Amazing! - Rated 
I read this book in two days. It gives easy advice to follow on how to live a healthy lifestyle easily. The recipes are interesting and look nice, and the stories about her childhood are a nice touch to the book. While it is impossible to adopt an entirely Japanese Diet living with a family I have encorporated more Japanese food into my diet. After eating a meal I am never hungry.
Everyday Japanese food - Rated 
This is a lovely book. The title is a little clumsy, although it gets the point across, but don't let that put you off; the contents are quite carefully and thoroughly presented.
I enjoy Japanese food but sometimes the amount of preparation and long ingredient lists are off-putting when you don't have much time to spare. What's lovely about this book is that many of the recipes are the Japanese equivalent of British beans on toast, and don't require much more preparation. There's also advice about freezing ahead, dishes and sauces that keep in the fridge, and so on.
Naomi gives lots of interesting information about the health-giving benefits of the key ingredients, and the background stories make you feel that you are being let in on useful secrets. Your bowl of noodles, tasty as it is, looks even more inspiring when you understand that something similar once fuelled Tomoe Gozen, a great female Samurai warrior. On a less historic but perhaps more useful note, we are let in on lots of tips and tricks Naomi has learnt from her mother, who is clearly a generous and skilled cook. It's also helpful to hear the experiences of a Westerner getting to grips with the menu in the shape of Naomi's American husband.
I wish this book had come with some photographs of the recipes, and maybe one of Naomi's mother's Tokyo kitchen, which is so richly described. Once I'm familiar with the recipes in this book, I'll definitely be buying the companion book.
As for the title's claim, well, I have lost a few pounds in the month I've been referring to this book, and the meals definitely leave me feeling energised rather than sluggish.
Can I have seconds, please!
A start - Rated
With 35 recipies this is more of a book aimed at people wanting to start cooking in a Japanese style rather than an in-depth cookery book. It is somewhat in the chatty style of "French Women don't get Fat" and has a lot of the flaws of that book. However if you're looking for a different style of cookery to maybe start controling your portions this probably isn't a bad start.
The concept of eating small and if you need more going back to the bowl is something that a lot of people (including me) need to work into our lives. I found that there wasn't quite enough variety for me but it did make me consider finding more Japanese recipe books to use it to jar me out of my complacency.
It tries to cajole rather than force change and sometimes engages in some hyperbole but it's interesting and does make you consider how to make changes to improve your life.
Yawn - Secrets of Japanese Immortality - Rated 
Apparently if you eat pizzas the size of a buffalo's behind you'll end up with a cow size rump but if you give yourself half or even quarter size portions of really healthy food you can go back for seconds now and again. Half the calories so you can eat twice as much. Trite nonsense aimed at the naive and credulous.
It's about health - Rated
This is an interesting and insightful book to learn more about the Japanese culture and way of life especially in terms of their eating habits. There are certainly more to Japanese cuisine than just the typical teriyaki chicken, sushi and tempura. Bear in mind that, this book is not a diet book. The book is more about staying healthy rather than losing weight. In that respect it reminds me of "Can We Live 150" where the author's main and only focus is health, but losing weight is a natural outcome of it.
|
