100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking (Kodansha Bilingual Books) [Paperback]

For English-speaking readers, 100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking is a most unusual and interesting glimpse into the Japanese domestic kitchen. Not that there is anything unfamiliar about the dishes: many will be familiar to anyone with any experience of Japanese restaurants. dashi and miso soups; rice dishes, sushi, sashimi and so-called vinegared dishes; "one-pot" dishes such as sukiyaki and shabu-shabu; grilled and fried dishes such as yakitori and tempura--all these make up a generous compendium, covering the whole range of the cuisine from soup to nuts (or in this case, Candied Sweet Potatoes). The novelty and usefulness of this little volume however lie precisely in its lack of exoticism. A bilingual collection designed primarily for Japanese students of English, or Japanese cooks overseas, it is a neat, compact little volume, with plainly presented recipes in Japanese and English on facing pages. Most are very simple, but this is probably deceptive as nearly all require careful treatment of very fresh ingredients (one assumes this does not need to be pointed out to a Japanese readership). Within the utilitarian sobriety there are occasional flashes of strangeness, such as the instruction in Simmered Dumplings in Brown Sauce (a sweet dish, incidentally) to knead the dough until it becomes "as hard as your earlobes". --Robin Davidson

For English-speaking readers, 100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking is a most unusual and interesting glimpse into the Japanese domestic kitchen. Not that there is anything unfamiliar about the dishes: many will be familiar to anyone with any experience of Japanese restaurants. dashi and miso soups; rice dishes, sushi, sashimi and so-called vinegared dishes; "one-pot" dishes such as sukiyaki and shabu-shabu; grilled and fried dishes such as yakitori and tempura--all these make up a generous compendium, covering the whole range of the cuisine from soup to nuts (or in this case, Candied Sweet Potatoes). The novelty and usefulness of this little volume however lie precisely in its lack of exoticism. A bilingual collection designed primarily for Japanese students of English, or Japanese cooks overseas, it is a neat, compact little volume, with plainly presented recipes in Japanese and English on facing pages. Most are very simple, but this is probably deceptive as nearly all require careful treatment of very fresh ingredients (one assumes this does not need to be pointed out to a Japanese readership). Within the utilitarian sobriety there are occasional flashes of strangeness, such as the instruction in Simmered Dumplings in Brown Sauce (a sweet dish, incidentally) to knead the dough until it becomes "as hard as your earlobes". --Robin Davidson

Presents 100 recipes for Japanese dishes. The text gives measurements in metric (Japanese), and pounds and ounces. All the dishes are illustrated.