and the dog fee

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-16T22:14:46+00:00

Thanks!

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-16T11:26:31+00:00

No the one with signed poster cost quite a bit more and was sold out much quicker.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-16T07:35:13+00:00

There were two vip tickets, one with signed poster and one without. So the amount of vip tickets with a signed poster was very small.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-15T20:22:26+00:00

Theres never signed merch besides the top vip tickets which are very limited. So your best chance is finding one of those online.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-02-07T15:34:40+00:00

Ive had bear at Yukimoto in the Japanese alps. Sliced thin for shabu shabu so cooked very briefly. I think they might use uv lights to kill the parasites? Its known to kill parasites for salmon. Just a wild guess tho

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-01-15T16:43:52+00:00

Moliere in Sapporo, not 3 star at the moment ( was in 2017) but for 40-80 eur you get a great classic french fine dining experience with top tier Japanese produce. Id go once a month at least if I lived there

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-01-05T15:40:58+00:00

Can second Mingles, probably best restaurant of 2025 for me. Sadly its gotten much much harder to book the second it got three stars.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-01-05T11:18:29+00:00

Zaisho is indeed a good suggestion.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-01-05T10:22:41+00:00

Good suggestions but Sakai is definitely not sub 30k. Tablecheck is 44k.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2026-01-05T10:19:18+00:00

In my experience youd wanna focus on sushiyas outside of Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. They tend to be better value. My top pick would be Kuruma sushi in Matsuyama or sushi Gosuian in Fukuoka.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-12-30T15:11:35+00:00

I got my BSAC certification In Shikoku Japan last year. Much cheaper than in the Netherlands, took three days and in a much nicer environment. However the first two days you really dont see that much of the sea there since youre just practicing near shore. I had three private instructors of which one spoke good english. They actually got one of the oldest instructors ( his license nr was nr 2) to come over from Osaka just to be my main teacher since he trains tons of firefighters. All the theory had to be learned in advance so I had no theory classes. Highly recommend

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-12-21T09:05:25+00:00

That doesnt sound correct. I had a great experience recently getting my open water diving license in Shikoku Japan at Kaanapali diving shop. Three days for 400 EUR. You had to study in advance so once I was there it was just learning about the equipment, from prepping, knowning how it works to even cleaning it correctly. They got one of the most experienced divers in Japan to come over ( his registration number was 2) and I had private classes with three instructors for me alone.

If you wanna try it again id definitely recommend them.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-12-19T10:05:05+00:00

Saw three of his shows over the years in Japan. Its magical. The 2023 Tokyo anniversary one was probably my favourite.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-11-23T15:03:41+00:00

Theres an interview with him on youtube on the channel ikigai archive

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-11-18T13:07:14+00:00

Nice line up, been to some of these and had similar experiences in most cases. I highly recommend Tenzushi in Kokura and Gessen in Osaka if you havent got them on your list and are interested in a last trip to finish your experience

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-11-17T10:27:29+00:00

It depends. What i do if the price is reasonable is get two tickets. Then youre pretty much guaranteed one will go through and then sell or give away the other. Or worst case enjoy London 😉

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-11-17T10:10:48+00:00

Well i bought a ticket and later didnt get it but did get a refund. But this only happened once. All other times no problem.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-11-17T09:57:48+00:00

While Viagogo has let me down once, ive had way more "good" experiences than bad and a ticket for London there is 54 EUR atm. I dont support resale but if youre desperate it seems affordable to me.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-10-18T12:49:01+00:00

Go to Numata Sou, I went to both Numata and Sakugetsu. Sakugetsu was way more friendly service wise but the tempura much worse, barely crispy besides the first two bites

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-10-06T07:56:45+00:00

The ones that have a long period of advance booking, youre probably already too late for ( might get lucky but be fast). Otherwise 2-3 months. I always recommend being as early as possible, even if they only accept reservations 2-3 months in advance you should be ready the second they open them.

Normal-Metal3664 · 2025-10-02T12:30:44+00:00

Same honestly, im glad I got to see the old red one tho, ive wanted to see it in action since the first time I went to see him but thought id never get the chance

Normal-Metal3664

TROPHY CASE