Customer Reviews

Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.)

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.

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.

All those with a real passion for Japanese food and culture (are these two concepts really separate?) will fall in love with this book. It's not yet another cooking book about Japan and its food, but the lively account of the year the author spent in Kyoto to learn 'tea kaiseki'. The author takes you there, and she makes you feel as if you were sharing the real experience with her. It is amazing to be able to read about the subtle nuances of Japanese cuisine, as they are experienced through the eyes, senses and culture of a curious, intelligent Western person. I couldn't recommend this more.

Victoria Abbott Riccardi's wonderful book, Untangling My Chopsticks, is a treat to read. She shares her tale of the year she spent in Kyoto, Japan, immersed in Japanese culture and studying the art of kaiseki. The story is tied together neatly and offers an immense amount of information on Japanese culture and cuisine as well as tea ceremonies. Her descriptions are so vivid and precise that I found myself salivating over the food. Having lived in Asia myself, I laughed out loud at some of the predicaments/cultural differences she comes across and so deftly describes.
I will definately suggest that my bookgroup read this book and know that we will make some of the delicious-sounding recipes for our dinner meeting. Her recipes, both Asian and Western, do not seem daunting as in some travel/food journals. I highly recommend Untangling My Chopsticks to anyone who loves Asia and/or food.

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't really like it that much either. I gave it two stars because its non-offensive and if you want to learn about Japanese culture and cuisine it is somewhat informative. (Though a cookbook would be better and then at least there would be pictures of the food.)

However there just is not enough drama in the book and the descriptions of places are fairly flat. I had a difficult time imagining any of this - the locations, the people.

I didn't dislike the author, but she didn't pull me in to the experience that much either. I felt like she purposefully distanced herself, like she felt she was above it all.

I read the book and sent it back for a refund because honestly, there was no one I could think of to give it to to read - it just wasn't engaging enough.

I'm glad everything worked out for the author though. Like Frances Mayes (of the Tuscany books) who ends up with a great husband, living in San Francisco and Tuscany and having a tremendously fabulous life, I'm glad that no one who takes these "sojourns" in foreign countries ever comes up a loser like the rest of us.

Wow! I loved Untangling My Chopsticks. It is a delicious book from beginning to end. Victoria Abbott Riccardi's beautiful writing style made me feel like I was a part of her journey, discovering the foreign culture, customs and lifestyle of Japan. Through her detailed descriptions she gives the reader a very true sense of the people, the food and the natural beauty of the country. I loved learning about tea kaiseki and the foods that revolve around it. I craved Japanese food as I read the book and was thrilled to discover that each chapter ends with delectable recipes that are quite simple to prepare.
This book has everything I love to read about from travel, to cooking, to history, to love (yes, it is a bit of a love story!). In summary, it is a fantastic book that captures the reader's attention through wisdom, humor and beauty.

Untangling My Chopsticks is a book you want to pick up by just looking a the beautiful cover. And then the inside, just like a great piece of sushi, is wonderful. Riccardi's humor, candor and lush descriptions make this one of the best books I have read in a long time. She weaves the history of the tea ceremony with her personal stories of a year in Japan. Her descriptions of food will leave you mouth watering and her humor make you chuckle out loud. A great book to read and share with your friends. I'm going to use the great recipes to make a Japanese dinner for my bookgroup, so we can taste while we talk about the book!

I really enjoyed this book. I've never been to Japan, but after reading Untangling My Chopsticks, I felt like I had a true feeling of what it is like. I loved the descriptions of the tea ceremony. So well-written, and with such telling detail. The tea ceremony is so different than anything in America, with its emphasis on symbolism. Every action, every item served in the tea ceremony has meaning, and I enjoyed learning about it all. Also, I loved reading the recipes in this book, even though I'm not a cook. This book is to Japan what "Under the Tuscan Sun" is to Italy. Definitely worth reading. Beware, though, that it will leave you craving Japanese food!

Three culinary trends today include drinking green tea, dining on meals composed of many small dishes, and exploring exotic gastronomic customs. I just read a book that brings those three together beautifully. It's called Untangling My Chopsticks, A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto, by Victoria Riccardi.
Trained in Western culinary tradition and a veteran of a Parisian restaurant kitchen, Riccardi was on the classic culinary track. Until an employee of the Japan Society in New York mentioned kaiseki to her, that is. Victoria's trip to Japan to learn about kaiseki changed her life as her Cordon Bleu training never would.
Kaiseki, I learned, is an elegant, ritualistic cuisine, a degustation of small, seasonal dishes, which developed in Zen monasteries to accompany the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. From page one Riccardi plunged me into exotic Kyoto, the acknowledged birthplace of kaiseki, with tales of her new home dubbed the "bedroom of eels," and her first meal, in a neon-yellow-splashed restaurant under the Kyoto train station. Her story unveils Japanese culture, taste, and tradition in prose that sparkles like the morning sun on a breeze-rippled pond.
Before Untangling my Chopsticks, my knowledge of Japanese food culture could be summed up in a paragraph, the one dubbed "sushi etiquette" sometimes printed on the back of American sushi menus. The story of Victoria's sojourn was like a gift to me: lush with details of friendships forged, life-changing lessons learned, and deeply symbolic, ritual-imbued meals cooked and eaten. It opened my mind.