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Rating: 
Summary: A good, simple cookbook
Review: "Japanese Vegetarian Cooking: From Simple Soups to Sushi" is a fantastic beginners guide. The language is simple, the instructions easy to follow and the ingredients easy to find. Many recipes use Sake, Japanese Mirin wine and varieties of Tofu and Seaweed. These are the most difficult ingredients to locate.Although the recipes are simple, they are very good and can be the base of a daily Japanese menu. Full dinners, snacks, lunches, soups and all that are available for cooking. Rice is a main component of most of the dishes, but there are some excellent potato recipes and more vegetable-rich dishes. The glossary of ingredients is a usefull addition. I have made many meals using this cookbook, and I will make many more.
Rating:
Summary: A good, simple cookbook
Review: "Japanese Vegetarian Cooking: From Simple Soups to Sushi" is a fantastic beginners guide. The language is simple, the instructions easy to follow and the ingredients easy to find. Many recipes use Sake, Japanese Mirin wine and varieties of Tofu and Seaweed. These are the most difficult ingredients to locate. Although the recipes are simple, they are very good and can be the base of a daily Japanese menu. Full dinners, snacks, lunches, soups and all that are available for cooking. Rice is a main component of most of the dishes, but there are some excellent potato recipes and more vegetable-rich dishes. The glossary of ingredients is a usefull addition. I have made many meals using this cookbook, and I will make many more.
Rating:
Summary: Hey, sushi lovers -- ya gotta try this!
Review: I grew up eating Japanese and Hawaiian cuisine 20 years before they became popular. This is the best Japanese cookbook I've ever come across for a number of reasons: 1) sushi-making is set forth so simply here, a child could follow it, 2) the major types of Japanese fare are included in this book in such way as to please the most Western of palates, 3) the recipes readily lend themselves to meat and seafood variations and 4) the ingredients are fairly easy to find at regular supermarkets or whole foods markets. However, when making any sushi roll recipe, you really do need to invest in a bamboo rolling mat (I got mine for a couple of bucks from AsiaFoods.com) and a bag of koshihikari (sushi rice -- I get mine in 5 lb. bags at my local Stop 'n' Shop). If you get the equipment and follow the tips in this book, you'll make a perfect roll the first time you try. If you like sushi but don't like driving 20 miles to find a sushi bar and, once you get there, don't like the prices, then this is THE cookbook for you!
Rating: 
Summary: no pictures
Review: I strongly recomend this book not only to those that have always wanted to learn how to cook easy or elaborate japanese recipes, but also to the ones that want to know what is behind the food. And, of course, this book is a trasure for vegetarians and vegans out there, since it does not use any dairy. Every single recipe has an introduction to it that tells the story of it, the tradition, how and when is usually made in Japan. Other than that, the author writes a lot about japanese culture on food, especially vegetarian, of course; she describes a characteristic japanese meal and gives different menus, so we can serve one (or more) ourselves,from soup to salads, from pickles to sushi. The book also contain a very nice glossary of ingredients and tools, making it easy to understand all the recipes. Moreover, there are some addresses for ordering the ingredients through the mail. This book has all it's needed to prepare great japanese food!
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, a non-fish/non-poultry Asian cookbook
Review: I was pleasantly surprised to finally find an Asian vegetarian cookbook that does not contain any fish or poultry ingredients. Most that claim to be vegetarian,aren't. This book is different. Even the recipe for dashi is purely plant based. If you are vegan, the author does note what you can do to alter the recipe as egg is sometimes listed as an ingredient.
The recipes are easy to read and a delight to prepare. One of my favorites is the egg omlet. The flavor is very light, delicate, and slightly sweet. What a change from traditional Western omlets. This is great sliced and sprinkled across rice, rolled up into sushi, added to soups, or just eaten on its own.
If you are looking for a cookbook that provides more of the authentic Asian flavor, this is it. Mirin, sake, soy sauce, and rice vinegar are sauce staples. If your local grocery store does not carry these items, ask them. If they won't, then either order them online or search for an Asian market within driving distance.
It would have been nice if the book displayed the picture on the same page as the recipe itself. Even though there are a limited number of photo pages, there are multiple dishes per page, but I wasn't certain which dish represented which recipe (some were easy to figure out). More pictures would have turned this into a 5 star review.
Rating:
Summary: Good resource
Review: This is a good cookbook - one I appreciated finding since there aren't many japanese vegetarian cookbooks out there! First, the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 ios because I really like to have more pictures when it comes to ethnic cooking. It not only gets me interested in trying new things but also gives me ideas for presentation. This book only has 8 pages of pictures. But that aside, the recipes are tasty. Some of the ingredients are hard to find (like the specific types of seaweed) but if you have an asian store near you'll find what you need. I've found some things on the internet too (the world at your finger tips!) I recently bought a deep fyer and am looking forward to trying out some of the deep fried tofu recipes. You need to like tofu I think to get the best use out of this book since there is a lot in here. I recommed it though - fun to experiement and try new things.
Rating:
Summary: Good resource
Review: This is a good cookbook - one I appreciated finding since there aren't many japanese vegetarian cookbooks out there! First, the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 ios because I really like to have more pictures when it comes to ethnic cooking. It not only gets me interested in trying new things but also gives me ideas for presentation. This book only has 8 pages of pictures. But that aside, the recipes are tasty. Some of the ingredients are hard to find (like the specific types of seaweed) but if you have an asian store near you'll find what you need. I've found some things on the internet too (the world at your finger tips!) I recently bought a deep fyer and am looking forward to trying out some of the deep fried tofu recipes. You need to like tofu I think to get the best use out of this book since there is a lot in here. I recommed it though - fun to experiement and try new things.
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