Japanese Street Food for the Soul: 101 Recipes from Japan’s Delicious Street Food Scene - Chicken, Beef, Pork, Vegetables, Sauces, Desserts and MORE! Paperback – March 31, 2023

So I essentially chose this book in order to, do some recon on what I can eat when I visit Japan in a few months. I really loved reading this book to learn and get accustomed to certain widely used words in the culture such as, izakaya which stands for Japanese bars and yatai which stands for Japanese food cart and yakimono which stands for the art of grilling and pan-frying foods. It was very interesting to note that the yatai originally provided food to the monks and the general public during worship and festivals. Then, they eventually spread to feeding the workers and travelers who did not have time to prepare their own meals in ancient Japan. I learned that some of the best food is located in the alleyways and pubs in Japan and serve a limited amount of people throughout the day so, I definitely have to plan a trip to those locations in advance. I have always been fascinated with how the Japanese utilize a lot of earth objects such as fire, charcoal and clay into their cooking which adds that authentic earthly taste to their food. I learned that it is rude to eat on the train in Japan and that it is more customary to eat on the platform while waiting on the train. Chapter 5 is very informative and helpful as it provides a simple recipe instruction as well as, further background history on how cooking that particular type of meat is utilized and is special within the Japanese culture.

Japanese Street Food for the Soul: 101 Recipes from Japan’s Delicious Street Food Scene: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Vegetables, Sauces, Deserts and MORE! by Sara Sato Jones is a wonderful cook book. The author begins with an explanation as to why she is writing this book about this food, as opposed to sushi or ramen, say, and then moves into explaining the particulars of making such street food—that it is about heat which causes chemical reactions, limited ingredients and “yakimono” kinds of dishes that, according to the author, are great as street food. The author assures us we can get the ingredients we need in our own U.S. stores to create these dishes. There are bright photos and a great history of street food and, in particular, yakimono. Plus, the utensils and cooking containers are described, especially as options. There are all kinds of choices. Next, she delves into etiquette—which there seems to be a lot of, so she does a good job of preparing the reader. Next are the many, many, many detailed, orderly, and easy-to-understand recipes. With more tantalizing pictures. The author rounds out the book with a mindful take on why to explore Japanese food and how it is a beautiful way to explore the Japanese culture.

The recipes don't make a whole lot of sense and it's printed, annotated and organized terribly. The only part of the index that's actually correct is the first recipe. If you want to see how a computer would make teppanyaki it's worth the read. However other than being an interesting thing to laugh at, it's hardly a cookbook and more a waste of energy to produce.

Now I haven’t made anything from this book yet, but it’s full of recipes I can’t wait to try.But there is a critical issue that’s driving me insane.Nothing is in the page it should be, instead being located 4 pages behind. So if you’re looking for, as an examples chicken teriyaki the book says it’s located on page 68. Except it’s not. Page 68 is the second half of Reba Yakitori, and chicken teriyaki is on page 72.

Cheap paperback. On demand printing. Cheap paper, poor black and white photos only. Not. constructedto lay open while cooking. Many animal parts that we don't eat. Will reconsider buying books from Amazon.

The book does not include pictures of the dishes, that's a bit disappointing to me as my appetite is driven by visuals

Two sentences; first in the blurb at that but oh yeah, they got me because seriously *why not?* on any day but especially when at the time of “purchase” this book was for free and while I haven't had the pleasure of going to Japan I've heard that one of the absolute must-have's is the street food so double yeah! And that's without more than the blurb but now having gone through the book I can say that it delivers.One of the things I like most about this book is that it's not just a bunch of recipes it's also a look at technique as in how-to but also as someone who's so-so in the kitchen I really appreciate the basics like how to tackle a chicken because while I don't see myself trying it on for size (I'll stick to buying it done not self-prepping thanks) I hadn't ever really stopped to think about the step by steps so, the more you know.Another thing I really liked is that this is also a dip into the culture (and I mean not just the brief history of street food chapter) take for example this quote: “Yakimono also typically requires little ingredient preparation, making for fast service and easy customization. They are usually served as small orders allowing you to try multiple dishes in a single meal.” I knew that Japanese portion sizes are small (American-sized is what I take as 'standard' so adjust as need be to your own way concept) and obvious as it sounds it just didn't occur to me *the why* they do it like that. Again, the more you know.And back to that point of this being more than just recipes you can also learn a little bit of Japanese, like basic as it sounds I sure didn't know that yaki is the key term pertaining to food items that are cooked over a direct flame, so yakimono is the art of grilling or pan-frying foods. And while this book has a decent page count (and 101 recipes can seem like A LOT of only one style of food) this actually only covers the yakimono portion of Japanese cuisine. Yakimono is presented as a simple and basic style of cooking and because of that doesn't present many regional variations so when you make say the takoyaki in this book it's suppose to be like the standard for how you'd get it anywhere in Japan. I can't say I have the experience to back that but the theory sounds solid.One more pro I'd name is that *without being an expert* most of the ingredients as claimed sound easy enough to get or substitute (again *warning* I'm no chef so it could make all the difference in the world to do something like use regular'ol ground pepper instead of ground sansho pepper).The only “con” or more like nit picky gripe I have with this is that the blurb is slightly deceptive (misleading?) in the part where it lists the recipe total because without counting the 9 “bonus” there's only 92 listed i.e. you need the 9 to get to the advertised 101; *bonus* has the connotation of extra (which to be fair, they are just not in the tally sense but in a 'one more thing you can make/ sauces are a category of their own/ these are sauces you can sub for others in this book' sense). But since I counted more than 9 I'll forgive you... why *are there* more than 9? Happy for the unexpected content but I'm also left scratching my head.So in conclusion, if you're into (or want to know if you'd be into) making your own yakimono then sure I'd recommend this, just keep it real — this isn't going to give you **the skill** it just gives you basic descriptive steps. That said I'm overall persuaded to think this book's at least a decent starting off point in a yakimono journey.