The Japanese Kitchen: 250 Recipes in a Traditional Spirit

by Hiroko Shimbo

A comprehensive introductory guide to Japanese cuisine takes readers inside the Japanese kitchen, featuring 250 recipes to get started cooking the traditional Japanese way.

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

Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Junio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katie says that I'm becoming a small Japanese woman, and it's all thanks to this book.

I don't really use this book to cook during the winter or high summer, but it is great for recipes in the spring and fall. many of the recipes involve a lot of high heat but also a lot of fresh vegetables. It's an excellent and concise cookbook with a lot of explanation and good illustrations.

[Dj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am sorry that I most likely won't ever use any of the recipes in this book. It seems that I am dishonoring the author and all the fine work they put into this.

This is the type of cookbook that gives you a great degree of background on the topic, with sections on the history of and the making of things like Sake, the traditional way. It goes over the differences in Soy Sauce and which is best to use and when it also gives you preparation tips on many of the ingredients.

For me, though most of the items are either to labor intensive to make for myself or the ingredients are too expensive for me to use when cooking for others. Still, I am glad I got this cookbook and I will keep it around in case situations change. I recommend it highly for anyone looking into doing some Japanese cooking.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Japanese food still remains a bit of a unknown quantity to many people or, at the very best, people have heard of, or even tried, some Sushi dishes. Yet there is a whole lot more to discover and possibly enjoy.
English-language books are relatively few and far between and this venerable, colossal book packs in 250 recipes to allow the enthusiast to make their own dishes at home and, of course, possibly discover something new to try when visiting a Japanese restaurant. At the very least one can gain through this book a greater understanding of Japanese culinary matters.
Nothing is taken for granted or assumed of the reader and they are immediately provided with an interesting introduction to the whole “thing” about Japanese dining, dining etiquette and of course food preparation. The Japanese kitchen is given a good introduction with an explanation to many tools and implements that can normally be found there and used in food preparation.
The reader is given an extensive tutorial in the methods commonly used as well with, where relevant, differences with their Western equivalencies being highlighted. After that a similar tutorial is given over specific ingredients found within Japanese recipes and the author has gone into quite a lot of detail about their origins, availability and even desirability. It is pleasing that, where necessary, a lot of differentiation is given to similar ingredient items such as rice and noodles as they can be as diverse as chalk and cheese, despite belonging to the same common food type.
Some line drawings accompany the text although it would have been nice to have had full colour photographs, particularly of the ingredients, to have aided the inquisitive and uncertain reader.
It is clear that Japanese society places value on the entire package and experience rather than just viewing food as a “consumable item:” Many of the recipes provided would be filed under “traditional” yet there are also some more hybrid, modern recipes that may upset a purist and please the more adventurous. The recipes themselves are split into broad categories of appetisers, soups, vegetable dishes, sushi, rice and noodles and then various mains before, at the end, the deserts.
As stated, the lack of full colour photographs is a concern when you are hopefully going to try a new recipe that is wholly unfamiliar and you wonder how it should look so that it could be vaguely authentic visually at the very least.
The book has a fairly extensive index although the book does feel a little disjointed and the index can be lacking or not particularly user-friendly. One hopes that, should a revision ever be made, that this would enjoy some serious reworking. A good index is critical for the inexperienced who wish to find their bearings and get the information they want without fuss.
Overall this book deserves to be viewed as a classic reference work in English for those interested in Japanese food and how to produce it in their own kitchen. There are shortfalls but despite this the book remains as equally valid today as it was when it had originally been published.

The Japanese Kitchen: 250 Recipes in a Traditional Spirit, written by Shimbo Beitchman and Hiroko Shimbo and published by Harvard Common Press. ISBN 9781558321779, 384 pages. Typical price: GBP14.


// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a great Japanese cookbook, one of the best I have read. It both takes you under its wing by providing very helpful essays on ingredients (I really learned a lot from the sections on sake and shoyu) and a gives you wide selection of recipes. The lessons on miso alone are worth the read. Great resource.

[Kiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great if you want traditional Japanese recipes and/or want to learn more about the Japanese culture through their food as there is lots of educational information throughout the cookbook.

[Micah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent source of Japanese recipes. The real clincher for making this book great is that it teaches you how to make a lot of ingredients that you can't get premade in lots of places in America from scratch. That's really awesome and useful. I've already put a number of the recipes into action with good results. There is something really great about a physical tome of a cookbook that's great. Wish I had space for it.

[Alain Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

You love Japanese food. You enjoy it at restaurants whenever you can. But what you really want to do is to prepare it in your own kitchen. That's easy using Hiroko Shimbo's classic books, The Japanese Kitchen and The Sushi Experience. You’ll discover an easy way to create authentic Japanese flavors in your own kitchen.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear, accessible, well-written, and pretty comprehensive cookbook covering Japanese home cooking. The discussion of Japanese ingredients and cooking tools may be a little superfluous for some readers/cooks, but others will probably find it useful.

The recipes generally work (I haven't tried them all) and they're straightforward.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous - huge amounts of information on ingredients and every part of Japanese cooking, from basic homemade dashi to elaborate meals.

[Jason Nomura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. Unlike some celebrity chef books Hiroko has everyday workable recipes with ingredients that can be obtained.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is interesting and a fun read, lots of good information about Japanese cooking, ingredients, and kitchen gadgets, but most recipes seem very fussy.

[Cymiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great book for anyone wanting to immerse himself in oriental cooking from the basics to the more complicated.

[SparksofEmber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my go-to book for Japanese cooking. I love how the author breaks down every element of the Japanese kitchen, explaining ingredients, cooking utensils, flavors, substitutes and so on.

[Jun Lin]

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