Customer Reviews

The Food of Japan: Authentic Recipes from the Land of the Rising Sun (Periplus World Cookbooks)

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Part of the Periplus series on Pacific Rim cooking, this slim volume features a choice selection of recipes ranging from homey classics like Ochazuke (rice with green tea) to elegant Red Snapper with Sea Urchin Threads. The food styling is gorgeous, though something few of us would be willing to spend the hours to accomplish at home. Carve each piece of potato into a 3D hexagon? I think not.

And, despite an extensive pictorial glossary, many recipes call for ingredients that are not available in Japanese markets in the United States, and are not defined anywhere in the book. Ohba leaf, anyone, or Hime radish? The book's editors in Asia are obviously out of touch with American readers.

Elegant and simple recipes for traditional and popular japanesedishes. Easy format for beginners. Marvelously illustrated with colorphotographs. Includes dictionary of japanese cooking terms first and them proceeds with recipes. Priced reasonably. This is one of a series on international cooking. END

Takayuki Kosaki and Walter Wagner have published two books that are almost exactly the same. In 1996, The Food of Japan: Authentic Recipes from the Land of the Rising Sun appeared and, 8 years later, in 2004, they published Authentic Recipes From Japan. I should hasten to add, that the latter is not merely the first book published under a different name. The supplementary content in the newer version is a bit more in depth and many of the recipes in each book, while being for the same basic dish, are not exactly the same. Indeed, one would likely not notice the similarities in the two books were it not for the identical photographs. Each book does a few things better than the other but the sum total of the differences is not enough to warrant purchasing both. I ended up buying both before being aware of the similarities and I feel a little cheated. The newer book is part of a 'Authentic recipes from ... ' series and I own several, all of which are very good, while the earlier book also appears to be part of a 'The Food of ...' series. I only own the Japanese title from this set but I do not plan to buy anymore in thus series unless I can first be satisfied that I am not going to be buying just a slightly different version of a book I already own in the 'Authentic Recipes' group.

The foregoing notwithstanding, I should note that both books are very nicely done and would each be great for both the novice and the collector. My only advice is that, if you own one then don't buy the other and, if you own neither, the newer version, 'Authentic recipes from Japan' is probably the better buy.