The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking: A Traditional Diet for Today's World Perfect Paperback – Illustrated, January 14, 1993

I love this cookbook, and, unlike several other cookbooks which I also love but don't use very often, I use it all the time.The first half or third of the book is a long essay on the eating of traditional working people--farmers and fishermen--in Japan. By the time you finish it, the whole domestic economy, the nature of the simple Japanese home, and the origins of the cuisine will have become clear. There is no superficial gauziness here--we get facts, delightfully presented.Next we get the recipes, arranged by meal. These recipes are mostly simple, and they use the same few ingredients again and again, so that once you buy the handful of staples called for you can try most of the things in the book. In fact, the recipes encourage thrifty recycling and practical use of left-overs--the dried shiitakes and kombu and fish from your dashi can themselves become side dishes for the next meal. There are a few strangely baroque recipes--one chicken dish calls for the same chicken to be successively simmered, then fried, then simmered again--but most of the recipes are such that a busy person can make most of them in a short time. This is also a cookbook for the amateur: there is none of the fussing with precise measurements, and cutting things into exactly the right shape, and simmering things for a precise amount of time, which many Japanese cookbooks involve. Remember, this is peasant cooking--the cooking of people who have a fire in the middle of their kitchen and eat sitting around that same fire. The amazing thing is that Homma makes that cooking accessible to us. And it tastes great!

This is the best book for true, traditional Japanese cuisine from the ground up. I can't think of any way to improve upon it except to give more of the same in a new edition. One of my absolute favorites!

To bad he closed down the best restaurant in Denver. I wish this book had the recipe for karage ramen.

Mr. Homma does a great job of describing traditional japanese rural cooking in his book. His style of writing is informal and friendly and gives one the impression that he really enjoys cooking. The only problem that I had with this book is that the recipes seem to be either hit or miss. Some are quite good while others don't seem to work out as well.

Love this book. It is chock full of information on Japanese cooking and the recipes are great. Good explanations and easy to follow.

This is an impressively laid out book, with excellent photos and text about Japanese folk cooking. I find myself rarely using it, though, because to me the indexing and arrangement of the various types of dishes is a bit confusing and not so user friendly. Also, there are many ingredients that are hard to find (at least in Cincinnati). I suppose, though, that for those who are serious about authentic Japanese cooking, it is a very valuable source. It does offer many types of recipes, not just sushi, which I'm not that fond of. To me raw seafood might taste okay raw, but it's even better steamed or broiled.

The most interesting cookbook. More of a history and reader then a cookbook in the usual sense. worth the money!

If you wanted to learn more about Japanese country food this is the book for you. The first part of the book talks about the history and the second half has some excellent receipts.