The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking: A Traditional Diet for Today's World (Paperback)

by Gaku Homma (Author) "When I first moved to Denver, Colorada, 12 years ago I had many different experiences..." (more)
Key Phrases: yam cake noodles, remove aku, block hard tofu, United States, Nippon Kan, Lake Ogawara (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Those who love Japanese food know there is more to it than sukiyaki, tempura, and sushi. A variety of miso-based soups, one-pot cooking (nabemono), and vegetable side dishes with sweet vinegar dressing (sunomono) are just a few of the traditional dishes that are attracting many interested in Asian cooking. Homma presents an intriguing mixture of Japanese country cooking, folk tradition, and memories of growing up in Japan. Cooking methods include techniques for chopping vegetables, making udon and soba noodles, making tofu and using various tofu products, and making rich soup stocks. This is a book to use and treasure for its traditional Japanese cooking methods.

About the Author
Gaku Homma, founder and chief instructor of Nippon Kan Aikido and Cultural Center in Denver, Colorado, is owner and head chef of Denver's highly acclaimed Domo restaurant. His experiences as Aikido instructor combined with his talents as a chef led to the creation of The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking: A Traditional Diet for Today's World.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; illustrated edition edition (January 14, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556430981
• ISBN-13: 978-1556430985
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #515,196 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Simple Every Day Food, December 8, 2002

By	Ryan (Boise, ID United States) - See all my reviews

First, this is not your typical cookbook. You will probably first notice that there are no big flashy pictures of perfect looking food. Next you will see that you have to read about 100pages to get to the recipes. But it is well worth it.

The first half of the book deals with the history and ingreadiants of Japanese country cooking. The second half has all the recipes. For some of the ingreadiants you will probably have to try an Asian market, but over all most of the recipes are pretty simple, healthy, and taste great. A lot of these dishes are also not the type of food that you will find at the typical Japanese restrant, they are what you will probably encounter if you are lucky enough to be invited to someone's house for dinner in Japan.

Also nice is that many simple things such as how to cook rice in a pot or cut up a whole fish are covered for us less expert cooks out there.

So if you like more Asian food or just want to try something different I really recommend this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious history and cooking too., February 28, 2000

By	"pduvall" (Brevard, NC USA) - See all my reviews

Although the recipes are interesting and useful, you have to know something of Oriental cooking to use them. This is not a beginners book.

The heart of the book is not the recipes, though. It's the Japanese Cultural history. This is absolutely the best ethnography of rural Japan ever written, in my experience.

If you've ever wondered what life in rural Japan, or, for that matter, any rural subsistance society was like, this is where you'll find out. There is a lot of our own history in this book, if you care to look.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and bizarre, June 12, 2000

By	Academic Operative Wannabe - See all my reviews

This book is sort of bizarre. On the one hand it is a great cookbook with emphasis on techniques and little on "recipes". The upshot is that one might actually come to understand the techniques of Japanese cooking. It is also an interesting discussion of rural Japan.

My only objection to the book is that the author seems both wrapped up in nostalga and aware of the trade value of nostalga to some of the audience reading the book.

If you are looking for a good Japanese cookbook, I would recommend this _AND_ another, and eating at restaurants. The idea is that you can follow the directions in the other cookbook, but understand the issues of technique and/or philosophy from this one. The only catch is that you are less likely to get the sorts of things that this book discusses at restaurants.