Customer Reviews

Japanese Cooking The Traditions Techniques Ingredients and Recipes

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Japanese food is one of my favorite culinary traditions. However, where I live it is very hard to find a good authentic Japanese restaurant, and the ones that can be found tend to be overpriced. This cookbook serves the purpose of being a great introduction to the Japanese culinary techniques and recipes. The book is very detailed, and it's almost a textbook on Japanese cooking. The large introductory section gives a detailed account of all the main ingredients, cooking styles, and specialty dishes and utensils that are associated with Japanese cuisine. many of these are not readily accessible in a typical western kitchen, and you may find yourself shopping in specialty ethnic food stores or online in order to obtain the appropriate utensils or ingredients. Nonetheless, if you are willing to invest time and effort the rewards of making your own Japanese-style dish are immeasurable. You are most likely not going to have a total success with every dish from the get go, especially with some of the more demanding recipes, but with time and patience you will be able to master most of them. This cookbook is extremely detailed and informative. It also includes many large, clear pictures of the dishes that you are making, and these will be particularly useful in giving you the idea of what you are aiming for. Book's large format is a great help in the kitchen, as it is easy to follow the directions directly while in the process of cooking. overall, this is truly a great cookbook and it's one of my all time favorites.

Japanese food is one of my favorite culinary traditions. However, where I live it is very hard to find a good authentic Japanese restaurant, and the ones that can be found tend to be overpriced. This cookbook serves the purpose of being a great introduction to the Japanese culinary techniques and recipes. The book is very detailed, and it's almost a textbook on Japanese cooking. The large introductory section gives a detailed account of all the main ingredients, cooking styles, and specialty dishes and utensils that are associated with Japanese cuisine. many of these are not readily accessible in a typical western kitchen, and you may find yourself shopping in specialty ethnic food stores or online in order to obtain the appropriate utensils or ingredients. Nonetheless, if you are willing to invest time and effort the rewards of making your own Japanese-style dish are immeasurable. You are most likely not going to have a total success with every dish from the get go, especially with some of the more demanding recipes, but with time and patience you will be able to master most of them. This cookbook is extremely detailed and informative. It also includes many large, clear pictures of the dishes that you are making, and these will be particularly useful in giving you the idea of what you are aiming for. Book's large format is a great help in the kitchen, as it is easy to follow the directions directly while in the process of cooking. overall, this is truly a great cookbook and it's one of my all time favorites.

I found this book after I got home from living in Japan. I wish I had had it then!! It does a great job of explaining history, culture, etiquette, tools and ingredients of Japanese cooking. As a representative of the Japanese Exchange & Teaching (JET) Alumni Association of Wisconsin, I highly recommend this book to all the new JETs that are moving to Japan. It will make stocking your kitchen & fridge much easier. Recipes are great.

You can get very good basic Japanese recipes from this book. I really like the miso soup recipe and the okonomiyaki recipe. The first half of the book is devoted to the concepts of Japanese cooking and does a good job of explaining the effect the different seasons and regions have on the cuisine. But I bought the book a second time (lost the first copy) for the okonimiyaki (it's sort of like a cabbage pancake) recipe. It's easy and cheap and tasty and perfect for entertaining.

I found this book on the remainder table at a local bookstore. There's no excuse for that! Seriously, this book is far better than it has any right to be at that price. The first half is the most detailed and helpful explanation I've ever seen of how to select, store, and prepare a wide assortment of Japanese ingredients that can be unfamiliar to Western cooks. The second half is full of good-looking, tasty, unintimidating recipes. When I went through marking the pages with recipes I wanted to discuss in my classes, this book ended up with far and away the most stickies. (Full disclosure: I've semiprofessionally taught Japanese cooking classes.)

The author is wonderful too - Emi Kazuko is referenced in the acknowledgements of several of my other English-language Japanese and Asian cookbooks, and she was on the editorial staff behind some of the Japanese-language cookbooks too. I don't know whether she's bilingual or has a translator, but either way, it doesn't get any more authentic these days. She's written a lot of other cookbooks in both languages that I'd love to find somewhere that I can browse through them...

This is a great cook book. I have made many of the dishes in it, and everyone rants about how good the food is. The miso soup recipe in particular is fantastic, and I'm regularly asked to make it for the people in my house. I would definitely buy this book again.

I love this book, and still use recipes from/based on it from time to time. The best things about this book are how it will introduce various base ingredients and even some Japanese food cluture. Using this book you can make more things from scratch, and that's always better than something from a bottle or can imported or not. The color photos are so beautiful it makes a great coffee table book if you give this to someone that doesn't cook as well. ;)

[Review written in May 2005]

I read this book several years ago, when I first bought it. I remember liking it at the time, although I wasn't overly impressed with it's breadth and depth on any given area or topic.

In any case, this book came to mind because this past weekend I grabbed a dozen oysters and 2 lbs of littleneck clams on a whim from a local book store. The oysters I just shucked and ate with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of CPEVO. As for the clams ... rather than making my usual pasta with fresh white clam sauce, I decided to cruise around in my library for different things to do with them. While browsing, I happened upon a recipe by Kazuko ... which is essentially a cold salad of baby clams (steamed 5 mins & de-shelled), seaweed and wilted scallions, and dressed with a lightly sweetened sauce of white miso paste, English mustard, sake, a touch of sugar, and rice vinegar (I can post specifics for anyone who's interested). I had everything I needed already on hand, so I went for it. Although the recipe itself wasn't laid out in the clearest and most efficient/logical manner, the end result was outstanding, and will doubtless become part of my semi-regular repitoire (because clams are in my blood and are a local specialty).

I'll revise my review next time with more details on the book, but for now I'll give it the thumbs up. There's a lot of crap out there, and this appears to be one of the ones that's somewhat better than most. Hardly stellar, but still decent.

One thing I do recall the book being anemic on is sashimi and sushi techniques ... and buying/handling/serving raw fish in particular. There's a LOT more to safety, regarding sushi, than 99% of people realize, and this book seems (if I recall) to take a rather lax attitude to all the fine points and techniques required to select, prepare and serve raw fish safely and correctly ... he just jumps right into how to prepare sushi rice and slice fish. WRONG ! There is LOTS and LOTS more information you need to know before you even get to that stage ... that's why sushi chefs train for YEARS to learn their craft, and that's why you should avoid faux sushi prepared by the local non-japanese goomba at your local supermarket.

My friend bought this book for me a few years back at a store and it was on the sale table. It has been one of the most informative books I have ever read about Japanese cooking. It even explains traditions and such. I Love this book... It will never be far from my sight.

This is a great book for Japanese recipes because you can SEE the ingredients from the photos and see what the recipes will look like when they are prepared. Makes your mouth water! Lots of good background info on Japanese cooking too. A delight.