Food & Drink

Food and Drink

Kaiseki-style menus are taking over fine dining

Four peachy-pink snow crabs lie in a row, waiting to be cooked. They could be dead, were it not for the flickering of an antenna or the occasional terrified roving of a beady eye. Tonight, the crabs, which have been sourced from Fukui, Japan, and are prized for their sweetness and silky texture, will be ceremoniously shown to diners at Muku, a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York. They will then be split in half (still alive – fresh is best!) and cooked on a handsome hibachi-style ceramic grill. The crabs are one course in the fancy and formal kaiseki-inspired menus taking America’s coastal cities by storm.

Labor Day will revive barbecue

Oh my word. Will August never end? February is the shortest month and August is by far the longest, a full 17 days longer than any other. At least it feels that way. Nothing happens in August. The month has no holidays, since there’s nothing to celebrate. The business world grinds to a halt amid last-chance beach vacations and general summertime torpor. Emails go unanswered. Meetings are canceled for lack of attendees. Those who do make it into the office arrive late and duck out early, since no one’s around to notice. It’s not just in offices, either. Civic groups and charitable organizations avoid staging events during this cruelest of months, knowing attendance will be poor. Even the world of barbecue largely comes to a standstill.