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Title: Japanese Cooking for the American Table by Susan Fuller Slack ISBN: 1-55788-237-1 Publisher: H.P. Books Pub. Date: February, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Eat well and healthier with the Japanese Cookbook
Comment: Japanese Cookbook for the American Table.


I'm a big fan of all Oriental foods. So this cookbook enticed me even though it came out several years ago. Susan Fuller Slack lived in Japan and took those experiences and put together a bountiful array of fantastic recipes to tempt your palate.


The recipes themselves are all easy to moderate in terms of ease of making them. Some of the ingredients however, are not as readily available in supermarkets and one may need to go to a specialty Oriental store for ingredients like red or white agar-agar, dried daikon radish, Dashi-no-moto powder, and taki no tane to name a few. These recipes may take longer to prepare for then to actually make, but the final outcome on them with be an incredibly detectible dish that is usually lower in fat and calories then most other ethnic foods. Recipes include Picked Quail Eggs; Stuffed Vegetable Confetti, Teapot Soup, Japanese Dumpling Soup, Sushi Canapés, Grilled Miso Chicken, Cranberry Tofu Meatballs, Steamed Buns with Miso Pork Filling, Crispy Fried Pork Cutlets, Sweet & Sour Crab, Fried Noodles, Sweet Peanut Mochi, Okinawan Sweet Fritters and Green-Tea Crepes.

The layout of the book could be improved upon. The titles of each recipe are hard to read with the dark illustration behind each one. These recipes would have looked great with some color photographs. Each recipes does include a brief tip or fact about each one and they are all kept on one or opposing pages.

Overal Rating: 3 Pots out of 5.

Rating: 4
Summary: Japanese cookbook and more
Comment: With trips to local Asian supermarket, I am ready to try the recipes presented in this book. True, you cannot find many of the necessary ingredients for Japanese cooking in local grocery store, but well... there are things that are not substitutable. I tried about 14 recipes from the book, and I can easily make about 60% of the recipes, but the question is: do I have enough time to prepare them all. The method of cooking presented in this book are mostly straight-forward. The groupings make it easier to choose the dish, for example, deep-fried dishes, one-pot dishes, grilled-dishes, sushi, etc, even dessert! Ms. Fuller Slack also includes a comprehensive explanation about the Japanese cooking style, tradition and tips at the beginning of each chapter. I found this especially informative. Bottom line is, this is more than just a cookbook, and they are intended for Americans who are enthusiastic with Japanese cooking who are prepared to do a little bit of work.

Rating: 5
Summary: The Only Japanese Cookbook You'll Ever Need
Comment: Whether you are mildly intrigued by Japanese cuisine or an enthusiastic aficionado, a beginning cook or a dedicated chef, Susan Slack's masterful JAPANESE COOKING is that rarely found wonder: a good read, a gracious and welcoming guide to unfamiliar cooking techniques and ingredients and, best of all, a compendium of delicious recipes that can be easily prepared in the American kitchen.

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.

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