Japanese cuisine

Living in Japan, Ivan Orkin started eating ramen — lots of it. But when he moved back to New York in the 90s, he says, “I just yearned for ramen. It just became this crazy thing where I was jonesing for ramen all the time.” So when he returned to Japan, he opened a ramen joint — and impressed a Japanese food critic.

Living in Japan, Ivan Orkin started eating ramen — lots of it. But when he moved back to New York in the 90s, he says, “I just yearned for ramen. It just became this crazy thing where I was jonesing for ramen all the time.” So when he returned to Japan, he opened a ramen joint — and impressed a Japanese food critic.

Chef Antonio Park is of Korean heritage, grew up in Latin America, went to culinary school in Japan and has been living in the Canadian province of Quebec for more than two decades. His specialty is fish, and the fare at his Park Restaurant in Montreal is billed as Japanese, but the flavors are utterly original.

Egypt’s military leaders were hoping for a major turnout in this week’s constitutional elections. And while they got a few percentage points more turnout than the last constitutional referendum, the result was almost unbelievable: 98 percent approval. Of course, when demonstrating against the referendum leads to arrest and when the biggest opponent boycotts the election what do you expect? That and more in today’s Global Scan.

You normally think of curry as an Indian dish but it’s hugely popular in Japan, brought to the country aboard British naval ships back in the day. New York chefs Harris Salat and Tadashi Ono have co-written a book about Japanese comfort food, and tell us about what makes Japanese curry tick.