Japan's Soups & Stews

About this book

Written and produced in Japan by a Japanese author and a Japanese company — this is the complete guide to the dishes Japan simmers.

200 entries in eight parts, each in one fixed format — Origins & Story, Taste & Technique, Where & When, and Manners & Enjoyment. The communal pots: sukiyaki in its two regional manners, shabu-shabu, chankonabe, Fukuoka's mizutaki and motsunabe, crab and pufferfish, soy-milk, tomato and curry broths. The regional map in broth: Ishikari salmon, Akita's rice-stick pots, monkfish, Tanba boar, Edo loach, Toyama's winter yellowtail, Okinawa's celebration soups. The daily bowl: miso soup in all its regional pastes and rotations, clear suimono, tonjiru and temple kenchinjiru. The substantial bowls: arajiru, zosui and okayu, tea over rice, Sapporo soup curry and Nagasaki champon. The simmered dishes: nikujaga, braised pork in Nagoya and Okinawa manners, fish in miso and sweet soy, and the great oden pot. The soup year from New Year ozoni to the solstice. And underneath everything, the craft: dashi in all its grades, clay and iron pots, skimming, order, resting — plus ingredients, specialist shops, salt and safety stated plainly, and the new broths still joining the family.

The 200 entries are items of soup and simmer culture, not shop reviews: no shop is ranked and no shop's prices or hours are asserted — shops change them; cultures endure. No health claims are made for any food. A glossary and an index by part and theme close the book, so you can plan a journey by broth instead of by map alone.