My Japanese Table: A Lifetime of Cooking with Friends and Family

by Debra Samuels, Roy Yamaguchi (Foreword), Heath Robbins (Photographs)

Bestselling author and food writer Debra Samuels uses her unique skills and deep love of Japan to make the cuisine of her adopted country attainable in My Japanese Table.

Bringing a wealth of experience and a great passion for Japanese cooking to the table, Debra introduces the aesthetics and quality food that are the hallmarks of Japanese cuisine. She learned through her years in Japan that true Japanese homestyle dishes are easy to prepare once you master a few basic techniques. And now that authentic Japanese ingredients are available in most supermarkets, Japanese food has become far more accessible than ever before.

The recipes in this Japanese cookbook, the result of decades spent teaching and preparing homestyle Japanese dishes, include familiar favorites like Hand-Rolled Sushi and classic Miso Soup and less familiar but equally welcome dishes such as Lobster Rolls with Wasabi Mayonnaise and Fried Pork Cutlets. There is also a chapter on the increasingly popular bento lunch boxes, along with a wonderful selection of desserts, including the delectable Mochi Dumplings with Strawberries. All of the recipes come with stories and cooking tips to help bring the sights, aromas and tastes of Japan into your kitchen at home.

This Japanese cookbook includes chapters

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Japan

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2011

Reviews

[Mariko · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains many errors and inaccuracies. However, it includes a nice assortment of recipes and has a lot of nice pictures.

[Courtney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feels so non-traditional. Add sugar. Use the cheap mirin. Microwave to save time. So many shortcuts, ugh.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the fish recipes (allergies in our house), there are some good recipes in here. Maybe I can even convert the fish ones into chicken ones

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking forward to trying some of these recipes.

[AisZunan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each recipe also telling short story from the writer experience, making reading this book like an adventure

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

h/t: Washington Post food chat and article on Japanese home cooking

[Crystal McClean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Japanese food is both delicious and gorgeous, and one of the things I miss about my 2 years in Japan is of course, the food. I really enjoyed reading about Debra’s experiences in and out of Japan and how they formed the cooking preferences of her and her family. The stories and photos of her in markets and with her Japanese cooking class with other moms brought back lots of memories for me.

My Japanese Table is divided into 10 sections:
-Basic Recipes (sauces, pickles, toppings)
-Sushi
-Snacks and Appetizers
-Soups and Salads
-Rice and Noodles
-Meat and Poultry
-Fish and Seafood
-Vegetable and Tofu Dishes
-Bento
-Desserts and Drinks

If you’re new to Japanese cooking there’s a guide at the start that introduces you to the ingredients and terms that are used.

There are several of my favourite recipes in here:
-Japanese Pot Stickers
-Yakitori Party
-Carrot and Daikon salad
-Fried Cabbage and Pork Noodles
-Sukiyaki Hot Pot
-Fried Pork Cutlets
-Sweet Potato Tempura Fritters

However, as I'm already familiar with those recipes, I've been working my way through new-to-me recipes and serving up new food for the family:
-Rice Bowl With Three Toppings, Oyako Donburi,
-Onigiri (Rice Balls)
-Sweet and Spicy Celery Salad
-Okonomiyaki
-Matcha Chocolate Coffee Cake
-Pickles

All of them have been successful for me. The instructions are easy to follow, even for moms like me who have little folk wanting to help. I'll admit I'm not a great cook, but I enjoyed making these recipes, especially after the praises of my family. I took the matcha chocolate cake to a local Japan Society hanami party and it was a great hit!

I’ve fast become a big fan of My Japanese Table and the recipes contained within.

I received a copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Sandra Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, Japanese cuisine reminds me a little of Italian in regards to style. Simple, good ingredients well cooked with occasionally a more complex dish thrown in. This book seems to embody that. String Beans with Crunchy Toasted Peanuts (vs Italy's sauteed green beans with garlic and slivered almonds), Scallops with Citrus Miso Sauce, Spring Rain Summer Noodle Salad, Chicken Balls in Teriyaki Sauce, Yakitori Rice Bowl and more deliver that delicious flavor of simple ingredients cooked well. If you're into it, there are some nice Bento box recipes near the back of the book.

This is a gorgeous book. I love that most of the recipes have a color photo so you know what your supposed to end up with. A few have additional, smaller, step-by-step photos that are especially nice. The recipes are clear and easy to follow. All-in-all, this is a great cookbook of Japanese fare that I think most would enjoy.

I received a copy of this book from Tuttle Publishing for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was rather good. I generally don't like cookbooks with a lot of the author's personal background/stories, I just don't care. All I want are recipes and lovely photos of recipes. I don't care about your kids or your pets or your husband or families...I don't care about how you first discovered celery and it changed your whole life. I know, I'm heartless. Anyway, My Japanese Table did have some little stories. Samuels had some background about her life and how she came to cook Japanese food. Not too much, very short, sweet and to the point. Not irritatingly long. It was actually not terrible. Plus, the recipes in this book were really good. Some were classic Japanese dishes, while others, I thought, had slight contemporary twists on the usual classic dishes. The photos were nice and the instructions easy to follow. There's also a short bento recipe section near the end, it's alright, nothing special.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to own this book! The author spent a total of 10 years in Japan, living and working there, so she knows what she is talking about. I love Japanese cuisine, but it can sometimes be a bit unapproachable when it comes to actually cooking it due to trying to find ingredients or cooking techniques. The recipes here were simple and easy to make, and although most of them were things I had heard of or seen before, there were some new interesting things to make. Sauteed Daikon Radish (which I’ve recently discovered that I like, though I’ve never tried them like this) with Citrus Miso Sauce, Matcha Cupcakes with Adzuki Bean Filling, and Japanese Mushroom Mélange with Butter and Soy are just a few of the great dishes I would love to try. 5 stars.

[Jane.foxlemongmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is much more than a cookbook. Having lived in Japan myself I appreciate the photography and the history of Japanese cuisine that Ms Samuels so eloquently describes. Some of the recipes are very traditional and others quite unique. Her descriptions of hot spring baths near Mt. Fuji delighted me as well as the idea of Salmon Roe with Grated Daikon in a Lemon Cup. Reading this book is the closest thing I have felt to Japan in a long long time. Thank you Ms Samuels from my soul and my stomach.

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not going to lie, some of these recipes are more complicated and require weirder ingredients than others. For the most part, though, the recipes are fairly easy to follow and many steps more complicated than "stir" or "chop" are accompanied with step-by-step images.

I think I will be making some of this stuff soon and making coworkers jealous of my awesome leftover bento. :)

[Micki James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, it's a cookbook, but there's quite a bit to read and I enjoyed being in Debra's kitchen and learning about Japanese tastes and sensibilities while never straying too far from the recipe du jour.

[Michelle Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Checked this out from the library, but I'm definitely going to buy it! Great cookbook!

[J.D. Holman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent Japanese cookbook I found at the library, and another Japanese cookbook that I bought (so lucky! Found a used copy in a bookstore). Yum.