Good food but not so much detecting – Book Review

My introduction to Japanese literary scene is pretty recent and obviously through the translated works. A few gems came to my way were a couple of short books by Haruki Murakami, Honjin Murder by Seishi Yokomizo and Easy Life in Kamasuri. I enjoyed all of them but, you haven’t heard my thoughts about them here. It’s been a long time I have posted a book review for my lovely blog readers. I hope to restart my blogging journey once again with this one.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives came on my feed while I was casually browsing windows of labyrinth of Amazon. Being a sucker for crime fiction genre and a foodie, it grabbed my attention right away. Before I knew, I had got it on my kindle and already opened to read.

What to expect from this?

The Kamogawa Food Detectives take you on a journey of Japanese cuture, cuisine and short trips to a variety of prefectures across the island country. Though it’s about a father-daughter duo hunting for lost recipes for their clients, the book misses the mark about the “hunting” part. It’s a good book offering culinary and philosophical nuggets spread across its pages. Howeveer, if you are coming in with an expectation to read stories of sleuthing, you will be disappointed.

From the blurb

What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?

Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner treats its customers to wonderfully extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason to stop by . . .

The father-daughter duo have started advertising their services as ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they are capable of recreating a dish from their customers’ pasts – dishes that may well hold the keys to forgotten memories and future happiness.

From the widower looking for a specific noodle dish that his wife used to cook, to a first love’s beef stew, the restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to the past – and a way to a more contented future.

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