Customer Reviews

The Japanese Kitchen (Non)

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Books that delve into Japanese cuisine beyond the popular restaurant dishes like sushi and miso soup are few and far between. And in that sense, this book does not disappoint.

Shimbo's recipes are a joy, introducing over 200 wonderful dishes from the Japanese culinary repertoire to Western readers. Agedashi tofu (crisp tofu cubes in tempura sauce), negima-nabe (tuna and leek hotpot), multiple variations on fresh ramen and yakitori skewered chicken, the unusual gyuniku no misozuke (miso-marinated steak), usuyaki senbei (homemade rice crackers), mitsumame (chilled gelatin in syrup), along with modern Japanified Western standards like ebifurai (fried shrimp in a crisp breading), omu raisu (rice-filled omelet), and kurimu korokke (creamy croquettes) are all here. Each recipe is prefaced with a tale about its origin or the author's childhood memories, and clear instructions make preparation of "exotic, foreign" specialties easy.

Less successful are some of Shimbo's unique concoctions: soybean hummus (why?), eel burgers, "creamed" soup made of carrots, celery, garlic, miso, and soy milk. But these misfires, thankfully, can be easily overlooked.

Another of the book's strengths is the author's deep investigation into ingredients.

Shimbo, a native of Japan who teaches frequently at major cooking schools in the United States and Europe, took years to write this book, visiting artisanal food producers across Japan to gather first-hand information about how products are grown and manufactured. Her research is a goldmine for devotees of Japanese food. I've been cooking Japanese food for 25+ years, and am Japanese Food Host at BellaOnline.com, yet only from this book, for instance, did I learn that the plant from which konnyaku--a gelatinous cake used in hotpots and simmered dishes--is made, is related to taro! The plant's name is usually translated into English as "devil's tongue root," which doesn't give a clue to what it really is. To anyone familiar with taro through Hawaiian food, Chinese food, or even taro potato chips, a taro connection makes a lot of sense, given konnyaku's typical speckled gray appearance. It was like a light bulb going on for me.

Each ingredient is described thoroughly with "what to look for" and "storage" sections explaining how to choose top-quality ingredients and keep them in peak condition. I'm especially impressed by Shimbo's clarifications of the differences among types of miso, noodles, and sake.

But the book has two real weaknesses: its lack of photographs and its basic disorganization.

Although line drawings illustrate a few unusual ingredients and cooking techniques difficult to explain in words, there are no photographs of finished dishes--a glaring omission for a cuisine that places so much emphasis on presentation. Okay, I can live with that, as some of my favorite older Japanese cookbooks are sparsely illustrated.

What bothers me more is the book's organization--or lack thereof. I've owned this book for a month now, and still can't find my way around or quickly locate particular recipes. The first part of the book contains several sections that intersperse descriptions of ingredients with recipes that use them. The second half follows a more standard cookbook order of Appetizers, Soups, Vegetable Dishes, Sushi, Rice and Noodle Dishes, Main Dishes and Desserts. This places a recipe entitled "Classic Creamy Sesame-Vinegar Dressing with Broccoli" (Shimbo's variation of the traditional spinach in sesame seed dressing) in the ingredients section under "G" for goma, the Japanese word for sesame seeds.

Moreover, due to the book's equally peculiar indexing, this recipe cannot be located by looking up "broccoli, "goma," or even "classic," but is indexed as "creamy sesame-vinegar dressing with broccoli" and "sesame-vinegar dressing, creamy, with broccoli." So, even if you know a recipe's exact title, it often is not listed that way in the index. I find myself frustratingly leafing through the book time and time again to find a recipe I know is hiding somewhere.

Still, the pluses in this book greatly outweigh the minuses. This is one of the best Japanese cookbooks available in English today.

I am an American who lived in Japan for several years. I teach Japanese language at the high school level. I have been cooking some of the Japanese foods that I loved in Tokyo, Odawara, Koenji, Fuchu, and other places, for years. This is the first cookbook I've seen that gives clear instructions on how to prepare these foods and explains the ingrediants so that a gaijin (non-Japanese) can understand and execute. She gives great stories of the foods that add to your understanding. When I get done cooking recipies from this book, my food tastes like the foods I ate in Japan.

I recommed this as the first and primary Japanese cooking book in your kitchen.

This is the pinnacle of Japanese cooking. Here for our kitchen and table comes this expert advice on enjoying entry into this fascinating cuisine.

It is full of tips and advice on ingredients, techniques and preparation of authentic Japanese dishes.

There is task of finding rare ingredients first, from international cuisine section of supermarket or better yet from gourmet store, or mail order source in this book.

Book is void of photos but has fine drawings which aid in prep techniques and ingredients.

Have tried some new eating experiences from this book and have heard raves of diners who enjoyed the likes of: Japanese Stuffed Pancakes (Okonomiyaki); Swordfish in Yuan Style; Chicken Breast Fillets in a Crust of Mung-Bean Noodles.

There is sizeable section on Sushi.

This is THE BOOK to have on Japanese home cooking. 250 wonderful true homestyle recipes - I'm in heaven! Not only are the recipes delicious and instructions precise, Shimbo does a good job explaining WHY certain steps must be taken - these hints are great for making anyone a better cook overall, period. My only slight complaint is the lack of photographs - but I understand the cost would have been prohibitive and would have resulted in less recipes being published, so I can live with the tradeoff. A MUST-HAVE for anyone looking to have DELICIOUS, SIMPLE, and HEALTHY food on your table! Being Asian-American, this book allows me to have comfort food I thought I'd never get again after leaving my mom's house!

Ignore the rabble who say that this book doesn't give you presentation photos. You want that, go buy a picture book. I'll be reading this beauty, which details something lacking in many of the "high gloss" japanese cookbooks: the actual food preperation. Granted, many of the supplies are not easily available outside of the west coast, but it is STILL easily the best book on Japanese cooking I have read. This book actually tells you how to prepare the food, in clear simple, english. Further, the author give copius sections over to explaining what the less familiar ingrediants are, what they are made of and their nutritional value. This book is excellent. AS said before, if you want a picture book instead of a cookbook, then dandy, go elsewhere. If you want a REAL cookbook however, choose this text.

This is my favorite cooking book, for western or japanese food. In terms of being able to produce food that really feels like it came from Japan (as opposed to a trendy Japanese resturant in america) you really cannot do better. Its not the easiest book to work with if you don't have a basic idea of what you are makeing, there are few pictures, but if you just want to recreate "that thing that I ate all the time in Kyoto, with the cold noodles and the brown stuff" it's perfect. Particularly valuable are the discriptions of the cooking tecniques, tools and foods, both as a matter of curiosity and incorperating tecniques into your kitchen. I've learned more about basic cooking from just reading over this book then the Joy ever taught me.

I took this book with me on a year-long stay in Japan. There is literally nothing that I ate there that I couldn't find out about in this book. The lack of photographs is more than made up for by the excellent explanations and technique descriptions. I really appreciate that Ms. Shimbo gives you the Japanese and English names for the necessary ingredients - makes it much easier to shop for them at an Asian market.

Selected and compiled by food writer, consultant, teacher, and Japanese cuisine expert Hiroko Shimbo, The Japanese Kitchen features 250 wonderful recipes drawn from traditional Japanese kitchens. Enhanced descriptions of Japanese ingredients (including where to find them and how to choose them), as well as with helpful illustrations and clear, step-by-step preparational instructions, the recipes range from Ingen no Kurumi-miso-ae (Green Beans in Walnut-Miso Dressing); Shimeji Gohan (Rice with Shimeji Mushrooms); and Buta-miso Ramen (Ramen with Pork-and-Miso Sauce); to Suzuki no Gomamiso-yaki (Broiled Sea Bass with Sesame Seeds); Tori-nabe (Hearty Chicken Hot Pot); and Mushi Chokoreito Keiki (Light and Delightful Steamed Chocolate Cake). Informative and thoroughly "user friendly", The Japanese Kitchen is enthusiastically recommended for inclusion into multi-cultural and ethnic cookbook collections.

This is a terrific book. It is straighforward and pleasing to read, with nicely put together recipes and lots of information about ingredients (and substitutes).

This is not a book to flip open on the coffee table for inspiration as you stare at gorgeous photos of Japanese cuisine. Nope, this is the sort of book you'll dog-ear and spill shoyhu on as you're prepping the shabu shabu Hiroko Shimbo is telling you how to make.

About 250 recipes, several sequences of drawings demonstrating technique, and both traditional and freestyling recipes that seem to have been well tested.

Hiroko Shimbo has given us the English language Bible of Japanese Cookery.

With this book, she has given all readers, a new understanding into the world of Japanese cookery.

Her writing indulges many of the details that are kept fugitive by most cookbook writers.

The recipes could not be more precise, and better tested.

My only complaint - that she has not written books on other cuisines. I can imagine how her precision and exacting manner will make all cookery become better documented.

For me, Japanese cooking was always a mystery, and not much of an interest.

But after I discovered Hiroko and her books, that has happily changed, into a love affair with Japanese cooking.

Buy her two books, and you will begin affecting your life in positive ways, and you will certainly start to love Japanese cookery, and use its simple magic in all you cook.

How could one not celebrate the use of great ingredients, using simple and honest techniques and creating lasting and memorable tastes. It is what is magical about Japanese cuisine and Hiroko is by far the best translator we have. Thanks Hiroko!

Suvir Saran

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