Sitting at the bar in The Pastry War feels like sitting at the table in a Mexican kitchen, with tequila in the turquoise-colored cabinets instead of plates and bowls. Baskets of lemons, limes and ...

One morning in the spring of 2019, I entered a pastry shop in the Ueno train station, in Tokyo. The shop worked cafeteria-style. After taking a tray and tongs at the front, you browsed, plucking ...