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A review by haklh
The Gaijin Cookbook: Japanese Recipes from a Chef, Father, Eater, and Lifelong Outsider by Ivan Orkin, Chris Ying
4.0
It is interesting to see that Ivan Orkin - who has a decades-long connection to Japan, including many years living, raising a family, and running a business there - comfortably and happily calling himself a Gaijin (literally meaning "outsider" or "foreigner", a term typically associated with white guys). He is happy to reclaim this term to highlight that he is bicultural, with deep insight into Japanese culture, yet can also take an outsider's perspective on it. An intriguing attitude by someone whose expertise is linked to their Japanophile credentials.
I like this book more than I had expected - I started it out of curiosity, but ended up thinking that this book is actually worth cooking from. This collection of recipes is well balanced between formal and casual/homestyle foods, between authentic ingredients and accessibility, and between washoku (traditional native-Japanese dishes) and yoshoku (traditional Western-influenced Japanese food). I love yoshoku and think it deserves to be better known. The book also has a good balance between recipes and memoir (interesting but not too braggy).
I like this book more than I had expected - I started it out of curiosity, but ended up thinking that this book is actually worth cooking from. This collection of recipes is well balanced between formal and casual/homestyle foods, between authentic ingredients and accessibility, and between washoku (traditional native-Japanese dishes) and yoshoku (traditional Western-influenced Japanese food). I love yoshoku and think it deserves to be better known. The book also has a good balance between recipes and memoir (interesting but not too braggy).