Japanese Cooking For The American Table [Paperback]

Slack, who lived in Japan, guides you through the intricacies of Japanese cooking with an easy grace that makes learning new techniques, new flavor combinations, new ingredients a pleasure rather than a daunting puzzle. Her chapter on how to make garnishes is worth the price of the book. She also tells you how to compose a Japanese meal, how to serve and eat it. She discusses the history of chopsticks and the etiquette surrounding them.

Slack's chapter on sashimi and sushi answered my questions about these two dishes that often daunt us Westerners, unsure about eating raw fish. She gives the easy secrets of making them and follows with a wealth of recipes, not only for the expected raw and cooked fish, but for sushi made with teriyaki walnuts or avocado and a Korean recipe I love using beef tenderloin. With Slack's crystal clear instructions, these recipes work every time. Typical of the fun aspect of this book is a little table of "Sushi Lingo" which will let you surprise your waiter the next time you order at a sushi bar.

If you like to entertain a bit differently, you'll love her chapter on Bento -the elegant Japanese lacquer or porcelain compartmented "lunch boxes" for imaginative picnics, luncheons or suppers. If you don't own these containers, and most of us don't, she tells how to make them out of decorated baskets or small boxes which you cover with decorated paper or wrap in a square of soft material, a scarf or bandanna. The menus for filling the boxes are lovely using recipes from elsewhere in the book as well as the bento chapter.

The joy of using Slack's book is that she makes everything so easy and doable. She discusses Japanese cooking equipment and tells you what to substitute for what you don't have or don't want to buy. Most important of all, is her careful explanation of ingredients, important because most recipes, if they are authentic, will call for something not commonly found in the American kitchen. She discusses each ingredient in detail, tells you what it looks like and how to use it, so it is no longer intimidating. Fortunately, with the rise in interest in Japanese cooking, many Japanese ingredients are now found in the Oriental section of supermarkets and the oriental groceries that have grown up in urban communities. There is a list of sources for ordering ingredients you cannot find.

I want to emphasize what I said in the beginning: this is not just a cookbook, it's a wonderful read. JAPANESE COOKING is loaded with history and the author's own richly evocative memories of her days in Japan. She takes you to colorful markets, to country inns where food is robust and to elegant urban restaurants where it is sophisticated subtle. In addition, each chapter and recipe is preceded by a bit of history, of how to, or a memory. Throughout the book are graceful haiku written by the author. This book is all things to all cooks. You will thank me for urging you to read it and use it.