Street Cafe Japan Book

Public eating in Japan sounds rather like a coral reef--a complex social system with a quite bewildering variety of niche suppliers. Everybody, it seems, eats out, visiting restaurants the way the English visit pubs. The restaurants themselves range from immensely grand (and astonishingly expensive) banquet establishments to small holes in the wall that specialise in a single dish or ingredient. Emi Kazuko's selection of dishes in Street Cafe Japan tends more to the bottom end of this food chain, to the homely, the simple, the comforting, the savoury. (This does not preclude elegance.) A brief section dealing with standard Japanese ingredients and techniques, is followed by chapters dealing with Soups and Starters, Main Dishes, Side Dishes and Desserts and Drinks. Few of the ingredients are at all difficult to come by, at least in cities with oriental shops; and none of the recipes are particularly complicated. In fact, some are quite startlingly simple (Salt-Steamed Kabocha Squash is exactly what it says: partly-skinned chopped squash steamed with a little water and some salt). Lucid descriptions of standards such as fish and tofu. Sushi and Sashimi, Tempura and Chicken Teriyaki make this a most valuable introduction to the principles and practice of Japanese daily eating. Additional pleasures include assembly instructions for the Bento, or lunch box; and the information that Chinese-style noodles (ramen) are so popular that there is a ramen museum and a ramen village. --Robin DavidsonRead More