What's What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying [Paperback]

Robb Satterwhite (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1996

The cities and towns of Japan abound with delightful relatively inexpensive restaurants. Most of them specialize, choosing to focus on one type of food and do it well. They explore variations of flavor and ingredients and frequently offer seasonal dishes. But how do you know what to order? How can you make sense of the jumbled menu in your hands? What if you miss out on a true delicacy?

What's What in Japanese Restaurants supplies the answers to these questions and many more, while at the same time providing a fascinating look at Japanese culture through a gustatory lens. Longtime food writer and enthusiast Robb Satterwhite delves into the intricacies of Japanese victuals, restaurant etiquette, and regional food variations. He explores culinary history and furnishes precise sample menus in Japanese and English that allow anyone to decipher, order, and fully enjoy a wholesome Japanese meal.

There are over two dozen types of Japanese cuisine from sushi and yakitori to traditiona1 temple fare and tofu cookery. The nuances and pleasures of Japanese food can be endlessly fascinating-if you know how and what to order. For food lovers and diners alike, What's What in Japanese Restaurants is the perfect introduction to authentic Japanese cooking.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Okay, you can walk into your favorite sushi bar and order the tuna roll in Japanese; that's a good start. But there's more to life than teriyaki, tempura, and sushi. With descriptions of grilled chicken skewers (yakitori), hearty plates of pork cutlets (tonkatsu), barbecue (robatayaki), and steaming rice bowls topped with grilled eel (unagi donburi), Robb Satterwhite lets you in on a world of Japanese cuisine that's little known east of Tokyo, but well worth learning.

Review

"This extremely helpful guide ... offers a comprehensive approach to the language of Japanese dining." -- Washington Post

"Wonderfully handy ... Plenty of pictures, how-to's, food vocabulary, and much more." -- WCBS Radio, New York

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (September 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770020864
• ISBN-13: 978-4770020864
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #940,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As indispensable as any map or guide book, June 6, 2002

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What's What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying (Paperback)

If you are going on a trip to Japan, take "What's What in Japanese Restaurants" with you. It is a handy, pocket-sized reference book that will save you many a stomach-ache and hopefully let you discover many a good taste. Not all strange Japanese food is to be feared!

The guide outlines many of the main Japanese foods, a few ways to eat them and some simple restaurant etiquette. The food are named in both English and Japanese, with the Japanese written in Katakana and Hiragana. This is important, as most Japanese menus will not contain an English translation.

The books small size is most convenient, as luggage space can be at a premium. In the end, you will be glad you brought this book along.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extend you Culinary horizons!, July 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What's What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying (Paperback)

Great book. I know some Japanese, but the restaurants have proven daunting at best, and it's especially difficult since many of the best ones are specialty restaurants -- and when you walk in and sit down, you can't even guess how to order since you're not sure what they serve! A little time spent with this book helped me immensely, and I was able to pick up some of the kanji along the way. Even if I can't make out an entire menu item, I can usually tell "this is a chicken dish, this is a beef dish, this is some sort of fried vegetable dish", etc. A couple nights with this book and I was suddenly much less intimidated by all that great food available out there!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Downsized?, June 21, 2004

By 

E M Smid "elzosmid" (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What's What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying (Paperback)

I found the content of this book very interesting. It's a complete guide to the different restaurants and other eating spots you might find in Japan. The familiar sushi, tempura and teppanyaki are just a few of them. Also there is information on the big regional differences and on ethnic cuisine (Korean minority).
But, unlike Japanese dishes, the visual aspect of this book is poor. Either out of cost effectiveness or to scale it down to pocket size. Type is small and any Japanese character with more than 5 strokes is absolutely illegable.
The different kinds of counting are not explained, but phrases as 'please, turn up/down the flame' and 'please turn off the burner' are translated at the end of almost every chapter.
Worst of all, the text refers often to a chart of the Japanese syllables inside front and back cover. But it simply is not there!
It looks like a inexpencive reprint, that makes me wanting the original version. Less content and bigger type would work wonders for this unique book.