Delicious Japanese Street Eats
60 Soulful Street Food Recipes
An encyclopedic recipe book, Laure Kié’s Delicious Japanese Street Eats brings together Japanese culinary culture and cooking know-how in a colorful, eye-catching format.
A mouthwatering collection of recipes for popular and traditional Japanese street food, the text includes fan favorite dishes and drinks like ramen and matcha alongside regional treasures like kaisendon, a raw fish rice bowl, and okonomiyaki, a region-specific fry dish. Throughout, the direct, single-page recipes are complemented by explorations of cultural idiosyncrasies like “noodle vending machines” and the history of Japanese beer (the first brewery was opened in 1876). Elsewhere, the book contains a crash course in Japan’s many different kinds of street food, where certain foods come from, and recommendations on where to find great street food in cities including Tokyo and Kyoto.
The exuberant color illustrations and photographs, which depict the final products of the recipes, result in a magnetic quality, drawing the eye from one image and story to the next. Some include a striking level of detail. Early in the book, yakitori, grilled chicken skewers, are given a multi-page treatment in which the drawings show nine different versions of the same dish, capturing changes in the ingredients, preparation, and presentation. This level of detail enriches the text, providing a useful taxonomy for comparing the ways a single food can be reimagined.
The recipes themselves are broken into intuitive sections that lay out serving sizes, cooking and preparation times, ingredient lists, and the instructions. The use of columns, images, and other organizational elements make the information distinct and clear, with enough white space for adjustments and personal flourishes to be noted.
A beautiful curation of recipes, illustrations, and nuggets of cultural and culinary information, Delicious Japanese Street Eats shows how food is a total sensory experience.
Reviewed by
Willem Marx
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
