05 September 2006

Washoku

Feeling the heat in LA, both weather- and work-wise. Going through a depressive slump as a result. What's a girl to do to combat the resulting insomnia when crosswords aren't doing the trick? Buy some new cookbooks, that's what!

After a particularly cruddy day at work (and I mean this in the literal sense; omg i'm never going to do anyone a favour again), the satisfaction from opening the Amazon box sitting on my desk was close to that gained from tearing off the wrapping of an anticipated Christmas present. For within the box were two impulse purchases: Harumi's Japanese Cooking and Washoku- recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen.

Harumisan

I spent 20 minutes waiting for my agar to set salivating over the photo and recipe for Buckwheat Noodle Roll, an insane-looking maki sans rice, but made with buckwheat soba. That's definitely one to try one of these weekends.

Wa Shoku

Happy now...

Cross posted on akatsukieats.

9 comments:

Anthony said...

Harumi is the legend, really good stuff and nothing better than reading through a new cookbook. I swear I read good ones from cover to cover - maybe that's why I hardly ever end up cooking anything from them

akatsukira said...

It's like a food pr0n group on Flickr, isn't it? My senses are satiated just looking at the photos.

Elizabeth Andoh's book looks promising for a novice to real Japanese cooking like myself. And Harumisan makes her recipes sound so do-able. Yeah, I guess I'll hardly be cooking from them...

santos. said...

i keep meaning to get both of these, but have yet to take the plunge. i get so weird about japanese cookbooks, as it seems like the simplest of cuisines--do i really need more than the two i already own? can't i figure it out by myself? of course the answer to both those questions is NO, but still. one day, though.

akatsukira said...

hey santos,
give in
I know what you mean. It's a bit like buying a Jamie Oliver or a Nigella: you can dream up that stuff on your own. But I find myself stuck for inspiration these days. And eating plenty of one-plate meals. I'm hoping that moving on to Japanese cuisine will help our kitcehn creativity.

give in... give in to temptation...

Anthony said...

Yeah Japanese doesn't really have stuff that's amazingly difficult to do, they just have these infinite increments of quality that are very elusive.

They are the business if you like recipes with five ingredients that really do only need five ingredients rather than busy person corner cutting (yes I'm looking at you Donna Hay).

They're also very sincere about simple stuff too, which I like. I'm just looking at this Yoko Arimoto recipe for fried garlic and cabbage with is - garlic, cabbage, cooking oil, and salt and pepper.

Anthony said...

Adn sorry to hear about the insomnia. Tsk jumping past human suffering for a bit of food porn.

Gunnella said...

Don't know the cooking books but I can strongly relate to opening amazon packets beig akin to Christmas ;-)

said...

Make History History.

Yep, that's the gig(s).

Stay on Groovin' Safari,
TOR

Anonymous said...

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