A superb disappointment. The premises sounds so promising; in the end, I learned nothing about Helsinki specifically nor Finland so to speak. It might as well be set in America for all I could tell it didn't exactly make a difference.
I admit I'm fooled by the elegant Taiwanese book cover... Had I first encounter the original Japanese cover ( ), I definitely would not have considered picking it up.
I reread aka skimmed it through, for I'm compiling a list of food mentioned in this book for my blog; really, from the very beginning I should have known this wouldn't be a good book... There was no actual description of our main girl's cooking skills, and we were just told that she knew how to do this and that... With absolute no effort on emphasizing the food she supposedly knows how to make... There were no specific "dish" mentioned, just that she learned how to cook "French", "Italian", "Japanese", "Southeast Asian", and "Middle Eastern" cuisines; excuse me for not finding it one bit believable, or that perhaps, sure, she learned the basics, but imo, the writing sure as heck wasn't even trying to convince people that she's a pro.
This book makes me SO ANGRY. I swear, if the number of ratings reaches 100 on GR, I WOULD lower mine to a 1-star. IT'S THAT BAD. It's telling stuff without actually telling me stuff... Like "she bought groceries"... So what exactly did she buy? Dunno. "The market has all sorts of vegetables and fruits"... So what kinds? I don't frickin know. Honestly WTF? Everything was hella vague.
A short cozy story (1.5hrs) about Japanese women running a restaurant in Helsinki and finding community. I think the coziness and the vagueness of the story largely relies on the Japanese audience’s idolization of Finland haha. I really felt the time of the book (2006) when they mentioned how hard it was to get song lyrics lol. The women in the book are kind of being pushed over but are complacent for most part of their lives, it was making me frustrated lol. I had to remind myself women in this generation had less opportunity and options and that I am in no place to judge the women that have prevailed and have found happiness in their own ways🙂↔️
I don't know why I liked so much this cozy/silly story of a 38-year-old Japanese woman who decides to open a restaurant in Finland, where everyone thinks she is a minor, because, you know, Japanese look young, and the people she gets to know while working there. It has no particular purpose, or message, but staying with Sachie (and Midori, Masako, etc.) is worth your time, a story full of charm.