So living out here in the Great Plains of Wyoming means I don't really have the luxury of going out and eating good Japanese food on my own anymore. So, I might as well learn how to fish. Can anyone suggest a good Japanese cookbook? I'm not so much interested in making my own sushi so much as I am interested in making foods that are cooked everyday.
Good Japanese Cookbook
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I have several. Before I run downstairs to copy titles, are you interested primarily in cooking or also in information about Japanese ingredients?
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- #3
Probably a little of both....
Waiting for a phone call about a new car, so went down and looked anyway! Japanese Cooking by Umi Kazike - large section on ingredients. Practical Japanese Cooking by Shizuo Tsuni - recipes with nice illustrations. Japanese Cooking for Health & Fitness - Konishi. May have others around that I cannot find quickly. I would note that I usually review these books for ideas. I have a few Japanese dishes that I do, but they are more typically variants of what I find in recipes to fit what ingredients I can easily get. Variations of sukiyaki and some tempura. Nidhog should chime in with ideas!
Would also suggest you go to Abe's Book site for used, not in publication. And Amazon.com is a good place to review what is on the market now.
Would also suggest you go to Abe's Book site for used, not in publication. And Amazon.com is a good place to review what is on the market now.
I'll ask my Japanese wife tonight for her suggestions of good websites where she gets most of her recipes. Are you able to read kana at all?
Japanese recipe sites are a great idea! And there are a number of them. Please ask your wife which ones she recommends that are in English (lost my translator).
Here are two sights that are good.
http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog
http://justonecookbook.com/blog/
They both cover good basic japanese home style cooking
http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog
http://justonecookbook.com/blog/
They both cover good basic japanese home style cooking
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- #8
Nope. Aside from English, I can read Latin and Ancient Greek. And maneuver around a bit in Arabic. That's about it.
Thanks for the suggestions.
"The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking" by Gaku Homma is pretty good. The title sounds kind of dry, but it isn't. Homma is an Aikido master and folklorist living in Colorado. He has a restaurant there too:
http://www.domorestaurant.com/
This isn't the fussy, aesthetically displayed food that you might find at a high end restaurant. It's homestyle, country cooking. I like just about everything about this book--my only complaint would be that the index is a little hard to use. Other than that, it's great.
"At the Japanese Table" by Leslie Dower is also nice. Very heavily illustrated and a wide variety of recipes are presented. We've had this for a while, so I don't know if it's still in print or not.
There's also a very nice brochure/booklet printed by Okinawan descendants living in Hawaii called "Okinawan Cookery and Culture" (if I recall correctly). You can occasionally find it on line, and recipes turn up on websites. It's very different from mainland Japanese cooking and is well worth checking out.
If you shade into Asian fusion, the "Momofuku" cookbook is pretty darn good. Morimoto and Nobu both have good cookbooks--I've flipped through them in stores but never felt that they were essential enough to buy. Still, they'd be worth a look.
I'm afraid that all the rest of mine are in Japanese so that's about all I can offer now. If you find something good, let us know.
http://www.domorestaurant.com/
This isn't the fussy, aesthetically displayed food that you might find at a high end restaurant. It's homestyle, country cooking. I like just about everything about this book--my only complaint would be that the index is a little hard to use. Other than that, it's great.
"At the Japanese Table" by Leslie Dower is also nice. Very heavily illustrated and a wide variety of recipes are presented. We've had this for a while, so I don't know if it's still in print or not.
There's also a very nice brochure/booklet printed by Okinawan descendants living in Hawaii called "Okinawan Cookery and Culture" (if I recall correctly). You can occasionally find it on line, and recipes turn up on websites. It's very different from mainland Japanese cooking and is well worth checking out.
If you shade into Asian fusion, the "Momofuku" cookbook is pretty darn good. Morimoto and Nobu both have good cookbooks--I've flipped through them in stores but never felt that they were essential enough to buy. Still, they'd be worth a look.
I'm afraid that all the rest of mine are in Japanese so that's about all I can offer now. If you find something good, let us know.
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- #10
The next time I'm in Colorado I'll have to give that restaurant a try!
The wife and I were looking at this....Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji
We like a little bit of background with our recipes, similar to Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Child. Hopefully, finding a good Japanese cook book won't be as hard trying to find a Chinese cuisine cook book. But then again, saying "Chinese Cuisine" is like saying "North American Continent Cuisine." It's just too expansive.
The wife and I were looking at this....Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji
We like a little bit of background with our recipes, similar to Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Child. Hopefully, finding a good Japanese cook book won't be as hard trying to find a Chinese cuisine cook book. But then again, saying "Chinese Cuisine" is like saying "North American Continent Cuisine." It's just too expansive.
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On a side note, if you do want a good Chinese cookbook I'd highly recommend Sichuan Cookery by Fuschia Dunlop
I've seen good reviews of the Tsuji book, but I haven't tried it. If you like background, Homma gives it. The directions are also fairly easy to follow, but the book is illustrated with simple line drawings rather than glossy illustrations. I don't think that's a minus, but it runs against the current for popular cookbooks. Besides, with google at hand, you can always find photos of what finished dishes look like.
You can page through it on Amazon to see what you think. I have an earlier edition, but it looks about the same to me.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Folk-Japa...mma,+The+Folk+Art+of+Japanese+Country+Cooking
You can page through it on Amazon to see what you think. I have an earlier edition, but it looks about the same to me.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Folk-Japa...mma,+The+Folk+Art+of+Japanese+Country+Cooking
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Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji is a great book all around for Japanese food information. It covers knives ingredients and recipes. I highly suggest it for anyone wanting to know Japanese food. I have the twenty five year anniversary edition and use it all the time. The soba noodle dipping sauce is a staple in my house.
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- #14
Thanks, Yeti! My wife just sent me an article on Salon by Dunlop titled "There is no "Chinese cuisine." She seems to know her stuff. I'll definitely have to put some of this stuff on the Christmas list.
Chris, she doesn't use any English websites... Sorry.
I love Japanese food ever since I worked for a Japanese company - I had always thought f Japanese food as just raw fish. I cannot eat fish or seafood so I was really dreading my first visit to Tokyo back in 2006 but I was blown away by the food, so fresh, so clean tasting, just awesome. If I could find a book of non-fishy recipes I would be very happy!
That's an incredible book and totally worth the price. I'd also add The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo and for Chinese Grace Young's Breathe of a Wok.
