Cooking the Japanese Way: Revised and Expanded to Include New Low-Fat and Vegetarian Recipes

by Reiko Weston

Clearly written recipes and full-color photographs of places and dishes highlight a collection of traditional Japanese meals.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Japan, Food and Drink, Nonfiction

72 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Alison Whiteman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and simple recipes for beginners.

[Amanda Dicicco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait to try the soups.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dont be put off by the fact its a picture book! They are not kiddie recipies but traditional dishes that use the stove and grill and chopping skills. Very good starter book if you are looking to just try a few foods. Some simple ingredients, that today are easy to find, allows you to make many dishes. It also goes into table setting and how to arrange dishes in the traditional way. Plus it's a local author!

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I own several Japanese cookbooks, mostly for bento, and within my limited experience they tend to be very short, and expensive for what you get. Lots of pretty pictures, not much in the way of recipes, and fewer than 80 pages. I don't know why there don't appear to be extensive cookery books from the island nation.
When I came across this book there was no obvious indication that it was "for children" until I began to read it. For that's what you do with this book--read it. Lots of cultural notes, lots of pretty photos, and only a handful of very simplistic recipes. Granted, Japanese cooking is not complex (so far as I have discovered, in books or online)but even for a cookery culture based on a few techniques applied to what's on hand, the recipes are simple in the extreme. There are a lot of descriptions of basic cooking tools and ingredients...I guess the publishers wanted to fill out the book with something or other, given that the number of recipes is minimal.


If you haven't cooked much at all you may find this book useful; if you're a young person just starting out in the kitchen, more so. If you are an experienced cook looking to broaden your knowledge of Japanese cuisine, look elsewhere...and let me know if you find a cookbook longer than about 50 pages, won't you?

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il più grande pregio del libro è che non parla di sushi (tranne una ricetta col chirashi). Dopo una buona introduzione sulla cultura del cibo in Giappone (tipi di cottura, abbinamenti, piatti tipici di varie zone e di diversi periodi dell'anno) presenta una quindicina di ricette, in buona parte sconosciute "in occidente". Un po' complicato da capire se non si conoscono i nomi degli ingredienti in inglese, ma presenta un piccolo glossario prima delle ricette che descrive brevemente cosa si intenda, per esempio, per "sieve" o per "to baste" o cosa sia il katsuobushi. Bella anche la tabellina di conversione tra "unità di misura culinarie americane" e Sistema Internazionale, anche se spesso non servono (1 teaspoon = 1 cucchiaino da the). In altri casi avrei preferito che nelle ricette ci fosse già indicata la conversione (è seccante tornare all'inizio del libro per vedere 3/8 di pinta a cosa corrispondano in litri...).

[J.D. Holman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice, easy cookbook designed for kids but not so simple as to be silly for adults. There is a lot of information on food culture and on vocabulary - I had not known shirataki was yam noodles! All dishes' names are translated, which is unfortunate in the case of miso soup - who wants to eat bean paste soup? That sounds so icky. Otherwise, pretty cool book. I'm going to try a couple recipes.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of easy and simple recipes in this book so it is perfect for someone who is a complete beginner in cooking and wants to try some Japanese recipes out. I myself bookmarked a ton of pages to try out!

[Jeff Kubic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book to cover traditions, and does a better than average job covering recipes and techniques. Some of their recommendations for locations of ingredients are off, though. This caused a little bit of frustration.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a pretty good introduction to japanese cooking. I finished it before i tried the recipes, as it was very small and easy to read and now i feel ready to cook!