- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Broadway (May 13 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0767908511
- ISBN-13: 978-0767908511
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,750,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In 1986, two years out of college and restless at her job with an ad agency, Riccardi left New York to spend a year in Kyoto, where she lived with a Japanese couple and attended an elite school devoted to the study of kaiseki, a highly ritualized form of cooking that accompanies the formal tea ceremony. From her adoptive "family" she learned about Japanese home cooking and Kyoto's food markets. At the kaiseki school, she was introduced to an art form in which everything is symbolic, from the food and utensils to the colors of the guests' kimonos. Immersion in Japanese cuisine taught her about the country's history, culture and art as well as its cooking, so that even a meal in an ordinary restaurant left her feeling that she had "visited a museum, heard a fascinating lecture, opened several gorgeously wrapped gifts, and consumed the essence of spring in Kyoto." In her delightful and unusual culinary memoir she includes 27 recipes. A few, such as summer somen with gingered eggplant, are for dishes she was served at a Zen temple. Some, including miso-pickled romaine stems wrapped with smoked salmon, and red and white miso soup with sea greens, are from kaiseki meals in which she participated. Others, such as chicken and rice egg bowl, "Japan's quintessential comfort food," are representative of everyday fare. Although many of the ingredients used in these recipes are unusual, Riccardi, who writes for such magazines as Eating Well and Bon Appetit, makes them sound worth searching for.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“I relished every page. Victoria Riccardi’s prose reflects the same spirited, nuanced, intelligent style that she discovered on a pilgrimage to the heart of Kyoto’s tea kaiseki cuisine.”
--Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun
“As Victoria Riccardi goes in search of culinary enlightenment in this intimate and beautifully crafted memoir about living, cooking, and falling in love with Kyoto, the reader is seduced and transported by the scenes and flavors she paints with words. Riccardi writes with a sensuous eye for detail that brings alive the extraordinary beauty of Japan and the sumptuous pleasures of its table.”
--Lora Brody, author of Growing Up on the Chocolate Diet
“Victoria Riccardi writes from the heart. A personal story of determination and discovery, Untangling My Chopsticks offers a refreshing glimpse into the tastes, intrigues, and traditions of modern and ancient Japan.”
--Elizabeth Andoh, Japan correspondent, Gourmet magazine, and author of At Home with Japanese Cooking
“Victoria Abbott Riccardi’s Untangling My Chopsticks folds back the screen on a city and its traditions just enough to satisfy our curiosity without diminishing the mysterious allure. Her friendships and experiences are recounted with delightful delicacy, and the kaiseki meal and tea ceremony come alive not only as cultural rites but also as delectable gastronomic and esthetic experiences.”
--Susan Herrmann Loomis, author of On Rue Tatin
--Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun
“As Victoria Riccardi goes in search of culinary enlightenment in this intimate and beautifully crafted memoir about living, cooking, and falling in love with Kyoto, the reader is seduced and transported by the scenes and flavors she paints with words. Riccardi writes with a sensuous eye for detail that brings alive the extraordinary beauty of Japan and the sumptuous pleasures of its table.”
--Lora Brody, author of Growing Up on the Chocolate Diet
“Victoria Riccardi writes from the heart. A personal story of determination and discovery, Untangling My Chopsticks offers a refreshing glimpse into the tastes, intrigues, and traditions of modern and ancient Japan.”
--Elizabeth Andoh, Japan correspondent, Gourmet magazine, and author of At Home with Japanese Cooking
“Victoria Abbott Riccardi’s Untangling My Chopsticks folds back the screen on a city and its traditions just enough to satisfy our curiosity without diminishing the mysterious allure. Her friendships and experiences are recounted with delightful delicacy, and the kaiseki meal and tea ceremony come alive not only as cultural rites but also as delectable gastronomic and esthetic experiences.”
--Susan Herrmann Loomis, author of On Rue Tatin
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I celebrated my arrival in Kyoto with a dinner of grilled eel, a sublime delicacy in Japan. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
I celebrated my arrival in Kyoto with a dinner of grilled eel, a sublime delicacy in Japan. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't read this while you're hungry!,
By
This review is from: Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto (Hardcover)
and after you do read it, you'll need to find a Japanese grocer in your city, because you'll be inspired to hunt all over for soba sauce and azuki bean paste.What a delight this book is! It veritably sparkles like diamonds and rubies, and in fact she compares tea kaiseki with jewels. I borrowed a copy from a friend to read, but now I'm inspired to buy my own copy so I can re-savor it and also contribute to Victoria's royalties. She deserves so much for this splendid book. Her insights into the spirituality of food, even simple things like wrapping packages carefully like the Japanese do, make it a book that you can apply to your daily life, even if you never attend a tea ceremony. My *ONLY* gripe, and I really hate to say this, is that her connection with Zen Buddhism was tenuous. She does go to Mount Hiei toward the end of the book and tries to sit with the monks, but she spends a lot more time talking about recipes again. But really that's okay because her main emphasis is not to meditate until satori, but to appreciate the food connection. I can't think of anyone who would not fall in love with this book! Thank you, Bi-cu-to-ri-ha! (That's Japanese for her name, as heard from the lips of children.)
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book to savour slowly,
By russiananimation.com (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto (Hardcover)
I so enjoyed reliving Victoria Abbott Riccardi's year sojourn in Kyoto. I cannot wait to go to an authentic tea ceremony next time I am in Japan (my friends in Tokyo told me it must be in Kyoto). The Japanese do everything beautifully but until I read Untangling My Chopsticks I was not really aware of how much thought and detail go into the visual and tactile presentation of food. The texture of the food, of the dish, the color, the shape, the season, the spiritual message. A book worth writing and reading.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Welcomed journey,
By A Customer
This review is from: Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto (Hardcover)
I am generally drawn to first-person narratives by women and found this book approachable and highly informative. The descriptions were apt and the writing style crisp and playful. The author seems to manage the austere, ritualized topic of kaiseki with her own humanity. I appreciated her spirit and courage in searching out knowledge, her grappling with a relationship as well as her ability to notice nuances both externally and internally in her new world. I entered a place I would never have knowledge of and felt like I was traveling with a friend. This is a great, peaceful vacation read. Its style reflects the tranquil nature of Japan.
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