The best country in the world for foodies!! (gated, restaurant)
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I do like your pictures of foodies in Tokyo. However I can think of 1001 things to do in the land of Rising Sun other than raw fish and diy cooking.
Furthermore, we have plenty of fresh ingredients at home. Here are some pictures to back up my argument:
I dont think the food and wine list, and Mercers guide gave the rating to tokyo based on cuisine, just quality of the restaurants regardless of cuisine. It is quite possible that French, italian or even Nigerian food is the best in the world, but that's not what the thread is about
I thought that's exactly what it was about: "The best country in the world for foodies".
Those lists have certain criteria and the critics on them are exposed to foods for particular reasons. Just as you have noted, many people think Osaka has better food, but it was not on these lists.
Saying who has the best food is like saying who has the best music, art, literature, philosophy, religion, familial structure, overall culture, etc... It's all completely subjective. Of course, there are some extremes that might show better or worse performance in these categories, but most differences are subjective.
I like light food, fresh and flavorful veggies, and strong, but often simple flavors and spices usually involved, so my foodie countries would flow from that. The most I agree with on this thread so far are the SE Asia countries and the cosmopolitan countries with a large variety.
European countries have awesome food, but I could only bread and wine and meat and cheese for so long.
Just a cursory glance at the extract of Michelin Guide 2010 below, shows the number of restaurants/3* ratios for Paris & Tokyo to be 2:1
And on a per capita basis, France will have double the 3* Michelin ratings than Japan. On this fact alone, your claim as reflected in your thread title does not hold water.
Why not? It has nothing to do with stars "per capita" but a city for foodies. Since you yourself showed that Tokyo has tons of restaurants compared to Paris that simply reinforces my point. More options, more food. It doesnt disprove a single thing. And since Tokyos stars keep almost doubling in each report since it hasnt been studied alot by michelin until recently simply reinforces that (while Paris number of stars basically hasn't changed). The article I posted while it does show the fact that Michelin guide gave tokyo the most stars on planet earth (now it's triple the amount of paris) is almost entirely about the common restaurant in tokyo, not expensive rich ones. Did you even read it?
The food and wine guide has also given tokyo first place for 2 reports in a row.
"On this fact alone, your claim as reflected in your thread title does not hold water"
Foodies do not care about per capita. They care about options. Again the fact tokyo has so many restaurants drives that point home, and the Michelin stars are icing on the cake.
Maybe Orlando florida has "better food" per capita (whatever that means) than NYC (let's just assume this is true), does that matter whatsoever at all? Do you think a food lover would go to Orlando over NYC because it has more "stars per capita"? Absolutely not. They will go to the city with the most restaurants and restaurants with quality.
Why not? It has nothing to do with stars "per capita" but a city for foodies. Since you yourself showed that Tokyo has tons of restaurants compared to Paris that simply reinforces my point. More options, more food. It doesnt disprove a single thing. And since Tokyos stars keep almost doubling in each report since it hasnt been studied alot by michelin until recently simply reinforces that (while Paris number of stars basically hasn't changed). The article I posted while it does show the fact that Michelin guide gave tokyo the most stars on planet earth (now it's triple the amount of paris) is almost entirely about the common restaurant in tokyo, not expensive rich ones. Did you even read it?
The food and wine guide has also given tokyo first place for 2 reports in a row.
"On this fact alone, your claim as reflected in your thread title does not hold water"
Foodies do not care about per capita. They care about options. Again the fact tokyo has so many restaurants drives that point home, and the Michelin stars are icing on the cake.
Maybe Orlando florida has "better food" per capita (whatever that means) than NYC (let's just assume this is true), does that matter whatsoever at all? Do you think a food lover would go to Orlando over NYC because it has more "stars per capita"? Absolutely not. They will go to the city with the most restaurants and restaurants with quality.
Please do the calculation. You need to sharpen your pencil if you want to market a product.
No of restaurant
Tokyo: 160,000
Paris: 40,000
3* Michelin restaurants
Tokyo: 11
Paris: 10
Population (2009 per CIA Factbook)
Japan: 127,078,679
France: 64,057,792
Maybe Orlando florida has "better food" per capita (whatever that means) than NYC (let's just assume this is true), does that matter whatsoever at all? Do you think a food lover would go to Orlando over NYC because it has more "stars per capita"? Absolutely not. They will go to the city with the most restaurants and restaurants with quality.
Who cares about per capita? It simply does not matter when it comes to food lovers. It does not matter at all whatsover. 0.
The thread title is "for foodies" not "3 stars per capita". Tokyo has the most restaurants in the world (I'm assuming) and the most stars in the world which increases with every report. Are you suggesting it's too difficult for food lovers to find those star restaurants (3x the number of paris) simply because there's so many? lol.
Ask Californians as they claim to produce the most and the freshest food in the country as it is grown organically,so I would say their major cities would have some of the best 5-star restaurants in the world.
Who cares about per capita? It simply does not matter when it comes to food lovers. It does not matter at all whatsover. 0.
The thread title is "for foodies" not "3 stars per capita". Tokyo has the most restaurants in the world (I'm assuming) and the most stars in the world which increases with every report. Are you suggesting it's too difficult for food lovers to find those star restaurants (3x the number of paris) simply because there's so many? lol.
As others have pointed out to you that your thread title claims that Japan is "The best country in the world for foodies!! ".
And why wouldnt it be? You're talking about per capita which does not matter at all whatsover. 0. It's like saying some suburban american town with 500 people and has a 3 star restaurant is a better city for foodies than NYC just because this little town has a higher per capita. That's ridiculous. NYC has more restaurants, more stars (again per capita absolutely does not matter when we're talking about food) than the other town with a higher per capita. I don't see what your point is. Tokyo has tons of restaurants and stars. Per capita does not matter. We are not talking about GDP or Income where per capita has a purpose. We are talking about restaurants that anyone can go to. According to those numbers not only does Tokyo have 3x the number of paris, it has like what? 3 or 4 x as many restaurants? That is great for food lovers. Or will food lovers choose the hypothetical american suburban town with a higher stars per capita?
I have to agree with Nihonkitty, Japan is really in the world class league of restaurants and "per capita" or a ratio of how many restaurants have full stars is irrelevant. What's so surprising about this? Like most modern nations, it has imported cuisine from all over the world and it is unsurprising that some of the very talented chefs will become world class in a particular cuisine. Regional variation is also very important in Japan. I would enjoy living in Japan for cuisine variation.
And that's the point of this thread, really, is just to ask peoples' opinion on countries which are good for foodies. Saying that .0063% of restaurants vs. .063% is irrelevant. So is what the Michelin guides says also is irrelevant. What matters is quality and variation. So I think using the argument either in numbers of what a guide says is wholly irrelevant as it is a personal thing. Besides, the living density will ensure that the order of magnitude won't matter much as you won't have to travel very far for world class cuisine, and Japan has an excellent mass transit systme that never breaks down or suffers from debilitating strikes like France does on a daily basis.
Of course you'll get the bad knock-off places in Japan, just like everywhere else. Mexican restaurants in England are the worst. So are a lot of pizza places in Japan. And so are most American places in France (the biggest argument against the French being connoisseurs of cuisine is that McDonald's is the #1 food chain in France).
It's all about personal taste and acknowledging that variation and quality are prevalent and can be found.
With that said, I'm glad those who try to use numbers actually do agree that Japan is great for foodies, or can't argue against the quality and variation in Japan.
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