Customer Reviews

Japanese Vegetarian Cooking: From Simple Soups to Sushi

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

 

 

I strongly recomend this book not only to those that have always wanted to learn how to cook easy or elaborate japanese recipes, but also to the ones that want to know what is behind the food. And, of course, this book is a trasure for vegetarians and vegans out there, since it does not use any dairy. Every single recipe has an introduction to it that tells the story of it, the tradition, how and when is usually made in Japan. Other than that, the author writes a lot about japanese culture on food, especially vegetarian, of course; she describes a characteristic japanese meal and gives different menus, so we can serve one (or more) ourselves,from soup to salads, from pickles to sushi. The book also contain a very nice glossary of ingredients and tools, making it easy to understand all the recipes. Moreover, there are some addresses for ordering the ingredients through the mail. This book has all it's needed to prepare great japanese food!

I was pleasantly surprised to finally find an Asian vegetarian cookbook that does not contain any fish or poultry ingredients. Most that claim to be vegetarian,aren't. This book is different. Even the recipe for dashi is purely plant based. If you are vegan, the author does note what you can do to alter the recipe as egg is sometimes listed as an ingredient.

The recipes are easy to read and a delight to prepare. One of my favorites is the egg omlet. The flavor is very light, delicate, and slightly sweet. What a change from traditional Western omlets. This is great sliced and sprinkled across rice, rolled up into sushi, added to soups, or just eaten on its own.

If you are looking for a cookbook that provides more of the authentic Asian flavor, this is it. Mirin, sake, soy sauce, and rice vinegar are sauce staples. If your local grocery store does not carry these items, ask them. If they won't, then either order them online or search for an Asian market within driving distance.

It would have been nice if the book displayed the picture on the same page as the recipe itself. Even though there are a limited number of photo pages, there are multiple dishes per page, but I wasn't certain which dish represented which recipe (some were easy to figure out). More pictures would have turned this into a 5 star review.

This is a good cookbook - one I appreciated finding since there aren't many japanese vegetarian cookbooks out there! First, the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 ios because I really like to have more pictures when it comes to ethnic cooking. It not only gets me interested in trying new things but also gives me ideas for presentation. This book only has 8 pages of pictures. But that aside, the recipes are tasty. Some of the ingredients are hard to find (like the specific types of seaweed) but if you have an asian store near you'll find what you need. I've found some things on the internet too (the world at your finger tips!) I recently bought a deep fyer and am looking forward to trying out some of the deep fried tofu recipes. You need to like tofu I think to get the best use out of this book since there is a lot in here. I recommed it though - fun to experiement and try new things.

"Japanese Vegetarian Cooking: From Simple Soups to Sushi" is a fantastic beginners guide. The language is simple, the instructions easy to follow and the ingredients easy to find. Many recipes use Sake, Japanese Mirin wine and varieties of Tofu and Seaweed. These are the most difficult ingredients to locate.

Although the recipes are simple, they are very good and can be the base of a daily Japanese menu. Full dinners, snacks, lunches, soups and all that are available for cooking. Rice is a main component of most of the dishes, but there are some excellent potato recipes and more vegetable-rich dishes. The glossary of ingredients is a usefull addition.

I have made many meals using this cookbook, and I will make many more.

I picked this book up about 6 years ago. I am a vegan and enjoy making veggie sushi and other Japanese dishes. This book is really great. I make one recipe from it about twice a month -- it's called tofu and braised leeks, I think. Anyhow, it's great. My wife and son love that one! The best thing about the recipes is that they are really simple and require few ingredients. I highly recommend it!

This is a nice book with many nice stories about the japanese traditions and eating culture. The recipes sound easy to make. I would have given it 5 stars had there been more pictures in it. The important part of japanese food is the how the food is being presented, I was hoping for a book that whould give me more inspiring ideas on how to present it on the table. But for only a few pages of pictures in the middle of the book I find that the book lacks inspiration but it is very informative.

Good for ideas but chock-full of unforgivable typos in the Japanese terms - the editor or proofreader should be fired. From one section to the next, the same term will be spelled several different ways, and as often as not some of the ways won't be structurally possible in Japanese ("inska" vs inaka (country-style) miso jumped out at me, spelled two different ways on two successive pages, when what you'll actually find in the market will most likely be called aka (red) miso; and it seems like every other page has an example like that).

I wouldn't rely on this book for beginners, because of the content errors. If you don't already know a term, don't rely on seeing it in this book, because if it's not familiar from elsewhere it's probably wrong.

That said, the recipes are useful for reference when trying to adapt regular Japanese cooking (which relies heavily on eggs and fish) for vegetarian or vegan cooking.

(Full disclosure: I've semiprofessionally taught Japanese cooking classes.)

I ordered the book in March of 2006, and every month I was required by Amazon to approve a delay. It's July and still more delays.

I only mention this because while the experience may be unique to me, you might want to reconsider ordering it as a birthday gift or other time-sensitive occasion.

This happened to me with another cookbook, and another customer reviewer mentioned long delays in her review, and I found it helpful so I thought I'd mention it with this one.