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Asia’s 50 best bars for 2024 have been announced. A newcomer has earned the top spot

ination online — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 11:06:44 +0000

Bar Leone – an Italian cocktail spot in central Hong Kong – has been crowned the best bar in Asia. It’s an impressive achievement, considering the venue has only been open for about a year.

“We were not expecting this,” co-founder Lorenzo Antinori told CNN shortly after the award ceremony.

A Rome native, he originally pursued a career in law but found himself enjoying his part-time job behind the bar more than he did studying for the bar.

“We have a bar scene in Hong Kong that is vibrant. It’s always been very strong but I can see that after the pandemic there were new ideas and new business models,” Antinori added. “Diversity and energy: those are the words we associate with the bar community here.”

The Asia’s 50 Best Bars ceremony was held at the Rosewood Hotel in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district on July 16. The awards are voted on by members of the bar industry, media and mixology experts in the region, and they look at categories like quality of drinks, level of service and that intangible quality that one might call “vibe.”

Before Bar Leone’s triumph, the top spot was held by another Hong Kong bar, mezcal-forward Coa, which spent a record three years atop the list.

Coa is helmed by Jay Khan, whose latest venture – Hong Kong’s The Savory Project – was recognized for being the year’s best new opening.

When Coa was announced in fourth place, many attendees audibly gasped.

However, Khan, sporting his signature black baseball cap, was among those cheering for Bar Leone’s big win. “One day we’re not going to be crowned number one, and that’s okay,” Khan told CNN last year after the awards ceremony.

A clear winner was Singapore, with eleven bars in the top 50. But there were also new destinations getting well-deserved shoutouts. Craftroom became Osaka’s first-ever representative on the list, landing in 28th place, and Changsha’s CMYK, in 43rd, was the first ever bar from that Chinese city to be recognized.

“We are incredibly proud to represent Changsha and put this incredible city onto the global cocktail map,” a representative from CMYK told CNN. “We hope to motivate international guests to come and soak in the energy of the city, try our famous spicy dishes, and of course to visit CMYK and enjoy a drink with us.”

The list, which was first put together in 2016, added a new category this year recognizing best bar design. That accolade went to Singapore’s Atlas, a gin-centric bar whose striking interiors have made it popular on social media.

Also winning praise as the Bartender’s Bartender was Demie Kim of Seoul’s Zest, which came in second place overall. Kim, who hails from Busan, originally worked as a barista before getting into the cocktail industry.

Kim was recognized for his efforts to make Zest sustainable in its practices.

“Sustainability is not only for the environment,” he said in a statement. “Sustainability is also how we promote and preserve Korean bar culture.”

Emma Sleight, head of content for 50 Best Bars and 50 Best Hotels, told CNN that Asia’s bar scene “is one of the best in the world, it’s incredibly young and dynamic and ever-changing. Every time you visit a city it could have changed. New bars open all the time. I think it is an incredibly exciting place to be.”

Fittingly, though, it was Antinori who got the last word. “Free drinks at Bar Leone for everyone tonight!” he shouted triumphantly, before leaning over to his colleagues and whispering, “The bar is closed tonight, right?”

Asia’s 50 Best Bars for 2024

1. Bar Leone (Hong Kong)

2. Zest (Seoul)

3. Jigger & Pony (Singapore)

4. Coa (Hong Kong)

5. Bar Benfiddich (Tokyo)

6. Nutmeg & Clove (Singapore)

7. BKK Social Club (Bangkok)

8. Penrose (Kuala Lumpur)

9. Argo (Hong Kong)

10. The Aubrey (Hong Kong)

11. Virtù (Tokyo)

12. The Cocktail Club (Jakarta)

13. Vesper (Bangkok)

14. Hope & Sesame (Guangzhou)

15. Sago House (Singapore)

16. Night Hawk (Singapore)

17. Darkside (Hong Kong)

18. Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar (Bangkok)

19. The Savory Project (Hong Kong)

20. Bar Cham (Seoul)

21. Bar Us (Bangkok)

22. The St. Regis Bar (Macao)

23. The SG Club (Tokyo)

24. Penicillin (Hong Kong)

25. Offtrack (Singapore)

26. Quinary (Hong Kong)

27. Pantja (Jakarta)

28. Craftroom (Osaka)

29. Smoke & Bitters (Hiriketiya, Sri Lanka)

30. Vender (Taichung, Taiwan)

31. Native (Singapore)

32. Origin Bar (Singapore)

33. The Curator (Manila)

34. The Bellwood (Tokyo)

35. Analogue Initiative (Singapore)

36. Bar Trigona (Kuala Lumpur)

37. Bar Mood (Taipei)

38. Employees Only (Singapore)

39. Barc (Kathmandu)

40. ZLB23 (Bengaluru, India)

41. Reka (Kuala Lumpur)

42. Fura (Singapore)

43. CMYK (Changsha, China)

44. The Public House (Taipei)

45. Mostly Harmless (Hong Kong)

46. Alice (Seoul)

47. The Halflington (Hanoi)

48. Le Chamber (Seoul)

49. Atlas (Singapore)

50. Pine & Co (Seoul)

The post Asia’s 50 best bars for 2024 have been announced. A newcomer has earned the top spot appeared first on Ination.

Tiger testicles and mythical banquets: What China’s emperors inside Beijing’s secretive Forbidden City really ate

ination online — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 11:01:31 +0000

The Forbidden City was once one of the most powerful places on the planet. In 1420, while Europe was in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War and yet to discover America, China’s Ming Dynasty ruler was moving into his new home in the center of Beijing and beginning to strengthen his grip on an expanding empire.

Inside their vast palace, China’s emperors were unassailable, protected not just by the miles of walls surrounding them, but by the extreme secrecy that governed the lives of the royalty within them. It was called the ‘Forbidden City’ because few Chinese subjects were allowed to enter.

The last emperor was evicted in 1924. In the years that followed, as the world’s largest palace complex began to open its doors to the outside world, the enigmas of even the darkest corners of the Forbidden City were exposed to daylight.

But one topic remains murky, even today: Food.

Decades after the fall of imperial China, even as historians continue to collaborate to examine China’s past, very little is known about what was eaten in one the world’s richest and most powerful households – especially in the early days, as most of the ancient documents that might offer insights into the topic have been sealed off because of their fragile state.

Zhao Rongguang, a food historian from the northern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, is one of the last few people – and quite possibly the only person – to have accessed and thoroughly studied all of them before they were locked away. This puts him in the rare position of being able to debunk many of the myths about palace cuisine that have persisted for decades.

Zhao began delving into the Forbidden City’s culinary mysteries more than four decades ago.

Beijing back in the 1980s was still a city of bicycles and backstreets – a far cry from the metropolis of skyscrapers and highways it is today.

But it was also an exciting decade, as the country re-opened to the world – and Western culture – after leader Deng Xiaoping announced his “open door policy” in late 1978. It was the decade when Wham! became the first Western pop band to perform in China since 1949, and Paris’ iconic Maxim’s restaurant opened an outpost in Beijing.

Zhao, now 76, wasn’t distracted by these new trends. He had saved up money from his teaching job to travel to Beijing to pursue his mission to find out what China’s ancient emperors and their families really ate.

It wasn’t an easy task. In his path were two main obstacles. Firstly, the enduring secrecies of the palace – so little had been revealed to those outside its towering red walls during the five centuries it was occupied. Secondly, he says, food wasn’t considered a serious topic worthy of study in China, meaning documents focusing on what was eaten during the early days of palace life were scattered and scarce.

Zhao persisted, returning summer after summer to what was then called the First Historical Archives of China, in the old palace’s Xihuamen, or West Prosperity Gate, where he pored over centuries-old imperial documents, which he believes were locked away in the 1990s.

Slowly, he began to build up a picture of how dining in the Forbidden City evolved, zeroing in on three historical figures who were key to shaping royal eating habits. And now, nearly 40 years after he began his research, he has a pretty good idea.

It all starts, Zhao tells INATION, with Kangxi, an emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty that seized full control of China after 1644 when the Ming imperial family, aligned with China’s majority Han ethnic group, was ousted.

Under his rule, between 1661 and 1722, the country entered into a relatively peaceful era following decades of dynastic fighting – and that led to some interesting menu changes inside the Forbidden City.

At first, after the Qing Dynasty initially moved in, traditional foods from the nomadic Manchu heartlands of northeastern China were on the table, according to documents from the era studied by Zhao.

In the mid-Kangxi reign, royal diets began to evolve.

“There was still a lot of roast game and unusual foods on Kangxi’s table, like tiger testicles,” says Zhao.

Tiger testicles?

“Yes, you heard me right, tiger testicles. Ancient people thought that they had a libido-boosting effect. I believe Kangxi had eaten plenty of them as it was recorded officially that Kangxi had hunted more than 60 tigers in his life.”

Rooster combs were another ingredient eaten as an aphrodisiac, says Zhao.

But eventually, as society stabilized further during Kangxi’s rule, more ethnic Han dishes began to appear in the mix of palace offerings, like duck gizzard stew.

The Forbidden City’s golden influencer

The opaque world of Forbidden City dining gets a little clearer when we skip forward to Kangxi’s grandson, an imposing figure known as Qianlong Emperor.

During his nearly 61 years on the throne (1735-1796) – a time Zhao considers the second important phase of the Forbidden City’s culinary evolution – Qianlong had his daily menus meticulously recorded, a paper trail that means historians can now reconstruct a more accurate view of the lifestyle in the palace at that time.

Inside the Hong Kong Palace Museum, for instance, an ongoing exhibition titled “From dawn to dusk: Life in the Forbidden City” is heavily based on Qianlong Emperor’s daily rituals – meals included.

“So what is the Forbidden City? It’s a city. It is an institution. Just like any community, food culture was an indispensable part of the entire culture inside the Forbidden City,” says Daisy Yiyou Wang, deputy director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, a sister museum of Beijing’s Palace Museum at the Forbidden City.

“The food culture itself reflects so much of the identity of the people. Their status and power and authority, and their taste, and relationships as well.”

Among the exhibition’s displays is a bulky silver milk teapot that dates to the 18th or 19th century, sitting between a gleaming gold wine ewer with cloud and dragon reliefs and a glass bowl bearing exquisite gold threads.

The elaborately painted teapot, with its gilded golden dragons, suggests that milk tea, a Manchu meal staple, was an essential part of the royal court’s diet during the Qing Dynasty.

“Tea bricks would be broken into boiling water. Milk, butter and a pinch of salt were added. They then filtered the tea leaves out and then served the tea in this type of silver teapot,” says Nicole Chiang, the Hong Kong Palace Museum’s art historian and curator.

The salted milk tea reflects the royal court’s Manchurian roots.

“Even when Qianlong traveled to the Jiangnan region (south of the Yangtze River where modern-day Hangzhou and Shanghai are), he hired a milk tea master from Mongolia to prepare milk tea for the court every day.”

Chiang, who says she enjoys studying the Qing Dynasty due to the sheer number of historical artifacts preserved from that era, from texts to paintings, says the court also dined on hot pot – the traditional Chinese dish in which ingredients are cooked in a simmering bowl of soup stock right on the table.

“One of the palace maids said that (the royal family) would have a hot pot dish almost every day for three months during wintertime. It was a popular dish,” says the historian, pointing to an enamel hot pot from the Forbidden City on display at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Chiang, currently preparing for a future exhibition on food and travel in the Forbidden City, notes that though Emperor Qianlong had his menus recorded, it’s still challenging to study palace food history as most of the sealed-off documents have not been released to researchers and the public. (Her own exhibition is based on documents that have already been published by the Palace Museum.)

As one of the few who have ever laid eyes on the archived documents, Zhao has had some of his research published in the last few decades. He continues to work and says he is now compiling a book based on all of his findings, which will further demystify the topic of palace cuisine.

Through this wealth of knowledge, Zhao has been able to view the long-held beliefs about what was eaten inside the Forbidden City through a wider lens and add some much-needed context. And that includes the emperor’s supposed love for hot pot.

“Menus were often presented to the emperor the night before for approval,” he says.

“They reflected the personal tastes of the emperor – but were not solely based on his preferences. So we know Qianlong Emperor had hot pots – which were mostly written as ‘warm pots’ in the records. It could be because of the weather and tradition but it might not mean Qianlong loved them.”

He says that in Qianlong Emperor’s time, imperial cuisine was much more refined and diverse – with both traditional Manchu dishes like roasted Asian roe deers and pheasants – as well as southern dishes, especially from the Jiangnan region.

“The game on his menus showcases his northern roots,” says Zhao. “One of the dishes that appeared very often in his record was the Sika deer tail platter. The tail was quite a small part – but a wonderfully fat and fragrant part of a deer.”

Smoked red-braised duck, fried spring bamboo shoots with pork and bird’s nest soup with rock sugar were some of the other regulars from the Jiangnan region that were frequently eaten in the Forbidden City.

Qianlong Emperor, alongside other Qing Dynasty nobility, believed that bird’s nest soup – made with the solidified saliva of swallows – was extraordinarily nutritious. So much so that researchers believe he downed a bowl of it every morning before breakfast.

“There are many myths and legends about bird’s nest. It was a relatively new ingredient at that time,” Zhao explains, noting that it didn’t appear in a major encyclopedia on traditional Chinese medicines published in the late 1500s.

Based on the historical documents, Qianlong had two main meals per day. His breakfast was at around 6 a.m. and dinner at 2 p.m. But right after he woke up at 4 a.m., he would usually have a snack – such as bird’s nest soup – before his morning meal and work.

At night, as he went through reports and requests from all over the country, he’d have another bite to eat at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. – often consisting of eight to 10 small dishes.

“He usually dined alone except for the snack time at night, when he might be dining with a consort he was going to sleep with,” says Zhao.

“To dine and sleep well – so he could produce offspring – were also two main tasks for the emperor.”

Although being the ruler of the country did mean that he could enjoy the finest ingredients, he didn’t always indulge. And both Zhao and the experts at Hong Kong Palace Museum agree that dining inside the Forbidden City wasn’t as lavish as most people might assume.

“The majority of (the emperors) grew up in a highly disciplined environment,” says Wang of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. “Their diet was supposed to be healthy and to be studied by a lot of people already and tested by history.”

One of the biggest misunderstandings about dining in the Forbidden City, she says, is the assumption “that the emperors must eat like a million dishes, especially when you have that Manchu-Han Banquet rumor.”

The mythical Manchu-Han Banquet

The myth of the extravagant Manchu-Han Banquet – often cited as an example of how the imperial family ate – was closely connected to Empress Dowager Cixi – a former royal concubine who controlled China ruthlessly for almost 50 years until she died in 1908.

Cixi is largely responsible for the third and final stage of Zhao’s Forbidden City culinary research, but to understand how she accidentally contributed to one of the biggest misunderstandings about Chinese foods in modern days, it’s worth exploring the unique social and political situation in the decades leading up to China’s re-opening in the late 1970s.

It was a period of political and economic isolation for mainland China following the Communists’ victorious emergence from a civil war in 1949.

By accident, however, national culinary pride swelled toward one legendary banquet called the “Manchu-Han Feast” (or Man Han Quan Xi), which first appeared outside of the Forbidden City in the late Qing Dynasty and was popularized at an expo in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in the 1950s.

“In 1957, at the first China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, one vendor had a sumptuous banquet spread for display,” says Zhao.

“Out of the few foreign countries who sent their representatives, Japanese businessmen were intrigued. Japan’s economy happened to be recovering rapidly after World War II. They wanted to learn about this lavish feast and asked a staff member about what kind of feast it was.

“The clueless helper then consulted the boss, also clueless, who asked the chef. The chef wasn’t sure either – but he had to give some answers, so he said ‘This is called the Manchu-Han Banquet and it was started by the emperor.’”

The Japanese businessmen were said to have been fascinated.

From then on, the Manchu-Han Feast became synonymous with emperors and their meals, and Zhao says it became one of the hottest food trends in Japan.

Dozens of gourmets and research teams traveled to communist China to find out more about this mysterious imperial diet that technically didn’t actually exist.

“While mainland China didn’t want to export such capitalistic ideals internationally originally, Hong Kong restaurateurs saw it as a great business opportunity,” says Zhao. (In those days, Hong Kong was under British rule.)

In 1978, a Japanese TV station worked with a Hong Kong restaurant to recreate and live-broadcast a massive Manchu-Han feast. The epic banquet was separated into four meals over two days.

That only served to deepen the myth, leading people to mistakenly believe the emperor’s feasts had to have 108 dishes spread across two days.

After the country’s re-opening, proud chefs in mainland China soon began declaring they could do an even more opulent version of the feast – one of them featured 1,080 dishes in one banquet, says Zhao.

The fascination with this mystified imperial Chinese cuisine spread across East Asia like wildfire. Not even Zhao was immune from it.

“That’s why I decided to go find the truth myself,” says Zhao, noting the banquets are what got him curious about Forbidden City cuisine in the first place.

Empress Dowager Cixi’s lavish meals

So where does Empress Dowager Cixi fit into all this?

Being the real holder of power behind the last few emperors of imperial China before her death, she was known for her extravagant lifestyle and appetite for exquisite Han Chinese foods.

“It was the most lavish era during the Qing Dynasty. Their daily meals had increased from 18 to 23 courses to 25 to 28 courses,” says Zhao.

She was also a keen entertainer, hosting regular ceremonial feasts. While there were no official Manchu-Han Banquets, there were other types of imperial feasts held in the Forbidden City throughout the centuries. None of them had as many dishes as the rumors claimed.

The most iconic format of them all was “Tian An Yan” (translated as Increase Peacefulness Banquet), combining two main types of banquets of the past – the roast meat-heavy Manchu-style feasts and the Han style with bird’s nest soup and seafood.

“Bird’s nest-style feasts featured many kinds of rare seafood products like shark fins, sea cucumbers, dried scallops and fish lips. Roast meat usually meant roast pork and roast duck,” says Zhao.

“It was an invention during her time with strict guidelines. Each of these banquets consisted of two hot pot dishes, four big bowls (main dishes with auspicious words written on them), four small bowls of items, six food plates, two platters – like sliced Peking duck or suckling pig, four types of pastries and bao, one type of noodles, one type of soup and one fruit platter.

“Hence, even the highest form of Tian An Yan during that time had around 28 dishes at best – a far cry from the 108 dishes modern media like to portray,” says Zhao.

In a society with an increasing reputation for debauchery under Cixi’s corrupt government towards the end of imperial China, wealthy patrons began creating their own “imperial banquets” inspired by Tian An Yan, and called them “Manchu-Han Banquets.” This helps explain some of the confusion surrounding their connection to China’s emperors.

How hunger led Zhao to food history

Despite having studied food for decades, Zhao is far from being a foodie. Quite the opposite, in fact – he says his obsession with food history stems from horrors he witnessed during his childhood in the three years of famine that followed the Communist leadership’s Great Leap Forward economic policy in the late 1950s.

“The memory of long-term gastrointestinal cramps due to hunger and the shock of the millions of deaths due to hunger in the 1960s are a nightmare that comes back and haunts me from time to time,” says Zhao.

“I’m lucky that I survived and it deeply affected my perspective on food.”

Because of this, he says he believes understanding the past will improve the world’s future food security.

“Studying food history is a part of understanding our food culture in a truthful way,” Zhao says.

“It doesn’t only help a country promote its culinary arts but helps us reflect on food and the policies we have today. Who doesn’t enjoy good food? But I didn’t become a food historian to indulge but out of consciousness and responsibility, I want to firmly grasp the truth about it. Today is a continuation of yesterday so studying history is an important part of who we are today and in the future.”

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Instant ramen and influencers: Inside the world of South Korean convenience stores

ination online — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 10:54:31 +0000

Imagine this: you need to pick up a package, top up your metro card, grab lunch and take out some cash.

In most places, that would probably mean separate trips to the post office, the subway station, a restaurant and an ATM. But in South Korea, all that – and more – can be done at your nearest convenience store. And you probably won’t have to travel far to find one.

South Korea has become the global king of convenience stores, both online and off – with social media influencers and tourists joining locals in flocking to a rapidly growing number of stores across the country.

By the end of last year, there were more than 55,200 convenience stores in the nation of 52 million, according to the Korea Convenience Store Industry Association – roughly one for every 950 people.

That’s more than the total number of McDonald’s branches worldwide – and gives South Korea the highest density of stores per capita, overtaking Japan and Taiwan, both also famous for their abundant and versatile convenience stores.

“The convenience store industry in South Korea stands out for its remarkable density and innovative strategies,” said Chang Woo-cheol, a professor of tourism and the food service industry at Kwangwoon University in Seoul.

“They have become an essential retail channel, with the second-largest share in offline retail sales in the country.”

It’s a far cry from places like the United States, where convenience stores are usually attached to gas stations or strip malls and are rarely seen in residential areas, partly due to zoning laws. In large South Korean cities like Seoul, convenience stores are on every corner, sometimes with multiple outlets from competing companies dotting the same street.

“Convenience stores are open 24 hours a day and play an essential role in our busy lives,” Chang added – calling the South Korean industry a “global success story.”

There are a few things that set South Korean convenience stores apart.

For starters, they are a one-stop shop offering everything from food and drinks to home goods and lifestyle services. At these stores, customers can charge their phones, pay utility bills, withdraw cash, make online orders and receive deliveries – and, at certain locations, even charge their electric scooters, exchange foreign currency and send international mail.

“Convenience stores in Korea are not only a place where people can (sit) around a table amongst the clutter of beer cans on a late summer night, but also provide essential services,” said Deloitte Korea in a 2020 report, describing the country’s stores as “pampering their customers with extreme convenience.”

Then there’s the food section – a wide variety ranging from instant miso soup to cup noodles in every flavor imaginable, snacks like kimbap and onigiri, and ready-to-eat meal kits.

Combine that with in-store seating areas, microwaves and hot water dispensers, and these stores have become a go-to spot for office workers having a quick lunch, partygoers needing a late-night boost and students fueling up before grueling cram school classes.

Demand has surged over the years as South Korea has urbanized, said Chang, the hospitality professor. More than 80% of the population now live in urban centers, with many residents leaving rural areas to settle down in fast-paced cities.

Another factor is demographics. Fewer South Koreans are getting married or starting families, meaning there are more single-person households than ever – and often on tighter budgets, given the economic hardships facing many young adults.

As of 2021, about 35% of all South Korean households were single residents, according to a McKinsey report released last March. And unlike couples or large families, who may prefer to cook at home and buy in bulk from grocery stores, single residents gravitate toward the cheap, easy option of convenience stores or ordering online.

The Covid-19 pandemic contributed to this trend, with people preferring to order online or to buy things quickly from stores close to home, the report added.

Companies have capitalized on this high demand by strategically opening shops inside other existing business venues or entertainment spaces. For instance, Seoul has convenience stores in karaoke bars and the city’s arts center, the Deloitte report said.

All this has translated to huge profits. Between 2010 and 2021, Korean convenience store revenue leaped more than fourfold from $5.8 billion to $24.7 billion, surpassing traditional supermarkets and department stores, according to McKinsey, citing London-based market research company Euromonitor.

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Japanese restaurants say they’re not charging tourists more – they’re just charging locals less

ination online — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 10:50:10 +0000

Kudos to you if you can speak perfect Japanese and order food at a neighborhood sushi bar in Tokyo.

If you can, chances are that on your next trip to Japan, you may be able to score a better deal by blending in as a local.

Japan has never been a destination known for hiking up prices for foreigners. But overtourism – fueled by a combination of pent-up post-Covid demands (aka “revenge travel”) and the weak local currency – has recently prompted restaurants in the country to consider the merits of differential pricing.

“People say it’s discrimination, but it is really hard for us to serve foreigners, and it is beyond our capacity,” said Shogo Yonemitsu, who runs Tamatebako, an all-you-can-eat seafood grill in Shibuya, Tokyo’s bustling shopping district.

He maintains that he doesn’t charge tourists extra. Instead, he offers a 1,000 yen ($6.50) discount to locals.

“We need (this pricing system) for cost reasons,” Yonemitsu said.

Japan only completely reopened in the fall of 2022 following the removal of pandemic travel restrictions.

This year, spurred by a weak yen that has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar in decades, the tourists are back – in big numbers.

Visitor arrivals to Japan hit a record 17.78 million in the first half of 2024, according to government data – and are on track to break the country’s 2019 record of 31.88 million tourists.

In response, places around the country have begun implementing tourist taxes, imposing visitor caps and even banning alcohol sales in an attempt to curb the effects of too much tourism.

Earlier this year, a resort town in the foothills of Mount Fuji erected a giant net to block views of the iconic peak after tourists flocked to a photo-viewing spot, causing litter and traffic problems.

Meanwhile, tourism authorities in Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost prefecture known for its scenic views and ski resorts, this month urged businesses to set lower prices for locals.

And a mayor in western Japan said he was considering charging foreign tourists more than six times the local entry fee to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Himeji Castle.

Elisa Chan, associate director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s hospitality research center, said differential pricing can be an effective way to combat overtourism.

“The owner may want to make sure that the sudden surge in tourist demand does not drive away all its loyal and frequent local customers. Charging tourists more may be seen as a solution to this,” she said.

Yonemitsu, the restaurateur, said the influx of tourists isn’t simply an issue of adding extra tables.

He said his seafood grill had to hire additional English-speaking staff to take orders, handle bookings and explain to tourists everything from how to tell the difference between sashimi and grilled food items to where to put their luggage. Failing to do so results in “mayhem,” he said.

“Some people say, ‘We don’t do this in our country.’ But think about how bad Japanese people’s English skills are. We aren’t at that level where we can call ourselves a tourism powerhouse yet. We just can’t speak English, and yet we can’t say the wrong things. It’s really stressful,” he said.

While it’s a new phenomenon in Japan, differential pricing is quite common in other parts of the world. As the less-expensive resident prices are often written in the local language, foreign tourists may not even know they paid more.

In Japan, it’s up to every business to decide for themselves if they want to implement two-tiered pricing. That’s not always the case elsewhere, as governments can step in.

In Venice, for example, officials introduced a fee to enter the Italian city and an online reservation system to cope with overtourism.

Meanwhile, some Japanese business owners are trying to be creative.

Shuji Miyake, who runs an izakaya, or informal pub, in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district, offers ramen topped with lobster for 5,500 yen ($35) – four times the price of the shrimp noodles his regulars often order. The premium dish is marketed to tourists, who he said have a higher budget to try new things.

Australian tourist Phoebe Lee said she spent less on a recent two-week trip to Japan than on her previous trips to the country – and she wouldn’t mind paying a little extra if the weak yen is making life difficult for locals.

“This helps support local businesses to continue providing us lucky visitors with amazing experiences and preserve important parts of Japan’s culture, like tiny mom-and-pop restaurants or authentic ryokans (traditional inns),” she said.

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How waffles evolved from an Ancient Roman delicacy to one of the world’s most popular treats

ination online — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 10:46:40 +0000

Made from leavened batter or dough cooked between two patterned plates, waffles are thought to be one of the oldest desserts around.

Often topped with honey, whipped cream, syrup or jam, they’re ideal for breakfast, or a snack, sometimes savored on the run.

Hugely popular in northwestern European countries, as well as the US and Asia, they can be crispy, sweet or salty, with deep or shallow grooves.

In Belgium, where they’re known as gaufres, you can find infinite waffles variations.

But where do they actually come from? Experts say the origins of this sweet or savory treat date back millennia.

And while their roots can be traced back to Ancient Greece, Giorgio Franchetti, author of the book “Dining With The Ancient Romans,” believes waffles are derived from a particular delicacy of Ancient Rome.

“They are very likely the descendants of the popular ‘crustulum’ (‘crustula’ plural,) which were sweet biscuits adored by the ancient Romans,” Franchetti, a food scholar of ancient Rome, tells CNN.

“The term, in Latin, clearly suggests that these biscuits were crispy, with a crumbly crust that melted in the mouth.”

There are no known historical documents on how crustula were shaped, but Franchetti believes they were likely flat biscuits, made with the same basic ingredients as waffles and baked inside two heated irons.

The preparation method for crustula is thought to be identical to that of modern-day waffles, although it’s unclear whether crustula originally had the iconic grooves.

According to research carried out by Franchetti, it’s likely that crustula were a sweet evolution of panis obelius, a special bread with olives or fresh figs made by the ancient Greek that was cooked between two irons and eaten during Dionysian rituals, which usually involved drinking, dancing and sacrifice.

“Crustula were very simple biscuits, made with flour, honey and lard. Today waffles are made with butter, however Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder writes that the use of butter differentiated the aristocratic, snobbish patricians from the commoner plebeians,” he says.

After unearthing texts on crustula by Pliny the Elder and Roman lyric poet Horace, Franchetti joined up with “archeo-cook” Cristina Conte to bring crustulas back from the grave.

Romans loved cheeses, but didn’t like butter, which was considered a poor byproduct of milk, and mainly used for cosmetics, according to Franchetti.

Instead, they made their crustula with lard or animal fat.

It’s thought that the biscuits were originally consumed during Roman religious ceremonies and sold by street vendors called “crustulari” who could be found along the alleys of ancient Rome, usually near temples and places of worship.

Franchetti explains that the coveted sweets later became a type of reward that teachers working for rich families would bestow on their best students.

Sweet evolution

In his Satires poems, Horace writes that teachers would usually give crustula “to children to convince them to learn the letters of the alphabet.”

Over time, these simple, tasty biscuits managed to conquer a very important part of the banquet ceremony – dessert – and were served at the end of a meal.

Crustula were so popular with ancient Roman writers that some even mentioned them in their works.

Satirist Gaius Lucilius, considered the inventor of Roman satire, once wrote that he “enjoyed indulging in crustula alone,” while other authors like playwright Plautus, and philosophers Seneca and Lucius Apuleius, also referenced them.

After the advent of Christianity, crustula were assimilated into Christian recipes, says Franchetti.

So how did these treats evolve into waffles as we know them today?

Franchetti believes that the crustula cooking technique was likely honed during the Middle Ages, when the first grooves may have appeared in the biscuits, bringing them closer to modern day waffles.

Ferratelle – a biscuit that has stood the test of time in various parts of Italy – is believed to be the link between Roman crustulas and waffles.

“In Molise and Abruzzo locals are weaned on ferratelle, that are eaten year-round and come in different shapes and sizes,” says Franchetti.

The name “ferratelle” comes from the metal press or iron, which translates to “ferri” in Italian, a tool that’s still used to make the biscuits in some places today.

Ferratelle, also known as pizzelle, feature the tiny square grooves found on waffles, while the basic recipe and ingredients are most likely the same as those previously used for crustula, says Franchetti.

In the old days, ferratelle were always homemade and proved to be particularly popular during Christmas and carnival celebrations.

Households would use special irons engraved with their family coat of arms or initials to mark their ferratelle.

“The Romans handed down to us these divine biscuits. We’ve been gulping them down since the dawn of ages,” says Maria Teresa Spagnoli of L’Aquila pastry shop Dolci Aveja.

In the 1700s, parents would gift ferratelle irons with the family’s initials to their soon-to-be-married daughters as part of the dowry.

“Today we eat them for breakfast, as an after dinner treat with a liquor digestive, or during car trips,” adds Spagnoli.

Still shaped inside irons, the Abruzzo ferratelle is made with eggs, olive oil, milk, vanilla and grated lemon peel.

Those sold in L’Aquila come in all different sizes, including diamonds, stars and hearts.

Treasured treats

Alongside the original recipe, Dolci Aveja, the top producer of ferratelle in L’Aquila, makes variants containing cereals and a salty version with rosemary, which pairs well with prosecco as an aperitif.

Preparing ferratelle is still a huge ritual for those who produce it.

“According to our tradition, to make perfect, authentic ferratelle you have to say one Hail Mary while cooking the first side, and one Lord’s Prayer for the other side,” says Spagnoli.

To speed up the cooking, locals in Abruzzo also use electric irons today.

With this method, there’s no need to turn the ferratelle over during the process, as it cooks simultaneously on both sides.

In Vasto, a coastal town in Abruzzo, ferratelle features dark chocolate toppings and are called “catarrette.”

Locals treasure the ancient irons used by their ancestors and engraved with their family initials.

Vasto historian Gianfranco Bonacci recalls how his grandmother would bake ferratelle on Sundays or special occasions, and the family would eat them throughout the week.

“It was a daily treat. Unfortunately my family has lost the old irons and today it’s hard to find a blacksmith who makes them, as there are very few blacksmiths left,” says Bonacci.

In nearby Italian regions, including Latium, there are ferratelle varieties with different names.

Waffle-like cookies can be found in Liguria, while in Piedmont, they’re known as gofri and come with a deep rough honeycomb pattern, reminiscent of Belgian gaufres.

So how and when did these “Italian waffles” migrate to north Europe and the US?

“The Romans, alongside their culture, also spread their foods throughout the empire. Crustula had many legs, and ended up all the way in nowadays France, Benelux and England,” says Franchetti.

By the time the Roman Empire collapsed, crustula had been assimilated into the local gastronomy of these lands.

A further development likely occurred along European trade routes during the Middle Ages, when the Italian honeycomb ferratelle were exported to northern Europe.

Finally, the leap over to the New World occurred in the early 1600s with the first Dutch settlers who landed in New York City.

“That’s when the crustula-ferratelle evolved into waffles and took root in America,” says Franchetti.

Today, waffles can be found almost everywhere in the world.

In the US, August 24, the anniversary of the day Dutch-American Cornelius Swarthout was granted a patent for the first waffle iron in the States, is celebrated as National Waffle Day.

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