The Manga Cookbook review

Finally!!! AFTER 6 Long Months waiting for this most important book, it's finally out!!

You've seen your favorite anime or manga characters eating or making food and you know it's all Japanese, essentially. But part of the mystery is what the heck ARE they eating? How do you put together a bentou box? (That's one thing I've wanted to know!)

This has got to be the cutest Japanese cookbook ever produced. It's also very easy to follow. The only problem I can see is procuring the proper ingredients and utensils. Most places in the world are probably with 20 miles of an Asian Food store. Some items are available in your local supermarket but they're likely clueless about some items and won't have everything you need.

The Manga Cookbook is a delight to look at as well as learn from, which lends itself well to teaching the "mitateru" concept behind making your food look as well as it tastes.

If you go on the website www.mangacookbook.com, you'll see they have it available online and with a couple gift set options. While I'm sure you can get a bentou set for less than they're asking, I'm sure what they offer is good quality anyway. The sushi set also available separately is a good bargain.

Some things that disappointed me: I would have liked a section on what a traditional Japanese breakfast is, and there's 27 pages available for "Cook's Notes" which in my opinion would have been better used for a few more recipes, perhaps the breakfast section I wished was in there or some recipes for Desserts like handmade chocolate (for Valentine's Day) or Christmas Cake. Considering the average length of a recipe is about 4 pages long, that might have yielded 6 more recipes, but what is in there is a lot, so you shouldn't be bored too quickly!

The best point of the book are the full color photographs near the front of the book! A VERY good tool to use to make sure what you're being told to make matches what they actually did make. (niko niko)

Usagi Ringo? Tamago tomodachi? Tako sausage? I'm sure we've seen our favorite manga personalities eating these at one time or another - now's the chance to make them yourself! (and understand why some students make their lunches the night before! ^_^) I'm sure for Tako Sausage you can use turkey or chicken franks, which are not only kosher, but better for you. ^_- And yes, for Usagi Ringo, the author mentions Sailor Moon, so there's your connection and a reason to buy this one (as well as Warriors of Legend).

I think the recipe for Tamagoyaki is interesting and I might try it soon. I'd love to get the special pan they make for it. If you live near a World Market store, check them out. Very nice things there for your Japanese cooking needs.

This may be the chance to get those picky eaters who don't otherwise like Japanese food to finally try some and like it! It doesn't look like there'll be another volume to follow, but we can hope.

UPDATE November 2017: THERE IS A 2nd MANGA COOKBOOK! You can find it on Amazon and still published by Manga University! It came out in June 2017!!  Sorry I don't have a link to one listing, but hey, how hard is using Amazon anyway? And YES, I also got one of those special square Japanese egg pans! I also haven't checked to see if their URL still works, but I hope it does.


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