Namba Ramen & Sushi While so many of the other Asian restaurants in town hand you a 40-page fusion menu of Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Korean, Namba has simplified things down to really good ramen, really good sushi, and not much else. A Japanese-trained sushi chef, Namba's Pitak Hermkhunthod takes pride in his work, importing handmade...

Our food and wine editor makes her annual picks. BY DOROTHEA HUNTER SÖNNE   After another year of dining, drinking and dining some more—springing out of bed at 5 a.m. with the pros and cons of a particular place weighing heavy on my brain—I’ve come up with my annual list of where...

Our food editor selects the best dishes in Southwest Florida. BY DOROTHEA HUNTER SÖNNE   Even though his family ran a restaurant in his native Thailand, it took a trip to Japan to make Pitak “Koko” Hermkhunthod want to pursue that line of work. After five years training in the island...

Growing up in Thailand, Pitak “Koko” Hermkhunthod wasn’t trained to be a chef. Even though his parents owned a restaurant and his grandmother was a stellar home cook, they wanted more for him. Koko became an electrical engineer, but a trip to Japan at age 22 opened his eyes. “I...