Japanese Homestyle Cooking

I tried many of these recipes and found them interesting, challenging and ultimately delicious. My family liked them all!!

This is the best layout with lots of color pictures to illustrate step by step the recipes. I have a handful of well rated Japanese cookbooks but this one has the best layout so it is my favorite and the one I want to recommend. It makes me WANT to get cooking. This book's style is of the kind found in books that are sold in Asian bookstores. As with all the Japanese cookbooks I own, the writers mention Chinese cooking to compare and declare that something is similar but uniquely Japanese. However, that is not true but the authors are not authorities on Chinese cooking and culture so they can't be expected to know everything or anything true about Chinese authenticity. I bear this in mind and forgive the errors because I buy the book out of interest in Japanese not Chinese cooking. This book contains much fewer references and assumptions to Chinese than the other cookbooks such as the false claim that the cheap bamboo steamer baskets are the archetypal Chinese steamer equipment and that the square steamers or metal steamers are not Chinese. One can say that this is more procedure and less editorializing than other cookbooks. This book could be sold in a Chinese bookstore without being offensive and would delight the Chinese with its recipes. I recommend this book and wish the author had written more than two books.

I love the range of recipes and ease of preparation. Only problem is that lots of the ingredients are not available in the States and some improvisation is required. But with the detailed step-by-step pictures, a newbie to cooking can easily learn the ropes!

Japanese Homestyle Cooking is one of my favorite cookbooks. It has over 135 easy to follow recipes. The directions are simple and straightforward. It has pictures of tools used, like the deep-fry pan (Tempura-nabe), wooden tub (Handai), etc. Has an average of about 7 great pictures per page showing dishes at various stages of preparation. It shows oil at various temperatures, different types of knife cuts, how to tell if a clam is alive or dead, how to clean a squid, and more. The tools and ingredients are listed in both English and Japanese, in the recipe the ingredients are listed by name, if it is not that common of a name, say like mitsuba, it will have the English common name listed in parentheses (honewort); Kinugoshi-dofu (silken tofu). The book is broken down into 14 basic sections, four being seasonal menus (each recipe also has a season in the corner just to let you know the what season is recommended for that dish), and another 12 that cover things such as: Basic stocks, Unique Ingredients, Daily Menus, or How to eat Dobin-mushi. There are also tips throughout the book. One last note on the pictures, they are all in color with many wonderful dishes and bowls, very visually pleasing. This cookbook is great for everybody, beginner on up that wants to add Japanese Homestyle Cooking to his or her lives.

I am an American currently living in Japan and have grown very fond of the Japanese cuisine. I take Japanese cooking classes and have found that the techniques I have learned are included in this book both in description and in easy to follow pictures. A great reference when I can't quite remember what the next step is. I have found that I can duplicate some of my favorite meals with this book. The recipes are easy to follow. The directions are as simple as they can be. The breakdown of recipes includes seasonal recipes as well as categories such as deep-fried dishes, steamed dishes, broiled dishes, sashimi, one pot dishes, rice and noodle dishes, and soups. There are also some very useful photos of the equipment used to prepare the dishes. In this book you will find that they go beyond many cookbooks by providing information and pictures on table settings and manners for eating Japanese foods. To sum things up - simple easy to follow recipes, GREAT pictures showing techniques and step-by-step images of what the preparation should look like, pictures of required cooking equipment. If this hasn't convinced you then the last thing I have to back this up - I showed this book to some of my Japanese friends and they wanted to know where to buy it!!!