Tokyo has had a taste of Michelin madness, we read in the Times yesterday, and didn’t like it much better than we did. (We wrote, at some length, of the banality and misjudgments which marred the famed restaurant guide last year.) We can’t speak to the accuracy of Michelin’s Tokyo picks, but we would have bet dollars to doughnuts that the Japanese could, and sure enough, the Times finds people to say as much: “Japanese food was created here, and only Japanese know it,” one chef is quoted as saying. “How can a bunch of foreigners show up and tell us what is good or bad?” Not to put too fine a point on it! The other interesting part is that Tokyo, which has six times as many restaurants as New York, is unhesitatingly pronounced by Michelin chief Jean-Luc Naret as the top restaurant city in the world. Which isn’t going to go over very well in Paris, or for that matter here. Something tells us Michelin should have stayed in France.

Michelin Gives Stars, but Tokyo Turns Up Nose [NYT]
Related: How to Eat in Tokyo, Michelin Capital of the World
Michelin: Gastronomic Bible Reads Like In-Flight Advertorial

We’ve let the cult of sushi impose itself upon us long enough: The mystical reverence stemming from rice and knives, the reverent hush of the omakase bar, the meticulous manners required of every procedure. We just read an exchange on Slate between Trevor Corson and Sasha Issenberg, the authors of The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, From Samurai to Supermarket, and The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy, respectively. Both men have studied the history of sushi and the burgeoning global sushi industry, and under their gaze some common myths about sushi simply disintegrate.

One of the Times’ ever-ambivalent world travelers goes to Japan. But if eating whale sashimi is wrong, he doesn't want to be right. [NYT]

Noho is for pedestrians: a helpful guide to its restaurants. [NYT]
Related: Our Noho lunch spots. [Grub Street]

Secrets of a hat-check person, revealed. It turns out women are checking not only their coats but also their pants. [NYP]