美味しんぼ（４） (ビッグコミックス)

by Tetsu Kariya, 花咲アキラ (Illustrator)

周大人の妻が山岡たちに相談があるという。娘の香玉が、屋敷のコック・王士秀と駆け落ちしたというのだ。この二人が場末で営む中華料理店を訪ねた山岡たちは、王が華僑同郷会の融資を得るために料理の試験を受ける事を知る。だが、王の料理には決定的な弱点があることを、山岡は見抜いていた…。

213 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 30, 1985

About the author

雁屋哲
Manga writer and essayist extraordinaire Tetsu Kariya graduated from prestigious Tokyo University. Kariya was employed with a major advertising agency before making his debut as a manga writer in 1974, when he teamed up with legendary manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami to create Otoko Gumi (Male Gang). The worlds of food and manga were forever changed in 1983 when Kariya, together with artist Akira Hanasaki, created the immensely popular and critically acclaimed Oishinbo.

Reviews

[Lizzy B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay my FAVORITE chapter was the one with the picky eater; although it oversimplified how picky eating works by tying it to an ultra-specific tragic backstory, it treated the issue beautifully and correctly, imo. Yamaoka used a strong anti-picky-eating method (chaining), no one belittled the picky eater, and the picky eater himself was trying to not make a big deal out of his eating habits. As a former picky eater, I praise this highly, especially in a book so focused on haute cuisine.

Second favorite was the one with the rival newspaper and vacation; rather than the tempting hijinksy revenge plot, our crew valiantly made the best out of the situation and took the high road!

And finally, I'm unsure what to think about the female sushi chef chapter...on the one hand, it kind of grossly promotes the lesson of "men have male qualities and women have female qualities, and those boundaries should be upheld." But on the other hand, with a Critical Gay Theory lens, you can see an elderly gay man, who crossdresses in kabuki theater for a living, wisely advising a butch woman that her femininity still has a place in her male-dominated field. The layers???