I mostly wanted to try to understand the type of cooking possibly made at home or as street food. By the time my friend Yukimi returned for a 2nd visit from Japan we had made: ramen, okonomiyaki, tempura, soba, oyakadon, takoyaki, donburi, tonkatsu, udon, and so many more recipes with this book as my guide. I found the recipes thorough, informative, fun, and approachable. Even things that I wasn’t quite sure how it should taste (squid pancake balls? savory cabbage pancakes?) came out beautifully thanks to the explicit instructions. I really enjoyed this book and how it opened the door to talk with my friend in the kitchen somewhat confidently, in spite of our language barrier. Food can really open the door for so much more.
As many of you know, I went to Paris for the first time this year, which was an incredible experience, When I came home I definitely wanted to recreate in my kitchen some of the things I loved to eat there. I brought home a cookbook from Paris that was in French and used my google translate app to interpret the recipes which was a fun exercise, but I definitely needed a little more guidance in my native language. I found this book secondhand in a bookshop and I was so glad that I did.
