In The Middle (Meta)

Sounds yummy! I was sure I was very clever by looking at the middle letters first, but when LENC didn't ring any bells, I figured I'd better go back to the basics. Thanks for the puzzle!

Nice idea, Ben. And awesome construction with the Japanese flag and hidden cities... and I learned a few things about the geography and regional cuisine of Japan. ;)

What the heck is with the picture of the Arch de Triumphe?????

Got Tokyo Rose right away but took me about two hours later to get Kobe Bryant.

Did you know that there's an author named Marilyn Osaka who wrote a book called "Mango Kitty". 10 minutes after Kobe Bryant and realizing I was just going to have to google every feasible clue I google Naomi Osaka (who admittedly is almost certainly much more reasonably a house-hold name to just about everyone on the planet but me).

Had the right idea from the beginning but took a wrong turn! Thanks

Nice one, thank you Ben! The Japanese cities stuck right out to me but I'm an idiot and never looked for them to be alternate answers. Thankful for the nudges!

Oy. Saw the cities right away, but couldn't make anything of it. Needed the nudges. Should have seen the mechanism, because I initially put TOKYO in for SALLY. Oh well -- thanks for the puzzle, Ben!

Wow!! What a meta. I needed that last nudge - it didn't occur to me that there could be alternate answers for all those cities. But SALLY/TOKYO ROSE should have been screaming at me. Thank the interwebgods for wikipedia disambiguation pages LOL. Well done, Ben! (as opposed to RARE, my not at all optimistic first submission based on a red center. I knew that couldn't be the name of a dish.)

Well I solved it using the nudges, and I needed them all. I had all the rest of course including the villainous herrings I am a little distressed with myself because I distinctly remember thinking to myself 'AXIS SALLY, wow who knew that one, I only knew TOKYO ROSE?' Hopefully that would have tipped me ot the way across the moat, and if not, when I finally got my head out of my stomach and looked for a different KOBE that should have done it. Luckily OSAKA shows up in plenty of puzzles, btu I have to tell you, I got the last letter only by backsolving and looking for what might fit as an alternate since I needed an I. A track on an album by an artist I doubt I have ever hears (I got ICU only with the crosses) was never going to register. So I am afraid I will have to just float around the moat, not having been able to cross. I guess I am going ot have to get cleverer in my construction if I am going to keep pace with Ben and Phil

So should not have needed those nudges… I knew Osaka was a tennis player and Tokyo Rose is what came to mind immediately from the 20A clue. Kobe should have come to me too, though I would not have known his team, just basketball. Great fun, even using the nudges.

Saw the cities but that's about it -- definitely needed those nudges! I also misunderstood the meta prompt, thinking the region wasn't to be found in Japan -- now I realize it meant just that it's not in the middle of it. But I did get something right! That I would need google to confirm! Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!

Needed to google the phoebe clue, but on the other hand the way it was written it seemed like a pretty logical place to find that fourth themer so great job!

Just got around to it again. We were on the right track, but couldn't find the alternate clue for Kyoto until doing more googling. The nudges confirmed that we were on the right track.