Three to Eat: Hot and 'oishii' Japanese morsels at Taste of Edmonton
Big Sugar put on a delightfully bumpin' opening night show at Taste of Edmonton Thursday — double-neck guitar action, huge crowd — but besides Gordie Johnson asking us to be his 'honey bunny,' mostly all I was dreaming about was the Japanese cuisine I'd be having for breakfast.
Article content
'Hajimemashite' means nice to meet you in Japanese, which is exactly how you'll feel if you dive into any of these, written up here in increasing order of pure yum, also known as 'oishii,'
Article content
Article content
A buff mix of soba noodles, carrots, cabbage, sesame seeds and bite-sized chicken morsels in sauce, this substantive box of delicious will fill you up pretty fast. Standard yet excellent fare — just make sure and eat it while it's hot. A promising start, let's move on.
Article content
Dragon Ball from Sushi, Tokyo Noodle House (Booth 13, 4 tickets)
Article content
Not so much next door as continuing one giant booth, these deep-friend, decent-sized balls are even better than they look, a textural explosion of crunchy, chewy and just a little bit fiery via the spicy mayo criss-crossed over top. These first two items are seriously enough for a decent lunch alone, but…
Article content
Flamed Salmon Nigiri, Takopo (Booth 3, 4 tickets)
Article content
Well, here's the best-tasting thing I've had so far at ToE: salmon on steamed rice with an incredible mayo sauce on top. Each piece is hand-flamed, so you get a little pyro show as well. But once you put it in your mouth — bam — smoky, salty as the shimmering sea and almost dessert gooey. I found myself talking to my food, thanking it for its service like Mari Kondo or, really, just experiencing a general, Buddhist sort of gratitude which extended to all the hardworking people around the festival making this sensual wonderland happen. Seriously, this nigiri is that good! Doesn't hurt that it looks like bacon.
Article content
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Forward
2 hours ago
- Japan Forward
Kokuho and the Price of Greatness in the World of Kabuki
When we think of summer movies, we normally think of action extravaganzas with big-name stars or animated features to appeal to children. However, as of July 6, the box office leader in Japan was Kokuho ("National Treasure"), a movie set in the world of kabuki. Since its release on June 6, it has been seen by well over 2.5 million moviegoers. It has also generated cumulative box office revenue of nearly ¥4.5 billion JPY ($28.6 million USD). In fact, it is the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film so far this year. Kokuho is a complex story whose central character is Kikuo Tachibana (Ryo Yoshizawa), the son of a Nagasaki yakuza whose father was assassinated by a rival gang when he was only 14. The boy was taken in by a famous Osaka kabuki actor named Hanjiro Hanai II, played by veteran actor Ken Watanabe, to train alongside his own son, Shunsuke (Ryusei Yokohama), to become an onnagata. Onnagata (also called oyama ) are males who specialize in female kabuki roles. They are not female impersonators, as they do not seek to mimic women. Instead, they aim to symbolically embody feminine grace and style. The onnagata tradition dates back to 1629 when the Tokugawa Shogunate banned women from appearing on stage. To compensate, actors developed a highly stylized approach to portraying female roles. This practice has shaped the aesthetics, principles, and acting styles of onnagata over the centuries. In the Edo period (1600-1868), the world of kabuki was highly hierarchical, reflecting the general social structure. Professional acting families came to claim certain roles as their own. Shunsuke is an accomplished onnagata and is expected to be named his father's successor. However, Kikuo is by far the more innately talented, and Hanjiro decides to name him as his successor. The two boys have been brought up more or less as siblings, and their rivalry is emotionally complex. In the end, it is Kikuo who becomes the supreme onnagata, a national treasure. But to reach that pinnacle, he has sacrificed his family, friends, patrons, and even his own identity for the sake of his art. Perhaps it was less a case of will than fate. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Akutagawa Prize-winning author Shuichi Yoshida. A native of Nagasaki, his stories, some of which have been translated into English, are often set in that area. While researching Kokuho , Yoshida immersed himself in the way of kabuki, and the two main actors trained with kabuki veterans for over a year. Many kabuki actors have praised both the novel and the movie for their authenticity. The director is Lee Sang-il, born in 1974 in Niigata Prefecture. He previously directed several acclaimed movies, including Hula Girls (2006), which was a big hit, and the 2010 crime noir film Akunin ("Villian"), based on another Yoshida novel. Besides fine acting, the movie offers dazzling photography that captures the beauty of the gorgeous costumes and elegant dances, as well as the nuances of the performances. The cinematographer is Tunisia-born Sofian El Fani, whose credits include the 2013 film Blue is the Warmest Color ( La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 ) and Timbuktu (2014). Poster for the film Kokuho©Shuichi Yoshida / Asahi Shimbun Publications ©2025 Kokuho Film Production Committee In some ways, Kokuho bears comparison to the famous 1993 China-Hong Kong film Farewell My Concubine , directed by Chen Kaige, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993. Both movies span a half-century of modern history, centering on the love-hate relationship between two male actors and the blurred lines between the mundane world and life on stage. It is also interesting that in the 1939 film Zangiku Monogatari ("Story of the Last Chrysanthemum"), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, the central character is another onnagata. He is the adopted son of a kabuki master named Kikunosuke. In fact, prior to the 1920s, Japanese filmmakers had followed the kabuki convention of using onnagata. At first, the connection between kabuki and the yakuza might seem farfetched. However, during the Edo period, both the yakuza and kabuki performers were considered beyond the pale. In fact, kabuki actors were considered outcasts ( kawaramono ) who were not permitted surnames and were categorized as hinin (non-persons). Theaters were geographically isolated from city centers and located near the pleasure quarters. The government regularly issued sumptuary edicts regulating costumes and even dictating which colors could be used. Kabuki began as a kind of variety show staged by itinerant entertainers. Even after it became an incredibly popular and sophisticated dramatic form performed in specialized theaters, it retained its spirit of rebellion. In kabuki, the bizarre, shocking, sensual, and erotic have always been prized. The results frequently met with the wrath of censors. In many cases, dramatic tension was created by emphasizing conflict between Confucian values such as duty, honor, and filial piety in conflict with human passions. Not surprisingly, like the Noh theater that predated it, Buddhist themes of mujo (impermanence of all things) were also prevalent This is reflected in the kabuki performances in Kokuho . For example, Kikuo and Shunsuke perform the dance Ninin Dojoji together, which is based on a famous Noh play. In the origin story, a jealous woman turns herself into a giant snake, which wraps itself around the temple bell in which her fickle priest-lover has hidden himself. The heat of her jealous passion burns him to death. In their final joint appearance on stage, Kikuo and Shunsuke perform the masterpiece Sonezaki Shinju ("Love Suicide at Sonezaki"). Sonezaki Shinju was originally a Bunraku puppet play written by the famous playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. First performed in Osaka in 1703, one month after the actual suicide on which the play was based, the sensational play sparked a wave of love suicides ( shinju ), which brought a crackdown from the Shogunate. Nonetheless, this moving drama enjoyed a great reputation. In fact, it started the sewamono genre of contemporary plays, which dealt with commoners. Although it was revised into kabuki form, the play was seldom performed before World War II. It was revived in 1953. Still from the film Kokuho©Shuichi Yoshida / Asahi Shimbun Publications ©2025 Kokuho Film Production Committee Sonezaki Shinju tells the tale of Tokubei, an assistant at a soy sauce store who has been swindled out of his master's money, and the prostitute Ohatsu who loves him. The scene in which the lovers depart on their final journey together is extremely moving. In fact, the specter of death runs throughout Kokuho . During the opening sequence, a New Year's party at a fancy restaurant in Nagasaki hosted by the Tachibana-gumi is suddenly invaded by their enemies. Kikuo watches in horror as his father is murdered in a rock garden, with snow falling around them. Before being mortally wounded, his father, Kengoro Tachibana, defiantly pulls down the shoulder of his kimono to reveal the tattoo of a mimizuku owl. He then turns in Kikuo's direction and shouts, "Watch this well!" This snowy scene becomes indelibly embedded in Kikuo's memory. After the murder, Kikuo has the same kind of tattoo emblazoned on his back. He, too, has symbolically committed himself to the world of darkness. The finale of the movie features Kikuo performing the dance Sagimusume ("The Heron Maiden"), considered one of the most challenging kabuki dances. The dance involves several transformations through costume changes. As the performance unfolds, the mood gradually darkens. An initially innocent young girl becomes a slave to the passions of love, desire, and betrayal — until she ultimately finds herself literally tormented in hell. She dances frantically to stay alive, but in the end, amidst falling snow, she succumbs, collapsing in death. Only the most accomplished onnagata dare perform Sagimusume , as it takes the performer to the boundary of the realm of the "other world" — where ultimate beauty resides beyond the reality we know in our daily lives. Kokuho is a fascinating movie. And its success shows that the Japanese people still appreciate their traditional culture. Foreigners should, too. Author: John Carroll
Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Toronto Sun
REVIEW: 'Smurfs' get surreal, which might be lost on the kids
Published Jul 19, 2025 • 4 minute read No Name (James Corden) and Smurfette (Rihanna) in "Smurfs." Photo by Paramount Animation / Paramount Animation Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. The biggest surprise about the new 'Smurfs' movie was the smattering of applause that bubbled forth in the darkness of a recent, kid-friendly preview screening as the credits began to roll. But the animated film – a complicated portal-hopping adventure set in the (groan) multiverse that also incorporates a smattering of live action, mostly scenery and no actors – does have its moments. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account For instance, I briefly smiled when the titular blue 'rat-monkeys,' as the film's bad guy calls these troll-like imps, dimension-hop from one world to the next in an effort to save all that is good from the evil twin wizards Gargamel and Razamel (voice of JP Karliak). Each dimension is rendered, cleverly, in a distinct style of animation: stop-motion clay, a child's crayon drawing, 1970s-era 8-bit video graphics, subtitled Japanese anime and, for reasons I don't fully understand, one surreal undersea vignette featuring a talking tardigrade – a teensy creature that looks like a bug in a fat suit – voiced by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. The surprise is not that anyone liked the film. There's no accounting for taste, especially when it comes to offbeat fare like the Smurfs, an intellectual property that has it roots in Belgium, where, in 1958, comic artist Pierre Culliford, working under the pseudonym Peyo, created them as Les Schtroumpfs, but that the robust clapping seems to have come almost entirely from grown-ups. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. During the movie, their young charges appeared to fidget and shift impatiently, greeting their parents' ovation by sitting on their hands or, more likely, using them to scratch their heads in confusion. The reaction from the children in the crowd seemed to echo the closing words of Rihanna, who as the character Smurfette, articulates what I imagine more than a few in the theatre may have been thinking: 'Don't crunch our brains so much!' The script by Pam Brady (a 'South Park' producer and writer of the R-rated films 'South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut' and 'Team America: World Police') is all over the map, sometimes quite literally. Director Chris Miller ('Puss in Boots') opens the action amid the mushroom-shaped houses of Smurf Village before switching to Paris – then the Australian Outback, Munich and points beyond. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It begins by presenting a bit of lore that is easily the most unsettling thing about Smurfdom: the fact that Smurfette, the lone female among a host of males, was created from clay by the evil wizards specifically to lure the Smurfs into their clutches. More tedious scene-setting follows. Smurfette explains that all Smurfs, like Snow White's dwarfs, are named for character attributes: Hefty, Lazy, Handy, Grouchy, etc. All Smurfs, that is, except Smurfette – she's just a girl, it's implied, isn't that enough? – and one called No Name (James Corden), who hasn't yet found his thing, although he aspires to become a practitioner of the magic arts. No Name's search for identity is really what propels this overly busy story forward, in an otherwise perfunctory plot about good vs. evil that gets underway after Smurf patriarch Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is kidnapped by the wizards' factotum, Joel (Dan Levy). This precipitates a delegation of Smurfs to go on a quest, seeking help from someone named Ken – whoever and wherever he may be – as Papa urged them to do just before he got sucked into a black hole-like vortex in the sky. Other portals include the horn of a gramophone. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Yes, the story is hard to follow, and not just for youngsters. (I would urge you not to try.) It involves appearances by a Parisian neighbourhood watch group run by – well whaddya know? – a second female Smurf, called Moxie (Sandra Oh); a hairball-looking thing with the flatulent-sounding moniker of Mama Poot (Natasha Lyonne); and a magical talking book who goes by Jaunty (Amy Sedaris). Each of these characters has more or less zilch to do with the predictable message of the story, which is, as spelled out by Smurfette to No Name: 'You've got a lot more magic in you than you think. You've just got to let it out.' The more interesting question is 'Who is 'Smurfs' actually playing to?' On the one hand, its predictable reliance on naughty wordplay, inspired by the seemingly limitless meanings of the words 'smurf' and 'smurfy' (e.g., 'I think I smurfed my pants') would seem to suggest grade school. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. On the other hand, the movie really leans into the self-referential absurdism. After a scene featuring No Name riding in the pouch of a bouncing CGI mama kangaroo as Smurfette sings to him, 'Don't ever give up,' No Name breaks the fourth wall by saying out loud what the rest of us are thinking: 'That part with the kangaroo was a little weird.' True, but never quite weird enough. 'Smurfs' may be all over the multiverse, but it doesn't land anywhere worth writing home about. – – – Two stars. Rated PG. At theatres. Contains action, coarse language and some rude humour. 89 minutes. Rating guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time. MMA World Toronto & GTA Celebrity Tennis
CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
Edmonton celebrates the weekend with The Weeknd and more
The festival city will continue living up to its name this weekend with the return of some of Edmonton's most popular events. It's a sta weekend, too, with none other than Canadian R&B artist The Weeknd coming to Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday. But if you don't have your tickets for that, here are some more events to check out in the next couple of days. Taste of Edmonton A family enjoying treats at Taste of Edmonton on Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Matt Marshall/CTV News Edmonton) Thursday saw the start of Taste of Edmonton, a city staple that has restaurants share their culinary culture outdoors at the Sir Winston Churchill Square. The event runs until July 27 and features free live performances with Canadian artists throughout the event. KDays midway exhibition set up 2025 Crews on July 17, 2025, build a ferris wheel for Edmonton's KDays. (Connor Hogg / CTV News Edmonton) Friday is also the beginning of KDays at the Edmonton Expo Centre. KDays is a 10-day-long festival featuring rides, deep fried treats, rodeos and more. KDays is more than 130 years old and attracted a lineup of notable performers this year, like 98 Degrees and Marianas Trench. The Lion King Musical The Lion King Musical will return to Edmonton for three weeks in July 2025. (Broadway Across Canada) Disney's The Lion King continues its shows at the Northern Alberta Jubilee auditorium this weekend. The production is North America' longest-running and most-attended Broadway tour, and it's in Edmonton until July 27. Markets and more If you're looking for a more relaxed (or cheaper) experience, Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse is running Chalk It Up, a free event where attendees can watch chalk artistry, eat food, peruse an artisan market and more. People riding e-scooters and e-bikes in Edmonton on July 5, 2025 The Street Sparks micro-mobility event in Edmonton on July 5, 2025. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton) There's also a family-friendly e-bike and e-scooter event, Street Sparks, happening Saturday that lets people test ride devices. Street Sparks will include free workshops, a group pathway tour led by experts, food trucks, music, a kid's zone and more. Everything is free of charge. More Edmonton events can be found on the Explore Edmonton website.
