What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 8

きのう何食べた? [Kinō Nani Tabeta?] #8

by Fumi Yoshinaga

「幸福的味道就是，充滿心意的料理。」
來趟愜意的京都之旅吧！
史朗難得的大手筆開銷，
到底是發生了什麼事!?
說到一年一度的情人節，
就是要用充滿愛的巧克力來打動對方！
看史朗和賢二用不一樣的巧克力形式
增加兩人之間甜蜜蜜的溫度！
２ＬＤＫ的屋簷下、每個月２萬５千圓的伙食費，
這是兩個大男人也很幸福的同居物語。

Genres: Manga, LGBT, Comics, Food, Slice Of Life, Fiction, Graphic Novels

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 16, 2014

About the author

Japanese: よしなが ふみ

Fumi Yoshinaga (よしなが ふみ Yoshinaga Fumi, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist known for her shōjo and shōnen-ai works.

Fumi Yoshinaga was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1971. She attended the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo.

In an interview, she said that "I want to show the people who didn't win, whose dreams didn't come true. It is not possible for everybody to get first prize. I want my readers to understand the happiness that people can get from trying hard, going through the process, and getting frustrated."

Little is known about her personal life. She mentions that her favourite operas are those by Mozart in the author's note of Solfege.

She debuted in 1994 with The Moon and the Sandals, serialized in Hanaoto magazine, but was previously a participant in comic markets.

Of Yoshinaga's many works, several have been licensed internationally. She was also selected and exhibited as one of the "Twenty Major Manga artist Who Contributed to the World of Shōjo Manga (World War II to Present)" for Professor Masami Toku's exhibition, "Shōjo Manga: Girl Power!" at CSU-Chico.

Outside of her work with Japanese publishers, she also self-publishes original doujinshi on a regular basis, most notably for Antique Bakery. Yoshinaga has also drawn fan parodies of Slam Dunk, Rose of Versailles, and Legend of Galactic Heroes.

Reviews

[Mir]

A disparate set of stories and some new foods, including salt rice malt, which I'd never heard of. I may try the simple-sounding chilled vegetables with dashi.

There was one chapter that made me quite sad: Shiro takes Kenji to Kyoto for the weekend. Kenji is so happy to be doing something romantic with his partner that he literally cries -- but he ends up not enjoying it because it is so out of character for Shiro that he suspects Shiro is doing it to soften a blow, like preparing to break up with him. What a sad commentary on their relationship.

[Beth]

Unlike in many manga, the frequent presence of throwaway characters like Shiro's and Kenji's clients doesn't bother me all that much. Their situations always have an effect on "what's for dinner," who's cooking it, or both, making cooking come across as the infinitely malleable and situational art that it must certainly be for someone who knows what they're doing.

This is definitely a foodie manga, though since it focuses on home cooking, it's somewhat less technical than the others I've read. The directions, and the manga panels showing the preparation, are easy to follow, and the "ta-da!" panel where the evening's meal is shown on the table is always easy to connect to the preparation that preceded it.

The translator has taken the (imo) odd tack of converting the measurements into American. I'd think that anyone who was serious about making these dishes would also have access to metric measuring devices. As is, it's hard to get a good idea of the proportions of ingredients, and measurements I rarely, if ever, see in American recipes, i.e. 1/5 cup, show up occasionally.

Storywise, my favorite episode was the one at the end where Kenji's father passed away. He'd been separated from the family, but they were diligent in taking care of the physical remains and the ceremonies that accompany a death, even though the deceased was all but a stranger at that point in time.

I've read three of these in as many days, so it's time to bid farewell to Shiro and Kenji before I'm tempted to gobble all of these up. Pun intended.

[Loz]

Still adoring this low stakes focus on daily life and food. I love the characters and the art. Truly a favorite of mine.

[Lara]

Hahaha, Kenji's reaction to the trip Shiro's taken him on! It was fun getting to see Kenji with his family too. And I love that they make brownies--brownies are the best! Although adding rum raisins to them...eh???

[Nina]

Oh, to eat brownies for the first time. I hope Shiro gets to visit Kenji's family too sometime. :)

[nitya]

ive just been keeping this in my currently-reading so i dont lose track of it, but generally pretty enjoyable set of chapters! i love that mami showed up, shiro formally being a godfather and his and kenjis convo after, and the final moment of shiro immediately going "HUH AM I MOVING TO SAITAMA TOO?" that final moment means a loot to me it shows so much progress on shiros end that he is so up and willing to give so much for kenjis end... the kyoto date chapter is really adorbs too❤️

[marcia]

Vol. 3 ★★★☆☆
Vol. 4 ★★★★☆
Vol. 5 ★★★☆☆
Vol. 6 ★★★☆☆
Vol. 7 ★★★★☆

I feel bad for Kenji, seeing how happy he is to visit Shiro's parents despite how awkward it ends up being, but at least the Kyoto trip is cute, even though he spends a good chunk of it wondering if something's wrong.

[kutingtin]

Xmas 🎄🎁🎅🏻 and NY 🎇🎆episodes are full of love and cozy joy 😌 and best of all, Shiro’s dad is okay 🙏🏻 love the part where Kenji finally does the cooking 👨🏻‍🍳🥘

[Aidan]

(Dec. 2023) That final chapter always kills me.

It's been a while since I last read a volume of this series, but honestly I really enjoyed it. I think this is a series I can't just binge read like other manga. I need to read a volume a week probably.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange)]

4.0 Stars '
Cute, funny and mouth watering as always.
Loved the brownies & the trip to Kyoto.

[Sol]

I loooove the Kyoto trip and the chapter about Kayoko's grandbaby!! I remember the first time I read this series, I was really struck by how sweet it was that Kayoko's daughter named her baby with a character from Shiro's name. Even though she's very insensitive towards Shiro more times than not, I think that was a really sweet gesture.
And this volume also has a chapter where Shiro meets his favorite actress Mami!! I swear, I got secondhand excitement and starstruckness from that, and thought he handled himself very well XD I really love to see how excited Shiro gets about meeting her, and it's nice to see him treat Kenji to a lavish trip, even if it was a "bad news apology" trip. Seeing them splurge and indulge in a fun expensive vacation is new for them, so I loved to see it!

I really liked the chapter where Ken goes home to visit family. Especially since he had a pretty bad relationship with his homophobic mom, it was nice to see there be a degree of reconciliation there.

Now I'm sad that I have to wait for the rest of these volumes at the library since (at time of writing) this is where my personal collection ends!!~ I could honestly read three more of these tonight! I love them so much!

[Bayliss Camp]

It is tempting to gloss over the recipes in this series, and jump to the plot development. But the meals are, in fact, the point: daily acts of creativity, skill, gratitude, and checking in with each other. The slow and steady deepening of the relationship occurs through the sharing of these meals. And the plot, such as it is, is something else: a series of snapshots/episodes of contemporary Japanese life.

My favorite of these episodes involves the scene where Shiro’s parents finally browbeat him into bringing Kenji home for New Years, so that they can meet him. And having met him, Kenji explains in the the best, most gentle way imaginable that he believes that Shiro was academically ambitious as a young man as a way to compensate for the fact that he would never be able to provide grandchildren for his parents. Unspoken in this exchange is the implied fact that Kenji, coming from a less well-off family, had siblings. So the same pressure didn’t apply to him and he could pursue a less demanding occupation.

This is not the kind of psychological complexity I was imagining when I picked up a manga.

[Rocky Sunico]

I really appreciate how far our protagonists have come in the book. As much as the series as a whole feels like vignettes of their life strung together, we do get to appreciate some degree of character progression. As aloof as Shiro can be, we've seen him accommodate Kenji more and this book features some great moments of him going out of his way to do something a bit more special for his partner. And we've also had more stories with some of the supporting characters, thus also presenting more of their lives.

This may start to feel boring to some with the general lack of any serious conflict in the story structure, but I find it to be a welcome respite from the rigors of our modern lives. It's definitely some great feel-good comfort reading and I'm all for it.

[Veronica]

This volume kicks off with fatshaming a pregnant woman. I don't know why I'm surprised, at this point, I should know what to expect, fool me once, shame on you, fool me eight times...

Four stars because the Kyoto trip was pleasantly nostalgic, although I did feel bad for Kenji because he was right that Shiro wouldn't hold his hand in public unless something dire was happening.

There is only one panel of "Gilbert" and as always he is the best character in the series. Now I'm off to volume 9 to find out who gets fatshamed there--a law firm colleague? Already did that. A pet? Maybe a chubby dog will show up and there will be a discussion of pet metabo. Petabo.

[小さな N (.❛ ᴗ ❛.)⊃ [_|_] ♡]

I loved their trip to Kyôto, although it was quite sad to learn about the more serious reason for the trip.


2021 sidenote: I decided in January to finally continue reading this series this year and have resolved for myself to point out one thing that I especially liked for every volume. There usually is more than one thing that I enjoy but I want to try to pick out and focus on one and see how it goes for me.

[Moriah Venable]

I liked the trip to Kyoto but Kenji couldn't enjoy it because he was worried that this out of character idea was to soften a blow of a break up. I was glad when Shiro confessed the reason for the trip. Kenji could relax.

They made brownies! Wouldn't have thought of putting rum raisins in it. Their self control of not eating brownies the night they made them is amazing

[Molly]

I absolutely enjoyed this book in the series. The relationship between Shiro and Kenji is becoming more clear and relatable. The food sounds so delicious. Yes I copied and pasted the review from the last volume but they deserve the same praises without spoilers.

[Bee (BacchusVines)]

I like this one for the Kyoto chapter. Also, the recipes are wonderfully interesting.

[Laura]

I love this series and I enjoyed this progression in the story. always so inspired to cook and eat after reading this.

[Chris]

I like it.

[Jillian -always aspiring-]

Still not entirely feeling the relationship between Shiro and Kenji, unfortunately.

[Fiza]

Aaahhh the Kyoto trip was cute! I’m really hoping Shiro gets to meet Kenji’s family

[Muhammad Rajab Al-mukarrom]

Lovely and funny. I think this volume was the idea for the movie, right??? Can’t wait to see the live action movie soon this year >,<

[Marisa]

There’s a lot of time skips in this.

[Giyongchy]

อยากมีคนรักเหมือนคุณคาเค​ ง้อด้วยการทำของอร่อยให้กิน​ ขอโทษด้วยการพาไปออกทริป​ เริ่ด

[Carina Stopenski]

this series is slowly becoming my comfort media

[Es]

Another really stunning volume! Shiro continues to open up to the idea of being more out with Kenji in public.

[anastasia]

Making your partner mad, cooking a whole meal of their favorite foods to improve their mood and then bringing up again the issue that got them so ticked off in the first place…incredibly funny

[Christine]

Very cute book! Wish I could have started with the beginning of the series, but this was what was in at the library.

Also wish they had shown more drawings of Kyoto--I had gone as a teen and it would have been nice to see more.

[Samantha]

What did you Eat Yesterday? Vol. 8 by Fumi Yoshinaga is great at depicting the normalness of life. It really calms a reader I think to delve into something like this and to take a break from our own lives. Also as with the other volumes the recipes in here are again fabulous. These are unique I think because you can read these in two ways. One can be a cookbook with some interesting conversation in between. Or you can read it as a good show with some really good food recipes as a commercial of sorts. Either way they are fun but be prepared to get very hungry as you read them.