Customer Reviews

The Sushi Experience

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

 

 

Hiroko Shimbo's "The Sushi Experience" is indeed everything anyone would (possibly could) want to know about sushi. For food writers, restaurant reviewers and ambitious caterers in a sophisticated marketplace, this book would be ideal. It's an excellent reference book, and any caterer/chef trying to upgrade their skills for clients trending toward Asian cuisine would find it a current, insightful addition to their reference/resource materials. The techniques are brilliantly photographed and fully explained, but they are intricate. The equipment needed is also rather specialized.

This is not a book for novice cooks, whether they be fans of sushi and Japanese cuisine or not. It would be interesting for you to have around the house, but it would likely be awhile before a beginner, start from scratch sushi cook, was created. If you really want to learn to prepare sushi and use this book as your guide, Shimbo will get you there, but it can be intimidating to flip through the armada of techniques, ingredients and recipes she's assembled.

Now that the audience for the book has been identified: Shimbo does a fabulous job detailing the history, development, evolution and vast genres of sushi and Japanese cuisine. The book is heavier on text and "paragraph form" information than almost any "cookbook" I've ever seen; indeed, it's more like a textbook, and a fine one at that.

Her explanations of the different ingredients, textures, colors and compositions of sushi is fascinating and written with the understanding of the American palate. Some of the recipes are suitable for children, and many of the sauces are fine with other seafood dishes -- meaning they don't have to go with sushi and are fine in their own right.

Photos are vivid, both on the recipes and in the step-by-step demonstrations. A must resource, if you're intensely interested in learning how to prepare sushi and the subsets of cuisine related to it.

Another reviewer commented on the lack of picture illustrations. At first, I had that problem. After reading more of the book, I realized procedure pictures were scatter throughout the book. She demonstrates an easy block-shaped cut for beginners in the middle of the recipes section, and I couldn't find the angular cut most restaurant chefs use. At the beginning of the recipes section, there are diagrams of the angular cut under "master cut." The organization could be more intuitive. That aside, the recipes are delicious and compare with some of the best sushi I've had in Los Angeles. She's enthusiastic about authenticity, but does reluctantly give a page to American sushi mayonnaise recipes. Fantastic buy.

This isn't the greatest cookbook in the world as it is unfortunately very lacking in comprehensive diagrams of essential mechanical procedures, forcing the reader to divine the correct series of manual actions to perform from textual descriptions of them. It is however chock full of incredibly detailed information on many aspects of Japanese culinary history and well worth every penny it goes for here on Amazon for this reason alone.

If you are interested in making Japanese food/sushi at home this book is a staple for your kitchen. The recipes are easy to follow and the chapter on kitchen essentials is particularly helpful.

The true test of a great cookbook is one that inspires you to keep trying more recipes. This is one of those books. I have never cared for Japanese food but Hiroko Shimbo's masterful cookbook showed me that I had never before eaten good Japanese food. Not only is this cookbook a great read - lots of interesting anecdotes mixed in with Shimbo's impressive mastery of sushi and everything Japanese - and every recipe I have tried so far is one I would make again. Epiphany! Another thing that impressed me - even if the recipe had a lot of ingredients in it, the prep time was not overwhelming. Love the thoughtful additions of the tear-out sushi guide and list of basic Japanese phrases you can use in a sushi restaurant. Shimbo's tempura is a revelation - the batter is see-through, light and not greasy, a celebration of the vegetable. I was fortunate enough to take a cooking class from Shimbo. If you get the opportunity, don't pass it up. Our class prepared many dishes and we loved them all. Shimbo is an excellent teacher with a great sense of humor. This cookbook is a master work, one that every well rounded chef should own. This is the book you need to have to truly understand Japanese cuisine.

I attended a demonstration and book signing by Hiroko Shimbo in Seattle. While I don't plan to make sushi, the information provided about sushi was the real treat, and sections about sushi bar etiquette were invaluable, you can eat with your hands! I had to go to the sushi bar that night to put my new knowledge to use, and new vocabulary, like tsuru tsuru, neba neba, and oishi!