JAPANESE CUISINE: A Culinary Tour

A lovely book for the gourmet who enjoys pottering about for unusual ingredients and who has some knowledge of Oriental cookery. Charmingly illustrated by Yoshie Noguchi, this is a relaxed and fairly easy-to-follow ramble through regional goodies, with a warm-up devoted to the locale from which each recipe evolved, running alongside. The recipes have been ""Americanized"" as far as possible (presumably this means eliminating regional accessories like seaweed and open fires) and there is no need to be put off by ingredients like ""Miso paste"" or ""Daschi"" --a fine and full glossary is included as well as (may the author live a thousand delicious years) a directory of stores stocking the rarer items. A gourmet special.