Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine

With this title i'm filing it as a back date as to fill up the gaps of days i've missed.
I've been very sick with brain issues lately and so I keep having to skip reading days.


Title: Oishinbo a la carte: Japanese Cuisine
Author: Tetsu Kariya
Artist: Akira Hanasaki

This is volume 1 of the Oishinbo series by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki. It follows the story of Yamaoka Shiro, and his co workers as they go through trials and tribulations of finding the best foods for their newspaper column. This was the most boring so far of the Oishinbo series, as it had no real lessons or morals in it. In fact it seemed to mostly be Shiro having fights with his father (who is a master chef or something) and his father being a pompous windbag.  

As the series progresses (and i'm reading them out of order) it improves a great deal. Each volume includes recipes for a meal featured in its pages. This one so happened to be two recipes: Pine-skin seabream  and Kamishio seabream. 

Theres not much substance to this volume as i've said, but it touches on how "real chefs should not smoke" and how some things like strawberries should be enjoyed without toppings to cover their natural flavor.

Pretty sure if I had started with this first volume I would have abandoned the manga series from my reading list.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/OISHINBO-JAPANESE-CUISINE-Tetsu-Kariya/dp/1421521393

ISBN: 978-1-4215-2139-8

Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice

Title: Oishinbo a la carte: The Joy of Rice
Author: Tetsu Kariya
Artist: Akira Hanasaki

This is volume 6 in the Oishinbo series, it seems readable in any order and each appear to have a real recipe from the book IN the book so that you can try your hand at making the cuisine illustrated therein. (The one featured here is Scallop Rice. I don't eat seafood or anything from the water and thus it is lost on me.)

This book once again makes a very good point of bringing the environmental cause to center stage, making people look at cause and effect; showing them aspects about their food that they may never have thought of before. The last volume I read Vegetables, didn't teach me much that I didn't already know of the cooking and the culture. This one however taught me a little bit about rice. Including but not limited to: How brown rice can be nutritionally detrimental due to pesticide residue, how healthy deciduous forests can make oysters taste better, how different areas of Asia eat rice at the table, and what a "matsutake of the sea" was. 

Very informative while keeping with the basic storyline.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Oishinbo-Carte-Vol-Joy-Rice/dp/142152144X

ISBN: 978-1-4215-2144-2

OISHINBO: vegetables

Title: Oishinbo a la carte: Vegetables
Author: Tetsu Kariya
Artist: Akira Hanasaki

This was a quick and easy read. It looks as though you may be able to read this series in any order, as each book is a different food subject.
As an informative comic this one does an ok job. It is a bit heavy handed with the willingness to eat simply as well as the enforcing of "everything tastes better without genetic modification or pesticides."
The characters are likable enough, and it even includes a recipe or two outlining foods found within the book.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Oishinbo-%C3%A0-Carte-Vol-Vegetables/dp/1421521431

ISBN: 978-1-4215-2143-5

Meat cake

Title: Meat Cake

Author: Dame Darcy

This book was promising to me on the shelf as it proposed that it was reminiscent of the lines of Edward Gorey but alas. At least Gorey's stories make sense (even if its NONsense.)

Some of the art is nice, it is definitely of a style. 

I was hoping that it would have some good horror or alternative storylines due to the work being vaguely reminiscent of Molly Crabapple's work. Boy howdy was I wrong.

This is the first book that I have come across in a very long time that I have no issue saying is absolute rubbish. There are no real storylines, the characters are extremely lackluster (though some had promising names), and the whole thing is a confusing mess. 

Its not the kind of mess I like.

There are some things that I do like to be confusing or nonsensical or bizarre... but this does not to appear to have been done on purpose and is very much more the kind of random things one would write/draw in class on the sidelines of homework to pass time.

I definitely will not be reading more of Miss Darcy's work.

I may from time to time check in to see what non comic based art she has done though as her visual style is aesthetically pleasing.

She does not appear to carry the version of the book that I checked out from the library, so 

find that here: https://www.amazon.com/Meat-Cake-Dame-Darcy/dp/1606993461/

ISBN: 978-1-60699-346-0

Gold pollen and other stories

Title: Gold pollen and other stories

Author: Seiichi Hayashi

Gold pollen and other stories has some interesting visuals. The tale of Gold pollen itself has a Goddess who takes form as a giant skeleton which is based on the Gashadokuro of Japanese lore. Others are just as striking due to the two tone printing process.

The stories themselves I find lackluster and I am a firm believer that the story/words within the visuals should be able to tell you almost everything you need to know. You should not require an essay to explain what just happened in the story (unless its a cultural thing. Which these are not.)

This book is split into two parts, the manga (majority) which is read in the traditional right to left, and at the other side the essays explaining the manga which are read traditional american... left to right. There is no boundary in the middle telling that this switch over has occurred and the way I figured it out was the formatting and the roman numerals that began to descend as I tried to read the (at the time) nonsense. The *back* of the book has the page that explains which format should be read how. I think this would make more sense in the center of the book betwixt. Forming the boundary between.

While a few of the images in the Gold pollen story were inspirational to look upon (as I love yokai, the things that go bump in Japan's night...) This book overall did nothing for me, and I can barely tell you what the stories were about at all.

It is chock full of symbolism that is not clear for those who have not studied Japanese culture, and to people who have not, i'm sure it comes off as READING an Andy Warhol painting. 

The essays held therein are ESSENTIAL for those people, and are what I found more interesting than the actual manga.

Seiichi Hayashi is a well known artist from the 60s and 70s in Japan. His work is the Japanese portion of "pop art"

I do not think I will be reading any more of his comics, but I may look at them for visuals in the future.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Seiichi-Hayashi-Pollen-Other-Stories/dp/1939799074

ISBN: 978-1-939799-07-4

Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza

Title: Oishinbo A la carte, Ramen & Gyoza
Author: Tetsu Kariya
Artist: Akira Hanasaki

This is the third book in the Oishinbo series, though none of them are numbered on the actual book. So its hard to know what order in which to read them.

This one focused on Ramen and Gyoza, and has a recipe for Miso Ramen in it. I really liked the first story, as it showed that some people have skills that others don't and when worked together they can make something wonderful that would have fallen apart if they had segregated their skills.

I also learned a possibly racist word for China, and what the original way of making Gyoza is. 

Not a bad volume of Oishinbo, but still not my favorite.

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Oishinbo-Carte-Vol-Ramen-Gyoza/dp/1421521415

ISBN: 978-1-4215-2141-1