Izakaya

When hunting for information about Japanese food one sees eaten in anime, manga and movies one of the places you expect to find something, but rarely do, is cookbooks. The simple reason for this is that most Japanese cookbooks are either modern high cuisine or fancy stuff a housewife may prepare on occasion but not the day to day stuff of the home and small eateries. In other words pretty useless unless you want to try out the recipes.

This book is a notable exception.

Why? Well it has a good variety of interesting dishes to try out that are based on actual food served in eight Tokyo izakaya. It also has descriptions of these izakaya, including interesting details about them. If you don't know what izakaya are go out and buy Anime Companion Volume 2 and look it up. The short description is that izakaya are very cozy neighborhood pubs where you can relax and enjoy a drink as well simple but delicious food for very good prices. For even more information on izakaya just check out this book, you may find yourself purchasing a copy, and if you like to cook just buy it. You may even find yourself booking a flight to Japan to visit some izakaya, sounds like a good idea to me.

Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook (Hardcover)
by Mark Robinson (Author), Masashi Kuma (Photographer)
Kodansha International
ISBN-10: 4770030657
ISBN-13: 978-4770030658
$25.00