Blending Nikka

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Equal parts

Nose: Balanced as expected with all three components registering. The (toasted) oak is in the lead with mild, briny peat swirling around, and light notes of toffee and raisins below it all. The oak expands as it sits. With a few drops of water the toffee comes to the top.

Palate: Saltier with some oak grip as I swallow. The sherry comes out a little more as it sits and then more so with water.

Finish: Long. Salty here too. As on the nose and palate with water.

Comments: This is rather nice, especially with water; neat it’s the oak that does most of the talking.

50% Sherry & Sweet, 25% Woody & Vanillic, 25% Peaty & Salty

Nose: The oak is the top note here too even as the sweeter sherry notes are more emphasized. The peat moves to the bottom and registers more in a rubber gasket/medicine bottle kind of vein. Water pushes the oak back here too but it also pushes the peat back, letting the sherry come fully to the fore: raisins, toffee, plum sauce.

Palate: Essentially a “darker”, richer version of the previous. More salt here with water and some beef stock as well.

Finish: Long. Less salt and less oak than in the previous; the sherry does most of the talking here; the peat emerges at the end. More balance with water.

Comments: You’ll never believe it but it’s just like the previous but with more sherry influence!

50% Peaty & Salty, 25% Woody & Vanillic, 25% Sherry & Sweet

Nose: The oak is barely palpable at first here; instead it’s the peat and salt that take turns in the lead. Sweeter notes lurk below. After a bit biscuity notes emerge and merge nicely with the peat and salt. Richer and rounder with a few drops of water.

Palate: More sherry influence here but it’s generally as advertised by the nose, with not very much oak bite. The smoke expands as it sits and a little more oak pops out as well. Sweeter with water.

Finish: Long. The salt has the last word as the peat fades. Sweeter with time. Water pushes the salt back.

Comments: Great balance in this one as the oak is kept in check. Reminds me of Talisker and Clynelish in some ways.

Overall Comments: I would happily purchase bottles of all these variations but the third is easily the best of the three and I’m tempted to say it’s better than any of the three on their own. Still more experimentation is needed and will be carried out. In the interests of science, of course.

Matamaal V (Gurgaon, August 2026)

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We first ate at Matamaal, the premier Kashmiri restaurant in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region), back in January 2023. This was when there was but the one location, in the City Court Mall in Sikanderpur/Gurgaon. We liked that meal so much that for a while I/we ate there on every subsequent trip (in March 2024 and in December 2024 and March 2025). As I said in my last report on a meal at Matamaal, I’m not sure when their branches—in Delhi and Noida in the NCR and also in Pune—opened. I’ve heard some mixed reports of the Noida location but I’ve still not been to it or any of the others. I think they might be franchisee-run, not operated by the owners of the original—this because the restaurant’s website seems to invite franchise partners. I can tell you though that the food at the original is still as good as it was on our first visit in 2023. This judgment is brought to you from a dinner eaten there this past August. Here’s a quick look at it. Continue reading →

At Soondae Town in Sillim-dong (Seoul, May 2026)

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We are a family of soondae fans, the rest of us having acquired the taste for it from the missus. The classic sliced soondae with salt and spicy fish sauce is our favourite way to eat it (in Seoul we particularly recommend the version of this at Gwanghwamun Gukbap). But we like it in all its forms. And so when we heard that the neighbourhood of Sillim-dong has a place called Soondae Town, a building filled with vendors who specialize not just in soondae, but particularly in soondae bokkeum, or stir-fried soondae, we knew we had to eat there. We had a packed five weeks on our program in Seoul, however, and Sillim-dong is a bit of a haul from where we were putting up. And so, it wasn’t until the very end that we managed to finally make it to Soondae Town. The boys didn’t make it with us to this meal but we did take two soondae-loving students along with us. Here’s how the meal went. Continue reading →

Godavari, Fall 2026 (Eden Prairie, MN)

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A number of my readers have written in over the past few years to ask if I’m ever going to update my Twin Cities South Asian Restaurant Rankings, the first version of which I’d posted in 2020, followed by updates in 2021 and 2022. The answer, unfortunately, is that I’m not likely to do anytime soon. The reason for that is not a lowered opinion of the Twin Cities South Asian restaurant scene in the intervening years. I’d begun the rankings precisely because that scene had improved so much in the years leading into the pandemic, with the opening of more and more restaurants aimed at Indian diners in the suburbs; and I have no reason to believe that quality has dipped since 2022. It’s just that since 2022 I have begun to go back to Delhi (and elsewhere in India) several times a year—and will be doing so for the foreseeable future. Between all the eating out while I’m there and the mostly Indian cooking I do when I’m home, going out to eat at Indian restaurants more than occasionally in Minnesota is not really a priority. But I have been eating at Godavari—the restaurant that was atop my rankings in 2020, 2021 and 2022—once every year, as I have an annual appointment down the road from them in Eden Prairie. Last year I was there on a Friday and ate from their rather large weekend lunch buffet. This year I was there mid-week. There is no buffet offered Monday through Thursday but you can on those days get their lunch thali. I was very happy to do so—here’s a quick look at it. Continue reading →

Yoichi “Sherry & Sweet”

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Here is the third of the three NAS Yoichi malts that I purchased at the distillery. Together with the previously reviewed Woody & Vanillic and the Peaty & Salty, this Sherry & Sweet is one of three forms of Yoichi’s distillate that are used in Nikka’s blends. I rather liked the other two despite their lack of age and am curious to see what I make of this one. Let’s get right to it.

Yoichi “Sherry & Sweet” (55%; from my own bottle)

Nose: There’s some young oak but there’s also a lot of raisiny sherry. On the second sniff there’s some pencil lead and some dried apricot and some orange peel. A few drops of water push the oak and pencil lead back and pull out notes of toffee and cream.

Palate: Comes in with the raisins and the dried apricot and orange peel leading the way; a bit of tannic bite as I swallow. Very approachable at full strength; rich texture. More citrus with water and the tannic note disappears. Continue reading →

The Fusion Naga (Delhi, August 2026)

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I said I’d have a review of a South Indian restaurant in Gurgaon this weekend but instead let’s go back to Humayunpur for another Naga meal. I was last seen there eating a thali at Farmer’s Kitchen. That was an excellent, if unplanned meal—by which I mean, that I’d gone with a plan to eat at a Manipuri place that turned out to be experiencing some monsoon-related problems (read: rain coming through the roof). This meal at The Fusion Naga was planned and was also excellent. This is basically the situation when you eat in a restaurant in Humayunpur: you have to try very hard to have a bad meal. Continue reading →

Myeondong Sejong Ganjang Gejang (Seoul, June 2026)

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I am beginning to approach the end of my reports from our time in Seoul this spring. By which I mean that I think I now have less than 10 reports to go. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be able to get them all done before the end of the month. Oh, who am I kidding? Anyway, here’s a quick look at a lunch we ate in early-June, just a few days before our stay came to an end. It features one of our very favourite Korean delicacies: ganjang gejang or soy-marinated crab. We’d been talking about eating it at a famous old ganjang gejang place in Anguk but somehow never got around to it. With time and opportunities running out, we ended up just visiting a place in Myeongdong that we were near for other reasons toward the end of the trip. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →

Demi III (Minneapolis)

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Demi opened in Minneapolis in 2019. We ate there for the first time, not too long after, in January 2020. That meal didn’t blow us away but we liked it enough to say that we might make it an annual indulgence. But then some stuff happened in the world and we didn’t go out to eat very much for the next two years. When we did start going out to eat again they’d fallen off our radar a little bit. And so we didn’t get back there till the fall of 2022. Our response to that meal was similar to our response to the first: everything looked exquisite, a number of dishes were very good to excellent, but the whole didn’t quite add up to the sum of the parts. We left that meal thinking we’d be back two years later. Instead, it’s been four (almost exactly four, as it turns out). Did the third time finally deliver a meal that blew us away? Read on to find out. Continue reading →

Ikk Panjab (Gurgaon, July 2026)

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Ikk Panjab first opened in Rajouri Garden, a major Punjabi enclave in West Delhi, in 2018. Since then a number of shiny branches have opened all over the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) as well as in Chandigarh. I have been vaguely intrigued for some time by their proffer—the food of undivided Punjab—but not enough to ever make the trek from Gurgaon to Delhi. However, a location opened last year in Golf Avenue 42, an incredibly garish commercial complex not too far from my parents’ place in Gurgaon. And so on this most recent trip, I descended on it with my nephews, both of whom are aficionados of Punjabi food. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →

Yoichi “Peaty & Salty”

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I’ve previously reviewed a whisky from Yoichi called “Peaty & Salty” but this is not a re-review or a review of another iteration of that one. Or maybe it is a review of another iteration. That previous review was of a 12 yo “Peaty & Salty” from what Nikka then called their Key Malts—the component malts that were used to compose their blends. Stocks of aged whisky in Japan dropped dramatically after that and age statements disappeared from almost all official distillery releases (Yoichi’s classic 15 yo is yet to be revived). As to whether the current Yoichi component malts being sold at the distillery (which is where I acquired a set of three this past June) is otherwise made just as the 12 yo used to be, I don’t know. And, of course, I do not know how old this current release is. I can say that I rather liked the current NAS “Woody & Vanillic” (which I reviewed last week). And having liked the 12 yo incarnation of “Peaty & Salty” a lot back in 2019 (my review is here), I have high hopes for this one as well. Let’s see if they’re repaid in kind. Continue reading →

Farmer’s Kitchen (Delhi, July 2026)

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Let’s stay in Humayunpur. As I noted in my report on an excellent Manipuri lunch at Chak Khum on Thursday, more than half of my meals out on my two-week trip to Delhi/Gurgaon in late-July/early-August were eaten in Humayunpur. Humayunpur, as those who read my Delhi reports should know by now, is one of the major centers of Northeast Indian life in the city and its streets are lined by an ever-expanding number of restaurants from those Northeastern states. Some of my favourite places to eat at in Humayunpur serve the foods of Nagaland and it takes a great deal of effort to not just keep going back to Hornbill or Dear Naga or Shilloi (to name only three). But I am determined to eat at as many of the restaurants in Humayunpur as possible, and so on this trip I visited two Naga restaurants I had not previously tried. I have for you today a report on the first of these: Farmer’s Kitchen, a tiny place deep inside Humayunpur that serves Ao Naga food. I ended up here pretty much by chance after the place I had expressly left home to eat at turned out to be closed due to the monsoon rain coming in through the ceiling (!). I am happy to say it was a fabulous meal. Continue reading →

Gyeong Seong (Seoul, May 2026)

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I inch closer and closer to being done with my Seoul restaurant reports from our five week stay there this past spring. There are still a bunch to come after this one but I think I should be able to get them all out by the end of October. It is nice to relive these meals, in a manner of speaking, months later in the process of writing them up. In the case of the meal I am reporting on today, it is one we had tried and failed to eat on three separate occasions, first during our sojourn in Seoul in early 2024 and again earlier on this trip. This was a particularly annoying/amusing situation as of all the Seoul restaurants I’ve yet reported on, it’s the one that’s closest to the place we put up at on these longer trips. It’s literally located at the head of the alley right behind the building. And yet, we’d been rebuffed on every prior attempt to eat there. This is partly because it’s a popular spot for young people and office workers to stop in at on the way home from work; and because on the third occasion we tried eating there right after the lantern festival at the Jogyessa Temple down the street and there were roughly 5000 people waiting (on that occasion we ended up at Chicken House and had a very nice dinner). So, we were very glad that we finally made it in one night not too long before the end of this trip. I am pleased to report that after all the anticipation it wasn’t a letdown. Continue reading →

Chak Khum (Delhi, July 2026)

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Here is one of the backlogged restaurant reports I’d meant to post last week but didn’t end up having the time to get around to. It takes us back to Delhi, but closer in time to the present. After returning to Minnesota in mid-June from my extended sojourn in first Bombay and then Seoul, I remained at home for just over a month. A lot of world cup, a lot of time in my community garden plot, a lot of recharging. And then it was back to Delhi for two weeks to check on my mother. I ate out at my regular clip while there—roughly once every other day. This first report comes from the neighbourhood in South Delhi where I ate most of those meals and my very favourite place in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) to eat: Humayunpur. Four of my seven meals out on this trip were eaten there: two at Naga restaurants and two at Manipuri restaurants. Let’s begin with lunch at the first Manipuri place: Chak Khum. Continue reading →

Gai Noi (Minneapolis)

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The end of the last week and the start of this one have together been a bit of a doozy. A lot of work came due at the same time, some expected, some unexpected, and I just didn’t have the time to sit down and write up the Seoul and Delhi reports I’d meant to put up last Friday and Sunday or the last Bombay report I’d meant to put up yesterday. Clearing my restaurant report backlogs is clearly going to take some time. But let me not fall behind on my Twin Cities reports in the meantime. Today I have a report on a restaurant I’d said last year that I would try to get to this year for sure: Gai Noi. Not only did I in fact get there this year, I went twice. The first was a weekday lunch eaten with a visiting friend back in early July. The second was lunch with the family this past Sunday before a trip to the Guthrie for a performance of Waiting for Godot. I’ll leave my thoughts on the Guthrie’s take on Beckett’s classic for another occasion. Here now is a quick  look at two lunches at Gai Noi, eaten just about three months apart. Continue reading →

Yoichi “Woody & Vanillic”

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Last month’s whisky reviews had a south coast of Islay theme (two Laphroaigs, a Lagavulin, and an Ardbeg). This was not planned. This month’s whisky reviews also have a theme; this time it’s planned. That theme is Yoichi Key Malts. Well, I don’t think these are actually called Key Malts anymore. But let me back up.

Once upon a time Nikka’s Yoichi distillery put out a flagship 15 yo whisky. This was an excellent whisky. At that time Nikka also bottled as distillery exclusives, at both Yoichi and their other distillery, Miyagikyo, the so-called Key Malts. These were 12 years old and comprised the component malts used in the vatting of Nikka’s mainline blends—I reviewed the 12 yo version of the Peaty & Salty back in 2019. The Yoichi 15 was discontinued a while ago, of course, as stocks of aged whisky were depleted. The component malts are still sold at the distillery in 500 ml bottles, but they’ve also lost their age statements and the Key Malts name. Nonetheless, when I was at the Yoichi distillery briefly in June I couldn’t resist buying the set of three Yoichi component malts anyway and I’m happy to say they survived the journey from first Hokkaido to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Minnesota. Starting with the Woody & Vanillic, I’ll be reviewing all three this month. The Peaty & Salty will be next and then the Sherry & Sweet. For my final booze post of the month I’ll post the results of my own blending experiments with these whiskies. I’m going to try them in different ratios and see which I like best. Okay, let’s get the series started! Continue reading →

Bangkok Thai Deli, September 2026 (St. Paul, MN)

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I was startled recently to see that we had not been to Bangkok Thai Deli in over two years. Along with On’s Kitchen, Bangkok Thai Deli had been one of our Thai mainstays in the Cities forever—we’ve been eating there since we arrived in 2007, back when they were still in their original, pokier location. I hasten to add that we did not stop eating there because we stopped liking their food. It’s just that the summer of 2024 is when we first ate at Hot Grainz, and they’ve done such a hoodoo on our palates that it’s been hard to go anywhere else in the Twin Cities for Thai food since then. But a return to Bangkok Thai Deli was long overdue; and so when other family business pulled us not too far from University Avenue last Saturday we decided to combine it with lunch at our old favourite with friends who live in the area. I am very glad to say that the meal did not disappoint. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →

The Bombay Canteen II (Bombay, April 2026)

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I am nearing the end of my restaurant reports from Bombay in April. Only two reports remain, both from high end restaurants. The first features a return to a restaurant I ate at twice on my previous visit to the city: The Bombay Canteen, which ends up reliably every year near the top of lists of the best restaurants in India aimed at people less likely to eat at places like Jai Hind (the location I ate at this time is literally just across the street from the old Kamala Mills complex that houses The Bombay Canteen). We first ate at The Bombay Canteen as a family in January 2024 and then a little later I took a few of my students there for a lunch to celebrate their birthdays.  I wrote both these meals up together in 2024—you can go take a look at it to learn a little more about the story of the restaurant; and also to see what I made of those meals. There were a few students on this version of the program as well whose birthdays fell during our time in the city and so I made The Bombay Canteen the site of the birthday celebrations this time as well. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →