Reddit reviews Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen [A Cookbook]

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.

Totally bare bones, unappealingly stoic, washoku breakfast. A more normal spread for this type of breakfast might look like this. Some of the principals for a balanced meal include number of dishes (a main dish, two side dishes, a broth, and rice) and color balance (red, yellow, green, white, and black/brown). You can see that the more elaborate spread has all of the above. Washoku also prepares food in a variety of ways - broiling, stewing, steaming, fresh, frying. I highly recommend the book Washoku for a detailed description of how this all works in the philosophy of Japanese meal preparation.

The one here has miso, rice (a good start), and then just... pickled daikon and a pickled plum.

No main.

It's got the range of colors for balance, but no main dish. No variety. Just pickles. Sour, sour pickles.

Washoku is an absolutely stunning cookbook and everything I have made from it is wonderful. It also has a whole chapter on what a Japanese kitchen would have for ingredients and tools as well as some philosophy of Japanese cooking.

I really like the book Washoku. It's pretty much exactly what you ask in that it's about Japanese home cooking rather than the popular restaurant dishes. It has sections on equipment, ingredients, techniques, and recipes, but it also has a lot about the culture and ethos of Japanese cooking.

I really like Washoku

There's this book called Washoku that I really like. It has tons of great pictures and goes into good detail about ingredients that a westerner wouldn't have come in contact with.

My guess would be 6. I bet you're so excited to go to China and South Korea! Do you have anything in particular you're especially excited for?

Edibles: Lotte Pie No Mi/Kasugai Muscat Gummy Candies

Tea!

Convenient and/or fun lunch accessories

Food and culture

Thank you for the contest and I hope you have a safe trip! <3

I'm by no means an expert, I've probably only made sushi about five times, but I started less than a year ago. However, based on my limited knowledge, I would highly recommend the book that helped me get started, Sushi: Taste and Technique.

The book helped me learn how to make rice, different types of rolls, nigiri, etc. It has many pleasant illustrative photographs of prepared sushi (and ingredients, recipe steps, etc.), and can serve as a mini "coffee table book." It also has a guide to many different types of fish and other toppings, which has been interesting to look through, but not as useful for me, since the store I go to only has a few types .

I've recently bought Washoku: Recipies from the Japanese Home Kitchen to supplement my sushi knowledge with other elements of Japanese cuisine (though the book covers sushi also). I haven't used it much yet, however, and although it also has very nice photographs, it has a far lower photograph-to-page ratio than the aforementioned book.