recommendations: Japanese cookbooks

[coraa]

I'm in search of recommendations for Japanese cookbooks (or food memoirs, or other cuisine-related literature.)

I already have Washoku (a cookbook focused on traditional Japanese home cooking, and one of my favorite cookbooks of any type), Morimoto (a cookbook by the Iron Chef, focused on super-fine-cuisine from a Japanese tradition, not so much the kind of thing you'd make for an everyday dinner), The Manga Cookbook (exactly what it says on the tin), and all the current English-translated volumes of Oishinbo (not a cookbook but a food-culture manga, which I love with a tremendous passion and need to write up one of these days because it's AWESOME).

Indeed, it's Oishinbo that lead me to seek out more writing on Japanese cuisine, because it's not a cookbook. So if you (as I do) want to recreate some of the things eaten in the manga issues, you have to have outside sources to look to. Washoku has been invaluable, but I'd like more!

I don't have a strong preference as to whether the books are cookbooks per se or more general food writing/food memoirs. I'm also interested in all genres of Japanese food, so no particular preferences there. (Well, the food I'm least likely to make at home is sushi/sashimi, but even so a good sushi reference or two would be quite interesting.) Any level of technical proficiency is fine, too: very basic books would be good for teaching me the basics of Japanese cooking (I'm not a novice cook but I am a novice at Japanese food), and more difficult/ambitious books are something to strive for!

I do have a slight preference for books written by Japanese authors. (As long as there's an English translation available.) Second-choice is books written by people who have lived for some time in Japan. (Washoku's author is actually not Japanese, but she is married to a Japanese man and lived in the country for many years.) Books by people who are neither Japanese nor have lived in Japan would come third.

Anyway. Any suggestions?

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Ouch, yes, that does sound a bit hard to get one's hands on! Still, if I see it in a used bookstore, now at least I'll know it's fun and useful. :)

[larryhammer]

Amazon lists a couple dozen used copies, to my amazement. I might snag one my self, given the state of this binding.

---L.