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spaceman5000's review
5.0
Incredibly interesting dive into Japanese culture through their food. The little stories are fun ways of explaining the importance of Japanese food and its preparation and how important the details are and how it reflects on the culture of Japan.
I read through this for pleasure, but you could easily read it and study it as it's so chock-full of information it's insane. There's footnotes at the end that you could spend hours reading and researching.
Excellent book and excellent primer on Japanese food and culture.
I read through this for pleasure, but you could easily read it and study it as it's so chock-full of information it's insane. There's footnotes at the end that you could spend hours reading and researching.
Excellent book and excellent primer on Japanese food and culture.
sarahgudeman's review
3.0
Fairly interesting and quick read. And while I did learn things, it started to feel repetitive and formulaic (probably because these are just excerpt stories). Though, even knowing that I didn't feel invested enough in the characters to want to read the full version. I may sometime read other volumes but also may not...
nicolemhewitt's review
4.0
This is a really unique manga because it’s almost more instructional than it is entertainment. The book teaches all about Japanese cuisine and preparation methods, but it does it in a fun and interesting way. The story follows Yamaoka Shiro, who has been tasked with creating the “ultimate menu.” But he is thwarted at every turn by his cantankerous, impossible-to-please father, who insists Yamaoka knows nothing about proper cooking techniques. In many scenes in the book, Yamaoka has to prove his skills or his knowledge. The book teaches about many types of Japanese food preparation and also teaches about things like knife skills and etiquette. There is a huge emphasis on doing things in the traditional way with fresh, organic ingredients. I’m honestly not much of a foodie, but even I found the discussion of the Japanese foods and cooking methods to be incredibly interesting.
The only drawback to the manga is that this is sort of a “best of the best of,” so you don’t get the full story arc. The story skips around in time (you find out from notes that certain characters are married, etc). I missed learning the details of those stories, but I understand why it had to be done this way since the manga was HUGE in Japan (with over 100 volumes), and they couldn’t possibly have translated them all.
Overall, I give this 4/5 Stars.
The only drawback to the manga is that this is sort of a “best of the best of,” so you don’t get the full story arc. The story skips around in time (you find out from notes that certain characters are married, etc). I missed learning the details of those stories, but I understand why it had to be done this way since the manga was HUGE in Japan (with over 100 volumes), and they couldn’t possibly have translated them all.
Overall, I give this 4/5 Stars.
_ash0_'s review
4.0
3.5 stars
I randomly picked this book while browsing through Kinokuniya bookstore just because it said Japanese cuisine. It was a great introduction to Japanese cuisine and culture. I am a vegetarian and I should have realized that their cuisine is basically raw seafood. That decreased my enjoyment as I did not enjoy reading about how to cut meat or what type of fish tastes better etc.
I think a person who loves Japanese cuisine and seafood would love this book.
This book is like a collection of short stories about a person who is obsessed with eating perfectly cooked food and his son who hates him because of this obsession. The son says that his mother died because of this obsession of his father. He made his wife cook dishes multiple times until he was satisfied with the taste. First few stories are about this fight between father and son where the son is trying to prove that food prepared in a simple fashion could be great tasting too. Last few stories were what I enjoyed the most as they talk about their cuisine and culture.
I am still not convinced how chopping meat and serving it raw could be considered “cooking”, even though the author gave many explanations for it. Indian cooking is so complex and uses so many ingredients. I liked the part about how the tea ceremony needs to get rid of vanity. I had read about Japanese tea ceremony earlier too and I like the fact that these ceremonies are so minimalistic.
There is some discussion about chopsticks and how they are made. I now want to try using a wooden chopstick sometime as the author made a point about how metal flavors everything it touches.
I am glad I read this book. I will get hold of the sequels someday.
I randomly picked this book while browsing through Kinokuniya bookstore just because it said Japanese cuisine. It was a great introduction to Japanese cuisine and culture. I am a vegetarian and I should have realized that their cuisine is basically raw seafood. That decreased my enjoyment as I did not enjoy reading about how to cut meat or what type of fish tastes better etc.
I think a person who loves Japanese cuisine and seafood would love this book.
This book is like a collection of short stories about a person who is obsessed with eating perfectly cooked food and his son who hates him because of this obsession. The son says that his mother died because of this obsession of his father. He made his wife cook dishes multiple times until he was satisfied with the taste. First few stories are about this fight between father and son where the son is trying to prove that food prepared in a simple fashion could be great tasting too. Last few stories were what I enjoyed the most as they talk about their cuisine and culture.
I am still not convinced how chopping meat and serving it raw could be considered “cooking”, even though the author gave many explanations for it. Indian cooking is so complex and uses so many ingredients. I liked the part about how the tea ceremony needs to get rid of vanity. I had read about Japanese tea ceremony earlier too and I like the fact that these ceremonies are so minimalistic.
There is some discussion about chopsticks and how they are made. I now want to try using a wooden chopstick sometime as the author made a point about how metal flavors everything it touches.
I am glad I read this book. I will get hold of the sequels someday.
madeleinestuchbery's review
adventurous
funny
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
littletaiko's review
4.0
Fun first book in a manga series about Japanese cuisine. This first installment is about the broader components of Japanese cuisine and is told through a story about a young man who has been challenged to come up "The Ultimate Menu" and is constantly being berated by his father, a very famous gourmet food aficionado and artist. Loved the food aspect of it and will definitely being moving on to the second book which focuses on sake.
jenniferdenslow's review
3.0
After reading about this Japanese series in Matthew Amster-Burton's [b:Pretty Good Number One: an American Family Eats Tokyo|17787448|Pretty Good Number One An American Family Eats Tokyo|Matthew Amster-Burton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1365526527s/17787448.jpg|24876330], I really wanted to read it but had resigned myself to the fact that is would be forever inaccessible. This American edition is sort of an a la carte collection of episodes from the Japanese original. This first book is an overview of Japanese cuisine.
Don't read this collection as a narrative; the episodes come from different points in the series to serve the purpose of introducing the audience to key concepts in Japanese cuisine.
Don't read this collection as a narrative; the episodes come from different points in the series to serve the purpose of introducing the audience to key concepts in Japanese cuisine.
visualmethod's review
4.0
Recopilación no cronológica de las historias más notables del popular manga gastronómico de Akira Hanasaki. Mientras que los volúmenes posteriores se enfocan en aspectos específicos de la cocina japonesa, este primer tomo compila historias sin un eje temático, supongo que para dirigir la compra inicial de la colección.
Como buen manga de temática profesional, se toma bastante en serio el tema que trata y llega a niveles de sofisticación tan atrayentes como desconcertantes en algunos momentos. Se aprende bastante sobre la auténtica cocina japonesa y sobre su esencia de pureza y sacrificio, aunque estos mismos valores y esfuerzos pueden chocar al lector que no esté muy familiarizado con la cultura que la sustenta.
Sobre la historia personal, centrada en la rivalidad paterno-filial de los protagonistas principales, por desgracia no hay realmente nada destacable y resulta tan exagerada como naïf; el desorden temporal de los relatos cortos tampoco ayuda a crear un vínculo entre personajes y casi deja más patente la flaqueza con la que el guión trata a los secundarios de cada historia. La sensación que queda es la de consumir la edición recalentada de una historia que nos es familiar de algún modo, con el agravante, además, de saber cercanos los peores ticks del manga de la época (cierto sexismo, clasismo, rancio orgullo nacional... disfrazados con inocencia)
En cualquier caso, a Oishinbo se llega por el paladar y por la técnica, y dudo que nadie que se acerque a las páginas de este manga, muy bien traducido y adaptado por Marc Bernabé con la ayuda de Roger Ortuño en su edición española, salga defraudado en este sentido.
Como buen manga de temática profesional, se toma bastante en serio el tema que trata y llega a niveles de sofisticación tan atrayentes como desconcertantes en algunos momentos. Se aprende bastante sobre la auténtica cocina japonesa y sobre su esencia de pureza y sacrificio, aunque estos mismos valores y esfuerzos pueden chocar al lector que no esté muy familiarizado con la cultura que la sustenta.
Sobre la historia personal, centrada en la rivalidad paterno-filial de los protagonistas principales, por desgracia no hay realmente nada destacable y resulta tan exagerada como naïf; el desorden temporal de los relatos cortos tampoco ayuda a crear un vínculo entre personajes y casi deja más patente la flaqueza con la que el guión trata a los secundarios de cada historia. La sensación que queda es la de consumir la edición recalentada de una historia que nos es familiar de algún modo, con el agravante, además, de saber cercanos los peores ticks del manga de la época (cierto sexismo, clasismo, rancio orgullo nacional... disfrazados con inocencia)
En cualquier caso, a Oishinbo se llega por el paladar y por la técnica, y dudo que nadie que se acerque a las páginas de este manga, muy bien traducido y adaptado por Marc Bernabé con la ayuda de Roger Ortuño en su edición española, salga defraudado en este sentido.
saramarie08's review
4.0
Tōzai News has decided to commission a special news story - The Ultimate Menu. Yamaoka and Yūko are seeking some of the best of Japanese cuisine. Yamaoka is estranged from his father, who runs a Gourmet Club and especially loves Japanese cuisine, and the two often bump into each other to disastrous effect. In their pursuits, Yamaoka and Yūko delve into many parts of Japanese cuisine: how to use Dashi correctly and subtlety, knife skills and how it changes the flavor of food, how chefs cannot smoke because the tobacco transfers onto the flesh of fish, Japanese tea ceremonies, the artistry of sashimi, and so much more.
Read the full review, and find more graphic novel reviews, at The Graphic Library.
Read the full review, and find more graphic novel reviews, at The Graphic Library.