61: Tough times for Tokyo, the world’s dining capital w/ Robbie Swinnerton & Melinda Joe

This episode, our guests are Robbie Swinnerton and Melinda Joe. Robbie has been writing Tokyo Food File, his restaurant review column for The Japan Times, since 1998 and Melinda has been writing her column Kanpai Culture, all about Japan’s drinking culture, since 2011.

With well over 30 years experience of eating, drinking and writing about the capital's food scene between them, we hear from Robbie and Melinda about what makes Tokyo the gastronomic phenomenon it is, how coronavirus has impacted upon the restaurant business and where Japan's hospitality industry goes from here.

Read/hear more:

• Tokyo Food File (Robbie Swinnerton, The Japan Times)
• Kanpai Culture (Melinda Joe, The Japan Times)
• How COVID-19 has reshaped Japan's drinking culture (Alex Martin, The Japan Times)
• Tokyo’s restaurants stare down COVID-19: ‘We have to stay open’ (Dan Buyanovsky, The Japan Times)
• Tokyo's restaurants again boast world's most Michelin stars in 2020 guide (Magdalena Osumi, The Japan Times)
• Japanese Kitchen (Makiko Itoh, The Japan Times)
• Welcome aboard SG Airways, Shingo Gokan’s cocktail-pairing pop-up (Melinda Joe, The Japan Times)
• Episode 11: Thomas Frebel — a top chef in a city of stars (Deep Dive)
• Still eating, still writing: Robbie Swinnerton reflects on 20 years of Tokyo Food File (Oscar Boyd, The Japan Times)

On this episode:
Melinda Joe:  Twitter | Articles | Instagram
Robbie Swinnerton:  Twitter | Articles | Instagram
Oscar Boyd: Twitter | Articles | Instagram
Announcements:
Want to learn Japanese cooking? Follow Makiko Itoh's monthly Japanese Kitchen column for easy to make, seasonal recipes. Free for all readers of The Japan Times

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Photo by Dan Buyanovsky