Quote:
Originally Posted by orca
Amazon.com: Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen (9780385339988): Naomi Moriyama: Books[/url]
I haven't got it yet but will be buying it, apparently there's lots of recipes in it and easy to follow instructions on a range of dishes, it's when I saw an article on it that I became interested in Japanese food and joined here to find out more, let me kno if it's any good if u get it  |
Oh, I have that. It's a really interesting read, but as a cook book it's a bit difficult to use. Not the recipes themselves, per se, but just the way the book is laid out and the size of it. The hardback version is pretty small and doesn't stay open easily unless you bash the spine to bits, which is annoying if you've got something hot on the oven and you want to look up the next instruction.
I really like "The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook" by Katsuyo Kobayashi. It's got pictures, and lots of simple home-cooking recipes. It's nice because it's easy enough for beginners, but there's also a couple of harder things for when you've gotten the hang of it, and it doesn't really require too many expensive or hard-to-get ingredients. It's in English though. All my cook books are :<
I also have "Taste of Japan" by Masaki Ko, which is ~okay~. It's not brilliant, there's some stuff which I don't like, but it's a conventional japanese cookbook. it's got some simple sushi ideas which are surprisingly practical, and the suki-yaki recipe is really quite nice. On the other hand, it doesn't have anything really exciting, and fails to be cosy home cooking as well.
Vis other Asian cuisine, my current favorite is "Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey". It's fussier than home cooking, you need more kit and more time and effort, but the end result is to die for. I have made some exceptionally good curries with this book. It's a good show-stopper if you have company, and he's pretty good and suggesting alternatives for ingredients which aren't widely available.
I have two Thai cookbooks which I use frequently, one of which you can only get in Chiang Mai in Thailand, which is a shame. The other is "Thai Food" by David Thompson, and whilst it's not exactly beginner's cooking, it IS utterly comprehensive. It's got absolutely everything in it you could ever imagine and some things you hadn't. I use it as a reference book to get ideas and then make it using my own method.
Wagamama's "ways with noodles" I didn't like much and I can't really put my finger on why. All I can say is i've had the book for over a year and I've made....nothing from it.
"Anjum's New Indian" isn't exactly asian, but again, it's got some good dishes in it. Panir Peppers, for example. Really good.
And... everything else I use i've plucked from the internet and adapted. This blog:
Obachan's Kitchen & Balcony Garden
and it's sequel:
Still Clumsy With Chopsticks is in english, but links to japanese recipes and sites, and is written by a japanese lady.
Failing that, just do some googling. There's bound to be a lot out there!