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A review by mbutle87
Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family's Journey Through the Belly of Japan by Michael Booth
4.0
Full Review can be read at My Tables of Content. Thanks to NetGalley and Picador Publishing for the advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
4/5 Stars
Confession: I love food writing. Yes, I know it’s trendy and #basic, but I can’t help it. Whenever I find a memoir or travelogue filled with well-crafted sentences describing a simmering chicken broth or the crisp notes of white wine, I go weak in the knees. So when I was given the opportunity to review Michael Booth’s new book, Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family’s Journey Through the Belly of Japan, I naturally volunteered. Food, family, and travel? Seriously, what more could I ask for?
Michael Booth is a well-known English food and travel writer who has already published several books on French and Nordic cooking. In this book, he takes his family on a journey through Japan, savoring the different flavors and foods in each corner of this island country while also getting into a few adventures with Sumo wrestlers and J-Pop celebrities. He also zooms in on the traditions and rituals of Japanese cooking, explaining in great detail the history of common ingredients such as dashi (most known for being included in miso soup, among many other dishes) and explaining true wasabi.
This book really opened my eyes to a completely different cooking tradition. Although I frequent sushi restaurants with my sashimi-loving husband, and I research many other cooking cultures, I know very little about the tradition of Japanese cooking. Discovering the rituals, intensive training, and precision the Japanese chefs undergo to perfect one type of dish, whether it be tempura or ramen, blew my mind. To possess that level of discipline and care for a SINGLE category of food is unheard of for me, as I tend to be scatterbrained and spread myself thin in about 1000 directions.
One critique I do have for this book is its lack of familial anecdotes. Although Booth does mention his wife and kids on some of his adventures, like visiting a fish market and the children almost getting run over by a food truck, or being in awe of the sumo wrestlers, Booth tends to brush them over in short paragraphs rather than fleshed-out story arcs. This is a nit-picky critique of mine, but I do believe it would have added more variety to his detail-oriented food chapters.
4/5 Stars
Confession: I love food writing. Yes, I know it’s trendy and #basic, but I can’t help it. Whenever I find a memoir or travelogue filled with well-crafted sentences describing a simmering chicken broth or the crisp notes of white wine, I go weak in the knees. So when I was given the opportunity to review Michael Booth’s new book, Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family’s Journey Through the Belly of Japan, I naturally volunteered. Food, family, and travel? Seriously, what more could I ask for?
Michael Booth is a well-known English food and travel writer who has already published several books on French and Nordic cooking. In this book, he takes his family on a journey through Japan, savoring the different flavors and foods in each corner of this island country while also getting into a few adventures with Sumo wrestlers and J-Pop celebrities. He also zooms in on the traditions and rituals of Japanese cooking, explaining in great detail the history of common ingredients such as dashi (most known for being included in miso soup, among many other dishes) and explaining true wasabi.
This book really opened my eyes to a completely different cooking tradition. Although I frequent sushi restaurants with my sashimi-loving husband, and I research many other cooking cultures, I know very little about the tradition of Japanese cooking. Discovering the rituals, intensive training, and precision the Japanese chefs undergo to perfect one type of dish, whether it be tempura or ramen, blew my mind. To possess that level of discipline and care for a SINGLE category of food is unheard of for me, as I tend to be scatterbrained and spread myself thin in about 1000 directions.
One critique I do have for this book is its lack of familial anecdotes. Although Booth does mention his wife and kids on some of his adventures, like visiting a fish market and the children almost getting run over by a food truck, or being in awe of the sumo wrestlers, Booth tends to brush them over in short paragraphs rather than fleshed-out story arcs. This is a nit-picky critique of mine, but I do believe it would have added more variety to his detail-oriented food chapters.