#134 in Arts & photography books
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Reddit mentions of Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
Sentiment score: 12
Reddit mentions: 18
We found 18 Reddit mentions of Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art. Here are the top ones.
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Specs:
| Color | White |
| Height | 10.4 inches |
| Length | 7.62 inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Release date | February 2012 |
| Weight | 3.20552128948 Pounds |
| Width | 1.47 inches |
Sounds like Andoh's Washoku would serve you well. She talks a lot about tradition and philosophy. Tsuji's classic is also known for this, though I've not read that one yet myself. My sense from reviews and comments is that Andoh sticks to simpler homestyle food more than Tsuji, who's more composed and elaborate. But Tsuji is definitely on my wishlist.
However, as in other prosperous countries, what "normal people" eat has evolved a lot over the last 75 years. "Traditional" homestyle dishes have been augmented with popular street foods like takoyaki or okonomiyaki, restaurant favorites like tempura and sushi, and international influences from America, China, and Korea. So Washoku, for example, leaves out a lot of well-known Japanese dishes. If you want a book that tries the split the difference, maybe check out Morimoto's home cooking book. It's a nice mix of tradition and more modern, popular fare. Very readable and fun too.
There are a couple of good blogs/channels to check out - especially Just One Cookbook and Cooking with Dog on YT. But they don't tend to discuss philosophy and culinary tradition very much. I think the books will serve you better there.
Even Tsuji says that instant dashi is fine (as long as you know & respect how to make authentic dashi), and that book was published in the 80s. I can only imagine that today's instant dashi is better still.
> lots of cooked Japanese dishes are very similar to Chinese dishes
Err, no.
> sesame oil and sweet soy sauce
Well, if you're using these to cook "Japanese", no wonder it tastes Chinese.
I'n not sure what you're expecting as an answer to this. Get a cookbook and experiment? This one is kind of hardcore, but 100% authentic: http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cooking-Simple-Shizuo-Tsuji/dp/1568363885
I have Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji, and I think it's pretty good.
Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.
With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.
Japanese
Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.
Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.
If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.
Chinese
What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.
For your reading pleasure:
Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.
Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.
Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.
All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.
Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.
Go forth, make bao.
Korean
Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.
You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.
Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.
Thai
David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.
Vietnamese
Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.
TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
How authentic do you want to go?
In terms of truly authentic Japanese cuisine, the absolute best book is "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" by Shizuo Tsuji. It teaches the aesthetics behind Japanese food as well as all the requisite techniques, but it can be a bit too hardcore for the home cook.
Next I would recommend something by Yoko Arimoto, such as "Simply Japanese: Modern Cooking for the Healthy Home". Highly respected in Japan as a cookbook author; she's very flexible with her ingredients, which make it easier to adapt in an non-Japanese environment.
Elizabeth Andoh is very good too; hits all the right notes.
Harumi Kurihara, is popular but in a Martha Stewart sort of way. She'll give you basic recipes, then she'll give you something that is really "out there". Her recipes tend to be...well, handy. Kind of like what Giada is to Italian cooking.
I swear by Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
Comprehensive recipes, techniques, philosophy, history - everything you could possibly need.
It's the Joy of Cooking for Japanese food.
Between Just One Cookbook, Japanese Cooking 101, Chopstick Chronicles, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art ^BOOK, and Ochikeron ^YouTube you should be able to figure out something you like.
I am not the biggest fan of any of Nancy Singleton Hachisu books for beginners, but there are other good books, like Everyday Harumi - pretty much any of Harumi's books will be good, she doesn't go for crazy ingredients (ala Nancy Hachisu) and she's usually the top cookbook writer in Japan.
On Food and Cooking is basically required reading.
It's fairly specific, but Japanese Cooking: a Simple Art has a ton of great info on Japanese food philosophy, seasonal dishes, and a bunch of knife and other techniques you don't get from many western texts.
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art has a really good sushi rice recipe.
You'll need a really good sharp knife, a specific kind of short-grained rice (usually just sold as "sushi rice"), sushi grade fish, and some patience!
Nigiri is difficult, but I say go for it if you really want to learn. If you are going to make maki, you'll need to buy the most expensive nori you can find. Cheap nori has a nasty nutty flavor to it that DOES NOT belong in sushi.
And it is DEFINITELY more economical! The amount I spend at the sushi bar for two people is how much I spend for six people to make sushi at home! It's just a way better deal.
Japanese Farm Food ... awesome recipes and a very helpful perspective. Award-winning
Donabe: Japanese Clay Pot Cooking ... requires a donabe
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art ... a famous comprehensive bible of Japanese cooking
Im also on justonecookbook.com all the time.. and if they would ever print an actual cookbook I would buy it.
Pick a classic in a cuisine with which you're generally unfamiliar but for which you feel confidant you can get good ingredients. A few ideas:
You'll be forced to learn new techniques and deal with new ingredients, and get a sense of an entire cooking tradition. Any of those books will give you at least a small sense of the culture that inspired the cuisine, the human context, in addition to culinary knowledge.
Everyone will try to pick a great idea apart. But there are a lot of fantastic cookbooks that are way too hefty for this.
If you want a book to teach you about traditional Japanese cooking, it's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art. It's half standard cookbook, half treatise on the subject. The book has an emphasis on techniques and principles, so most of the recipes provided can serve as a template for extensive variations and adaptations. It's also primarily focused on traditional Japanese cooking (washoku) rather than Japanese adaptations of foreign food (yoshoku), which would generally be less healthy.
A lot of Japanese recipes, especially the more traditional ones, don't contain garlic or onion. You can probably get some ideas from there. Tsuji's Japanese Cooking is a pretty good reference: https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cooking-Simple-Shizuo-Tsuji/dp/1568363885
Sushi rolls, and the Korean version called Gimbap, usually do not contain onion or garlic, and you can let your creativity run free here. You can take a look at my wife's version of Gimbap here: https://www.everybunnyeats.com/gimbap-seaweed-wrapped-rice-meat-vegetables/
Cacio e Pepe is a traditional Roman pasta dish that (amazingly!) does no contain garlic or onion. It's a simple marriage of pasta, pecorino romano, pepper and olive oil. We usually wing it at home -- basically you combine grated pecorino and pepper with enough of the boiling pasta water to create a paste, add pasta cooked al dente, and heat in a skillet with some olive oil until cheese is nicely melted.
There's also good 'ol fish and chips.
Worked in a japanese steakhouse for a handful of years, this was my go to book.