Natural Remedies from the Japanese Kitchen

This is a Japanese cookbook, but you won't find any recipes for sushi, katsu, teriyaki, or anything you might recognize from a Japanese restaurant outside of Japan. This book is strictly vegetarian, and VERY obscure. I have no idea if the recipes are traditional, because I've never seen them before until now. That said, the recipes are distinctly Japanese, and this book is pretty informative. The introduction to the book presents a discussion of traditional Japanese ingredients and their health benefits, and the recipes themselves are organized by main ingredient so that you can choose the appropriate recipe for your symptom. More than a third of the recipes come with full color photographs, so you can see what the dish is supposed to look like-- and they are beautiful. Unfortunately, they are also very strange. I love these recipes and the ingredients they are made from, but I grew up in Hawaii and ate most of those things as a child. I've given these foods to my friends here on the mainland, and they've found them repulsive. If you don't already like things like brown rice, ume (pickled plum), natto (fermented soybeans), yamaimo (sticky yam), or gobo (burdock), you're going to need really strong willpower or you're really not going to be able to eat anything in this book. Most of the recipes make good side dishes, but not whole meals. By the way, if you don't have access to an Asian market, you won't be able to make most of these dishes.