The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina (translated by Lucy Rand)
Last year I read and loved The Library of Heartbeats, so I was very keen to read more from this Italian author who has lived in Japan for many years. Like Library, this book has a fundamentally sad premise but the way that it is written is so beautiful that it is easy to close the book with a smile, even while you ponder the emotions that you have felt while you read.
Near the coast there is a place where there is a man who has a disconnected phone booth, some times known as a wind phone, installed in his garden. People come from miles around to pick up the phone and speak to the people that they have lost. Some times they speak softly and tell their stories. Some times they yell at the top of their voices.
Yui has suffered great loss when her daughter and mother were killed in the 2011 tsunami. Yui finds herself drawn to the garden time and time again, despite the fact that she can't bring herself to actually pick up the phone to speak to her loved ones. There she meets Takeshi who has lost his wife and now his young daughter refuses to speak at all. Can these people who have lost so much, find something to help them be able to live a more full life? Can they allow themselves to be happy.
I have a friend who is a Japanophile and I was talking to her about this authors books, and she started to cry because she said that the stories just sound so Japanese. Interestingly, it seems that this idea of a wind phone has spread around the world. I recently learned that we have some in Australia. There are also at least three Japanese movies/short films about wind phones.
I also wanted to mention how much I love both of the covers on this authors books. They are so simple but totally beautiful!
I don't think any more of this authors books have been translated into English, but if they are I will be reading them!
Rating 4/5
The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama (translated by Takami Nieda)
A while ago I read What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. Whilst I mostly liked it, I did struggle with one particular aspect. So while I looked a this title and think that looks like fun, I was a little nervous. Unnecessarily so it turns out.
This book is set in a Tokyo neighbourhood where there has recently been a new apartment block built. Nearby, there is a small park where one of the installations is a rather worn plastic hippo whose name is Kabahiko. He has scratches on his body and paint where he shouldn't have. But that doesn't stop people from coming to visit the hippo. You see, there is a local legend that if you touch the hippo in the place where you feel pain, then you will be healed.
As the new residents move into the area, we get to understand where their pain is, from a struggling student to a new mother who is feeling lonely and a young man who fakes an injury to get out of sports at school and more. They each find their way to Kabahiko, and slowly they also find others in their community.
Like so many of these cosy, feel good Japanse books, this one of these stories which is episodic in nature. The characters are seemingly very separate but as the book comes together we see how the lives are interconnected.
I was relieved that there was no such issue in this book, and I am really excited that this year we get two new books from Michiko Aoyama, the first of which is called Hot Chocolate on Thursday and it is out in February!
Rating 4/5
Both of these books qualify for the Books in Translation challenge hosted by Jen at Introverted Reader. Healing Hippo also counts for the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted at Dolce Bellezza, and I am sharing this post as part of my personal January in Japan event!
Last year I was tempted into buying two new books all because I wanted a little penguin figurine. One of the two books I chose was Flashlight by Susan Choi which was nominated for the Booker Prize. Fast forward a couple of months and I decided to read the book as part of a buddy read, but my buddy ended up finishing a good couple of weeks before I did. And that's where it started to go a little wrong. This book was a bit of a struggle for me and I almost gave up completely. In the end, it was announced as the starting point for February's Six Degrees of Separation and that was what got me over the line to actually finish it
When 10 year old Louisa is found washed up on a beach in rural Japan, it is assumed that her college professor father, Serk, has drowned. Traumatised, Louisa and her mother return to America and try to start over and forget about their life in Japan.
Serk was a man who was born and grew up in Japan but he had Korean parents. Whilst his parents were tempted to return to what we now know as North Korea by promises of a good life, Serk heads to America, finding work in a small town college. He meets Anne and together they begin a life together. Soon, they have their daughter, Louisa, and together they try to build their lives. He is offered the opportunity to return to teach in Japan and the small family travel together for what is supposed to be just one year.
For Louisa, moving to Japan gives her the chance to go to school in a country where she is still obviously mixed race but she doesn't stand out quite so much. She quickly begins to learn the language and the culture. Anne finds living in a foreign country is very difficult, not least because her body is failing her.
As the years pass in America, the relationship between Louisa and Anne disintegrates. They don't know how to communicate with each other at all, and never really have done. Louisa constantly feels frustrated with Anne and does everything she can to get as far away, both physically and mentally, from her mother
It is only in the second part of the book that it becomes clear what actually happened on that night long ago.
The story itself should be fascinating, especially seeing as it based on true stories of people who just disappeared from the coastal areas of Japan and ended up in North Korean re-education programmes. As Serk undergoes the reeducation program which could end up killing him, he wonders what happened to the little girl that he did everything that he could to protect, and yet he still ended up losing her.
Notice I used the word should in that last paragraph. The thing is, I didn't find any of the characters particularly relatable. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Serk, Anna and Louisa were all quite unlikable. They are often really horrible to each other. I am sure that we were supposed to feel sorry for Anne as it became clear that her illness was not just in her head, and for Louisa after the trauma that she had experienced but I just couldn't.
It didn't help that there were big jumps in time without any explanation. The story was told through alternating chapters from each characters point of view, plus at least one other voice. All of a sudden the character's story would jump forward with little to no warning. For example, there was a whole section set in Europe where Louisa met a man we really only knew a bit of a drifter and that he smelt. Suddenly in another chapter, she has two kids and is married to someone else.
The second half of the book was better than the first so I am glad I persisted, but it is fair to say this won't make my list of favourites for the year. What I can say is that I learned something I didn't know about before. I did know about the treatment of Korean nationals in Japan particularly in before and during WWII after reading White Mulberry last year, but I hadn't ever heard about the abductions. And I do think that I will remember the book, so it will have left it's mark on me, whether I like it or not.
So was it worth it for the penguin? Absolutely. Would I do it again for another penguin? Probably!
I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here. It also counts for my personal January in Japan event.
Melbourne weather is notoriously fickle and we have had some really,really hot days this week with more to come. This week it just so happened that I picked up two books set in the Arctic area of the northern hemisphere, so plenty of snow and ice to cool the brain. The first of those books was The Arctic Cruise by Caroline James. Our characters sailed north to Norway chasing the Northern Lights. It was a fun read. (my review)
Then my thoughts turned to France and pastries when I read The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan. As I stated at the beginning of my review...you had me at boulangerie!
I stepped a bit outside of my normal reading this week and read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. I don't normally read these kinds of psychological thrillers. I picked it up because a friend of mine recently told me that McFadden is her favourite author, and I have noticed how her books are dominated the best sellers lists around the world! Having now read one of her books, I can see why. It was gripping, twisty and turny and definitely made me want to find out what happens next. I have requested the next book from the library but there is a bit of a wait.
Finally, I started Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, which is set in a small town in Sweden. This is the second book in the Beartown trilogy and I'm enjoying it very much. I can't wait to pick it up again today.
I'm watching
I watched the first episode of the Irish show, The Walsh Sisters, which is based on the Marian Keyes books. I wasn't really sure what to make of the first episode. There was lots of drama, but I guess I always think of Marian Keyes as being funny while she tackles heavy issues. I am not sure I got the funny yet. I will keep watching too see if it picks up or not.
Recently, it was announced that the best selling books in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series are being made into a TV series. I thought that it was probably about time that I watched the movie version which was made back in 2018, which is called Cafe Funiculi Funicula. I enjoyed it,, and liked the way that they depicted the person going back in time. It was a bit different to the book, which I guess is to be expected. I liked it, but I am not 100% sure it would have made a lot of sense if I didn't already read the series.
Here's the trailer
Life
It's a long weekend here for Australia Day. It is a bit of contentious holiday. It's not because people aren't proud to be Australian and love our great country, but the date of 26 January is seen as being harmful for indigenous Australians as it represents the day that the British came and took their land and so many of their people in the following years. I would be quite happy to see the date changed to another date that is less painful. It's been changed before and it can be changed again. I am, however, happy to have the additional day off. Work has been pretty stressful so I am grateful for the chance for one extra day to just do not much, especially seeing as we have had some pretty hot days
With the heat comes the threat of fires. Whilst I have never been close to being threatened by a really big fire, I do hate the days that you wake up and all you can smell is the lingering smoke from fires in other parts of the state. It was like that yesterday morning.
Max
Poor Maxxie boy has an eye infection so he looks a bit rough at the moment. It is getting better slowly though. You can also see how bad his blindness is getting. He is, however, still a happy boy. We will see if there is anything that can be done for him this year. With all his other health issues though we are just taking it one condition at a time!
I am currently doing a casual January in Japan on my blog, so I thought I should at least try to cook something Japanese for Weekend Cooking. We have been talking about trying to do Japanese chicken curry for a while so this seemed like the perfect chance.
The idea of what to cook was actually inspired by a new cafe near work. When I go there for lunch, they generally have a few different options, but they always include chicken katsu, Japanese chicken curry, and chicken parma (which is chicken schnitzel with a tomato sauce, ham and melted cheese on top) as a minimum. The interesting thing...they all use the same chicken with breadcrumbs as the base.
So what's the difference between chicken katsu and chicken schnitzel. There are two main things. First, is the type of breadcumbs - katsu has panko breadcrumbs whereas a schnitzel tends to have normal breadcrumbs. The second is that katsu also tends to be deep fried whereas schnitzel is shallow fried.
We ended up using a variety of recipes, from the instruction on the back of the Japanese curry cubes to this video at Recipetin Eats Japan to show us how to butterfly the chicken thighs. This is when you slice the thicker ends of the thigh and fold them out so there is a more even thickness before dipping them in flour, eggs and panko breadcrumbs and frying them.
I do have a recipe in one of my cookbooks to make your own curry cubes, and we might still do that at some point, but for this recipe we just went with the store bought variety.
This is not a precise recipe, as you can adapt it to your own tastes and, as I mentioned before, it is a bit of a mix of various different ideas.
What I will say is that this was delicious. The katsu was really crunchy. We will definitely be putting this into our regular rotation, although if my husband has his way we will just use store bought schnitzels for convenience reasons.
Japanese Chicken Curry
Chicken thighs, butterflied
Eggs, whisked
Flour
Panko breadcrumbs
3 Potatoes
2 Carrots
2 Onions
Japanese curry cubes (for example Golden Curry or Vermont brands)
Rice for serving
For the curry sauce, cook the onions until they are tender but not browned. Add the cubed carrots and potatoes along with sufficient water. When the potatoes are cooked add the curry cubes and cook according to the instructions.
Cook the rice
While the curry is cooking, take the thighs and dip them in the flour so that they are well covered, then dredge through the egg mix, followed by the panko breadcrumbs.
Deep fry for 3 minutes on each side, until the katsu are golden brown and cooked through.
Slice across the narrowest part of the chicken and place on top of the rice and then add the curry sauce.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Out for dinner Sunday - Japanese Chicken Curry Monday - Chicken kebabs, baked potatoes, coleslaw Tuesday - Pork chops, chips and gravy Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise Thursday - Friday - Away for the weekend
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
When I reviewed three Japanese foodie books last week, I had no idea I would be back so soon with another one but here we are.
Over the last few years I have been reading more and more Japanese and Korean fiction, and a large proportion of those have been set in restaurants and cafes. I have also read several books that have been set in bookstores or libraries. So when you find one which is Japanese, foodie and set in a library, of course I am going to have to read it!
Otoha Higuchi really wants to work with books, but working in a large chain bookstore isn't working for her at all. When she is contacted by someone known only as Seven Rainbows offering her a job at a library known only as The Night Library she is at first hesitant. The money isn't great, but it does include board and some food. Whilst her ambitious parents aren't pleased Otaha needs to get out of her current situation so she accepts.
The Night Library isn't really a library in the normal sense of the word, especially seeing as you can't borrow any of the books. It is more a collection of books that have been donated by many authors after their passing. It might include their own books, their research books, the books that they personally loved to read. The people who loved their books might come to the library just to look at the books that their favourite authors loved, or researchers might come to look for specific references. You could call it a book museum.
It is called The Night Library because of the unusual opening hours which are from 7pm to midnight each day.
One mystery about the library is who the owner is. No one has ever met them which the employees do find a bit odd. All instructions for them come via the manager, Mr Sasai.
Otoha's first task in her new role will be to unpack, sort and catalogue all the books as the come in from the various donations. They will then be stamped with an individually designed stamp for each author and then shelved in the library. I did find myself googling to see if the author's that were mentioned were real Japanese authors or made up. I think it is a combination of both
If you have read book like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, you know that often these styles of stories have a fairly standard structure that are almost like connected short stories. This book is far less episodic than most Japanese books I am reading. There is a through story as we follow Otoha as she gets settled into her new role but we also get to hear the stories of the other characters including the manager Mr Sasai, and co-workers Ako and Minami.
Throughout each of the episodes we find out what happens when a new collection arrives, we meet some of the people who come to the library to look at the collections from specific authors for their own reasons, we hear about the team members who has fallen out of love with reading, and about books that start mysteriously appearing in the library but aren't part of the collection. We also meet an author's sister who just wants all their books gone, immediately. Finally, the whole team must deal with the news that the library is going to be closing for a while, but could the owner really be meaning to close it permanently?
I mentioned that this was also a foodie book. That comes in the form of the staff dinners which are prepared by the chef Mr. Kinoshita. He creates menus based on mentions of food in various books.
The episodes each have plenty of food references but specifically
Episode One - Shirobanba Curry
Episode Two - Mamaya's Carrot Rice
Episode Three - Anne of Green Gables Bread and Butter and Cucumbers
Episode Four - Seiko Tanabe's Simmered Sardines and Okara
Final Episode -Yoki Mori's Canned Food Recipes
So much of the food sounded really delicious.
In closing, I thought I would share a quote from Episode Three. As you can see from above, the meal being served is cucumber sandwiches, which the chef was serving with a small bowl of peas. I thought this exchange from page 144 between Otoha and the chef was fun.
"Those are green peas sauteed in butter. I finished them by adding a spoonful of sugar. Do you remember how, when they invited Mrs. Morgan to Green Gables, Anne added too much sugar and spoiled the peas?"
"You've read the books very closely, Mr. Kinoshita. Much more than I have."
"No, just the parts about food. I pored over those to come up with a menu."
As always, he served her coffee after the meal, along with a side dish. Brown, slightly large cubes.
"Mr. Kinoshita, this is ....?"
"Chocolate caramel."
"Really? Anne's chocolate caramel? The kind she always wanted to eat?"
"That's right."
"Ever since I was little I've always been curious about what it tastes like. Whenever I eat Morinaga brand Chocoballs, I wonder if that's how her chocolate caramels tasted."
Otoha took one of the chocolate-colored squares and popped it into her mouth. It melted in her mouth, with a thick aftertaste of both chocolate and caramel. A taste similar to the kind of fresh caramel chocolates that were popular here a while ago, but with a pleasant aroma of milk.
"This is so good!
Otoha then suggests they should market the caramels but the chef is adamant that it is way too much work!
I really enjoyed this novel, which is the first I have read by this author. It looks like they have been quite successful in Japan for a long time, but it seems that this is the first to be translated into English, with a new one coming later this year! I will definitely be reading it!
We are well and truly back into the swing of things in terms of being back at work (not that I took a break), reading and blogging!
Last week I finished a couple of books.
The first was the super fun Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson. This is the second book in the Ernest Cunningham series. I already have the third book in the series out from the library.
Another library book I read this week was Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Hirada, who is a successful Japanese author. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more from her once the English translation is released.
I have started reading Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye who is a Korean author. So far this one is cute!
I have a couple of other books on the go which I have started and not made much progress on. I am hoping to at least finish my audiobook this week. We'll see.
I'm watching
Last year I listened to an audiobook called The Man Who Pays the Rent by Dame Judi Dench. I had also previously watched an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? where she could trace her family line to members of the Danish Royal Court. This week I watched a show called Shakespeare, My Family and Me where she was looking for evidence that maybe her ancestor could possibly have met Shakespeare when the Danish court visited England. It was very interesting!
I also watched the recently released movie adaptation of The People You Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. I thought it was a very watchable rom-com. I laughed out loud at some points, and rolled my eyes at others!
Life
It is summer in Australia but our weather has been a bit all over the place. Last week we had a few very, very hot days! I was glad that I was just able to stay at home. Unfortunately, that means it is also bushfire weather and there were several burning over the last few days. They are fortunately a fair way from me, but there have been lives and homes lost. The biggest impact for me was when I did open the back door, all I could smell was smoke. It is always eerie and brings back bad memories of really bad fire days we have had in the past.
Last week, it was our meetaversary. Apparently we can't call it an anniversary now that we have a wedding anniversary as well. It was 9 years ago that we first met, so we went out to dinner at the Meat and Wine Company. It was a delicious meal.
Have you ever seen the two movies about The Fisherman's Friends? They are really nice, feel good films about a group of fisherman who were discovered singing sea shanties at their village harbour and have gone on to have successful music careers. We went to see them on Saturday night, and it was so much fun! My favourite parts were when they sang without any musical accompaniment - oh the harmonies! - but really the rest of the songs were just sung with an accordion and some guitars. It was a really fun night!
I now have a number of Japanese foodie related series on the go, and today I am sharing about three of them. For the most part, I find them to be very easy, smooth reads which is perfect when you are looking for a book to get lost in.
The Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated by Jesse Kirkwood)
Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai is the third book in the Kamogawa Detective Agency series which is a series that I really enjoy. So far there are 11 books published in Japan, and I am really hopeful that we will continue to see these books translated into English.
There is no doubt that this book fits a very common structure for lots of these cozyish books. In fact, all three of the books I am talking about today have the same characteristics with short stories where the connection is that they feature the same main characters. Often, the story is about looking back to people who they miss.
In Menu, as in the previous books in the series, we have a several individual characters who come looking for the small restaurant in Kyoto which is home to the Kamogawa restaurant and is also home to the detective agency. And lets not forget also home to the cat named Drowsy
In each story, the character is looking for a very particular taste that brings back memories of a particular time in their life. Food, like music, is definitely a key that can unlock memories of particular people or situations. They come to the cafe and share what details, if any, they remember of the dish and then former policeman turned chef Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi then try to track down the exact dish. Then the customer returns two weeks later to see if they have been able to recreate it correctly.
In this book the dishes that he needs to recreate include
Kake soba
Curry and rice
Yakisoba
Gyoza
Omurice
Croquettes
I like that the food is very accessible. It's not fancy, and some times it is the merest change of an ingredient that changes the dish from just the every day to something that the customer remembers so well!
There are a lot of lovely little details in each story. For example, one of the customers is the person who makes the special lacquerware that they use in the restaurant. Having been to Japan I now have a much better idea of what they are talking about, as we had some meals that were served in some beautiful little bowls
Even though this third book is more of the same as the previous two books, the stories still delight me! Bring on the fourth book.
Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (translated by Jordan Taylor)
When we travel we like to collect Christmas decorations. When we were in Japan last year, we looked in quite a lot of the tourist shops and didn't find any Christmas decorations anywhere. I was aware from previous reading that a Japanese Christmas cake is basically a fluffy strawberry and cream cake and that lots of Japanese people like to have Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Day but that was about it in terms of Christmas traditions, which isn't all that surprising given that the majority religion is Shinto. It was therefore a bit of a surprise to realise that this book is a Christmas book.
This is the second book in the Full Moon Coffee Shop series which features giant talking cats, a magical cafe that generally only comes out on full moons and amazing sounding food and drinks. However, the magical cafe can also pop up anywhere in the week leading up to Christmas and this is when this book is set.
This time the stories are also a more connected than they sometimes tend to be in these styles of books. Satomi works hard and long hours in an advertising agency in Tokyo. She is afraid that her boyfriend is going to propose and that he is going to expect her to move away from the sitter. Koyuki is a temp at the same agency. She does good work but never seems to be able to convert her temp work into a permanent role. The final main character is Junko, who is Satomi's sister in law. She has long been estranged from her parents, but when she gets a message to say her dad is dying, she takes her young daughter to meet him for the first time.
For each woman, the encounters at the Full Moon Coffee Shop helps them to look at both their past and their present to understand what happiness might look like in the future.
I mentioned the fantastical sounding food. In this case there is a Cheese Fondue and Candy Apples, a New Moon Mont Blanc and Sparkler Iced Tea. Here is just part of the description of the tea:
"I have prepared this drink for you," he said placing a rather large glass in front of me. It was transparent and shaped like an ancient vase with no handles. Inside was tea, ice and a sparkler firing off bits of light. "It is Sparkler Ice Tea."
I brought my face close to the glass in astonishment, staring dubiously at the sparkler twinkling inside the liquid. How in the world does it work?
The master said, "Tea and memories are extracted like leaping sparks. It will be ready to drink when the sparks have scattered and the last fragment falls."
I read this one on a plane trip to Brisbane and it was the perfect way to pass the time.
This series currently has 6 books in the series. Once again, I will be looking for the next book in the series.
The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Cafe by Yuta Takahashi (translated by Cat Anderson)
The Chibineko Kitchen is in a small seaside village not too far from Tokyo. They specialise in kagezen, which are traditional meals offered in remembrance of loved ones. The twist here is that it is possible that, for the duration of the meal, you can have one last conversation with them, one last chance to tell them that you love them, and to say goodbye.
This book is the second book in the series, and once again we meet both Kai, the young man who runs the restaurant after taking over from his mother, and Kotoko, who was one of the people whose stories we read about in the first book. And then there is Chibi the calico cat.
There are four stories in the book
The first is about Nagi, a young woman who has been ill for most of her life. She has broken up with her boyfriend when he proposed to her because she thinks it would be unfair to marry her. Now, she has come to the restaurant to talk to her mother, who also died young.
Next, we meet a man named Keita who had basically shut himself in the apartment that he shared with him mother. When she dies, he takes on her job cleaning at the community aged care centre and begins to find a purpose.
The third story is about an older lady named Mitsuyo who feels isolated despite living at the aged care centre. She comes to the restaurant hoping to talk to her favourite singer.
And finally, Kumagai, who is in the same theatre group as Kotoko, visits the restaurant to see his son
What makes this book a little different is that you not only get the stories, but you also get the recipes for the food. They include
Tofu no Misozuke (Miso-marinated tofu)
Buta Bara no Kara-age (Fried pork belly)
Iwashi no Kabayaki-don (Soy glazed sardines on rice)
Shime no Kare (Curry using leftover hotpot)
There are currently 10 books in this series in Japanese but this is only the second one to be translated into English.
It is interesting that not only food and structure connects these stories. Cats also play a part in all three of these stories. The other connection is also that, even though some of these stories feature characters who have suffered great loss, particularly in Menu and Calico Cat, ultimately they are stories about finding hope and joy.
Saturday - Baked chicken fried rice Sunday - Curries, rice and roti Monday - Chicken Stir Fry Tuesday -Sausages in tomato sauce with mash potato Wednesday - Homemade pizza Thursday - Out for dinner Friday - Takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Welcome to my own personal January in Japan which I will be doing in conjunction with the Japanese Literature Challenge which runs throughout January and February.
Over the last couple of years, I have been reading more and more Japanese books, but it doesn't stop there. It includes food, movies and more but the big highlight for last year was obviously visiting both Japan and South Korea, which was an amazing holidays.
Since last January, here are most of the things that I have done that have a Japanese connection.
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (review)
After finishing reading The Italian Island Secret by Victoria Springfield (my review here) I then moved onto The Paris Chapter by Victoria Walters. I reviewed that book last week too which you can read here.
I am now reading Paris Bookshop for the Brokenhearted by Victoria, I mean Rebecca Raisin.
Do you see the themes here? I have already read three books this year by authors whose first name is Victoria, and the book I am reading now is my third book with the Paris in the title. I have started to do a visual count for all the books I read this year set in Paris. We will see where I end up!
Here's the current count of completed books:
I'm watching
I went and visited a friend of mine who spent a couple of years living in Japan. We started watching a Japanese show called The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House which is about a young woman who wants to become a geisha, but she doesn't make the grade and ends up becoming the cook for the geishas instead. I will finish the series in due course.
Robert and I watched the new Cunk on Life. It's very silly, but it is a lot of fun!
Here's the trailer
Life
I have so much to talk about this week! So many photos!
I mentioned above that I went and visited a friend who lives in a small town called Yarrawonga which is about 3.5 hours from Melbourne. She moved up there to retire around 3 years ago and we have been up a couple of times, but this time I went up there by myself as Robert had to work.
We spent most of the time just chilling, chatting and taking dips in the pool, particularly on the really hot day. We did go for a truly delicious lunch at a winery in a town about 45 minutes away.
I caught the train back to Melbourne but she drove me to the station and along the we stopped at a few silos and this gorgeous mural in a tiny church. Most of them were ones that I have seen previously, but there were two that were new to me, and a couple of other interesting stops as well.
On Friday night we went to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition which is on at the National Gallery of Victoria. The exhibition was in two parts. We weren't blown away by the first part, but the second half was fantastic! We loved the immersion rooms and the pumpkins and polka dots. I might even go and see the second half again!
And then we visited down to Geelong for the Festival of Sails. It was a lovely way to spend the day! And we got to see the Roulettes which was pretty cool too!
The current selection for Cook the Books is a book that is a bit outside my comfort zone, A Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang is a science fiction novel which was nominated for the best book in that category in the Goodreads Choice awards in 2023.
Our unnamed main character is an American chef of Asian heritage who finds herself outside of the US when all the borders close off around the world thanks to a worldwide food crisis. There is an intense, acidic fog that has spread around the globe which has the effect of destroying all the crops in the world. There is therefore no food for animals and so they have perished too, so there is no meat. All that is left to eat is a high protein mung powder - gray and tasteless. It's not a good time to be a chef. The chef has applied to return to America, but is languishing on a list where she doesn't meet the most desirable requirements, and therefore never gets any closer to the point where she will be allowed to returned.
She applies for a new role which is advertised as a private chef for an "elite research community" which is on a mountain top near the Italian and French border. The research community is privately funded and is very exclusive. You have to be prepared to invest heavily to be invited to be part of the community. On the top of that mountain, they have worked out how to bio engineer the food that no longer exists anywhere else, both in recent history, and from the distant past. In theory, they will be sharing their findings with the world. In reality, this is an enclave for only the chosen few, and the weekly feasts are ever more outlandish and extravagant.
The community is run by a reclusive man and his beautiful, very intelligent, driven daughter, Aida, who are always racing against time to try and develop the food that is lost for their use only. But there is so much more going on here as well. Whilst this is a foodie book exploring the idea of what would happen if food shortages became world wide, it is also looking at the ultimate haves vs the have nots. It is a very sensual book. Here is a passage from very early in the book where she has just arrived at the mountain top.
On my second pass, I spotted a box behind the door. Impress me, this note said. Inside were flour, vanilla, eggs.
I'd expected a test, of course: a textbook omelet, or a flawless consomme to prove the French training the job demanded. Pastry, no. Giddiness abandoned me as I unpacked baking soda, sugar, milk. Even the voluptuousness of the butter couldn't distract from thoughts of my spotty experience in patisserie, and the precarity of my visa, and what would happen were I turned away - and then I was no longer at the bottom of the box I touched something as warm as skin, as yielding as a woman's inner thigh: strawberries.
The sensuousness is not limited to the description of food. There is also an LGBQ+ element to the story when our chef and Aida begin a relationship. But it is complicated because the boss has a very specific role that he is expecting our chef to play, the stakes are high, and so is the tension.
This book was a reminder to me that it is important not to take food for granted. It doesn't take much for there to be food shortages, even here in Australia, where we recently have had egg shortages due to bird illnesses. Our farmland is also shrinking due to the ever increasing size of our cities, and many of our farms are now owned by huge multinational companies. We are lucky that we are able to just go to the supermarket but the food chain is probably more fragile than we realise. Obviously there are also lots of places around the world, where you don't necessarily know where your next meal is coming from on a daily basis.
It's fair to say I didn't love this book, and I was glad when it was done, but sometimes that is what being in a book club is about right? You read the selection knowing that it might not be the kind of book that you would normally read. I did appreciate the way that the author wrote about food and I marked numerous passages.
I did find it interesting to see the intersection between the last three Cook the Books selections. Two books ago we read Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, so lots of honey, and then we read Crying in H Mart which is about Korean food, and this book talked about quite a bit of Korean food.
When deciding what to make I did ponder a number of options. Would it be Souffle Cheesecake, something Korean or some woolly mammoth that I picked up from the supermarket? In the end I was inspired by the very start of the book where our unnamed cook was asked to impress their new employer, using the ingredients described in the passage above.
In the end I decided on Japanese Strawberry Shortcake because I had recently read The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai, which is the second book in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series. One of the stories in that book was where the food detectives were asked to recreate a Christmas Cake, which in Japan is Strawberry Shortcake. Between the description in the book and that story, I knew that was what I would make.
I am not sure that my cake was fluffy enough, and I ended up doubling this recipe to give it enough height, but my husband and I really enjoyed it!
A couple of other comments about the recipe. We can't buy cake flour here, so I made my own by mixing plain flour with cornflour. There are instructions on the internet on how to do this. I also just whipped the cream normally in my stand mixer.
Japanese Strawberry Shortcake
Cake
2 egg whites 2 egg yolks 60 g white caster sugar ½ tsp lemon juice 60 g cake flour sifted 20 g unsalted butter melted + extra to grease the cake pan 1 tbsp milk
Syrup
20 g white caster sugar 40 ml water 1 tbsp your chosen liqueur (optional)
For assembly
300 g cold thickened cream 3 tbsp icing sugar 3 drops vanilla essence of half the amount of vanilla extract 12 medium strawberries mint leaves (optional)
Measure out the sponge ingredients, separate the eggs and leave everything out to reach room temperature for about 20-30 minutes. (Cover the eggs to stop them from drying out).
Grease the cake tin with a thin layer of butter over the base and sides and line it with parchment paper. Start preheating your oven to 180 °C (356 °F) (170 °C (338 °F) for fan assisted).
In a clean, dry glass mixing bowl, add 2 egg whites and ½ tsp lemon juice. Set your electric mixer to a medium-high setting and whisk until foamy and doubled in size.
Add the caster sugar one third at a time, making sure it's fully incorporated before adding the next third.
Continue to whisk on a medium speed until the meringue is smooth and glossy with stable, stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks one at a time, whip using the electric mixer for about 10-15 seconds for each yolk and stop as soon as they're incorporated into the meringue.
Sift cake flour twice into a separate bowl. Sift once more, this time into the egg mixture, adding it one-third at a time and folding it gently with a silicone spatula. Repeat until all of the flour is incorporated into the mixture, being careful not to over-mix.
Mix 20 g unsalted butter (melted) and 1 tbsp milk in a small bowl. Add about 2 tbsp of the sponge batter and whisk them together to temper them. Pour the tempered mixture into the cake batter and fold in gently with the spatula. Once combined, pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and smooth the top and drop the cake tin twice onto a hard surface from about 10cm (4 inches) high.
Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. (Check the cake after 20 minutes and remove once it's golden brown.)
Once the sponge is fully cooked, take it out from the oven and drop it on a hard surface from about 20cm high (8 inches). This will help prevent sinking and shrinking.
Turn upside down onto a wire rack and remove the cake tin. Leave to cool for about 1 hour.
For the syrup, in a small pan, add the caster sugar, 40 ml water and the liqueur if using. Bring to a boil over a medium heat while stirring continuously. Once it starts bubbling, stop stirring and boil for 1 minute before removing it from the heat.
Once the cake has cooled, cut off the top (as thinly as possible to not waste too much) and then cut in half horizontally.
Brush the top of each half generously with syrup and save any leftovers for later.
Prepare the strawberries by washing and then dry them thoroughly with kitchen paper and remove the stems. Save 7-9 of the most beautiful ones for decorating and slice the rest for the filling.
To make the whipping cream take a large bowl and add a few handfuls of ice, then take a smaller glass or steel bowl (preferably chilled) and place it on top of the ice. Pour in the cream and add icing sugar and vanilla essence or extract.
Use an electric whisk (or balloon whisk if you’re whisking by hand) and whip until the cream has peaks and becomes spreadable.
To assemble, place 2-3 spoonfuls of whipped cream in the centre of each half of the sponge. Spread it out to the edges until even and arrange the strawberries on one half.
Flip one half onto the other so that the strawberries are sandwiched between two layers of cream. Brush any leftover syrup on the top of the cake and place it on a easy-to-turn surface (e.g. cake board, paper plate etc.)
Add about 4-5 scoops of whipped cream to the middle and spread it out thinly over the edges. This is a crumb coat (to smooth down crumbs) so scrape off any excess into a separate bowl so that crumbs don’t mix in with the rest of the cream.
Whip up the cream a little bit more to make it a bit thicker and then add 3/4 of it to the top of the sponge and the other 1/4 to a piping bag. Place the piping bag in the refrigerator while you're icing the cake.
Spread out the cream using an icing spatula, making sure the whole cake is smoothly and evenly covered on the top and sides.
Finish the cake by piping swirls around the edge and placing the strawberries in the center. Decorate with mint leaves if using.
The next Cook the Books selection is Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten. This isn't available for me to buy at a reasonable price or in my local libraries so I will probably sit it out, but I will be back for the April/May selection. Maybe I will try one of her recipes in lieu of reading her book.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
The beginning of a new reading year means thinking about which challenges you are going to be participating in.
I am very much committed to making the challenges fit my reading as opposed to specifically reading for a challenge. Of course, the first challenge I am going to mention is one where I will go exactly opposite but never mind!
The first I am going to mention is Japanese Literature Challenge 18, hosted by Dolce Bellezza. I have several books in mind to read during January and February for this challenge! I am also intending to post a few other things during January about all things Japanese which will be for my own January in Japan, but we will see how we go!
Toe in the Door: 1-10 books read Picking and Perusing: 11-20 books read Lost in the Stacks: 21-30 books read Living in the Library: 30+ books read
And I am choosing Picking and Perusing!
The challenge is the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog, where you can add any books you read that have been released in 2025.
The levels are
1-30 books per year – New Release Newbie 31-60 books per year – New Release Pro 61-100 books per year – New Release Veteran 101-200 books per year – New Release Enthusiast 200+ books per year – New Release Obsessed
20th Century Reader - 2 books Victorian Reader - 5 books Renaissance Reader - 10 books Medieval - 15 books Ancient History - 25 books Prehistoric - 50+ books
I am aiming for Ancient History!
I reserve the right to add more challenges at any time. I am also declaring now that ,of course, I am going to be participating in Paris in July when the time comes!
Oh, and I have set my Goodreads Challenge at 104 books!
What challenges are you participating in this year?
Do you have memories of a dish that was just so delicious that it lives on in your memory, and whenever you try to recreate that same dish it just isn't quite the same? It just never quite lives up to the memory no matter how often you try? I do. One of my own examples is a garlic prawns dish that I had in the early 1990s in Perth, or more precisely Fremantle. From memory it didn't look flash but it was the perfect ratio of prawns, garlic and rice. Now, I have tried garlic prawns in restaurants many times but it has never quite reached the same level of enjoyment as that one dish. Who knows if it was really that good, but it is in my memory.
Welcome to the Kamogawa Diner. There is no sign over the door, and the only advertising is a vague one line ad in a gourmet magazine. But this is no ordinary diner. Whilst they do serve food and have some regular customers, they also have a side business as food detectives.
What you may ask is a food detective? In this case, it is a former police detective, Nagare Kamogawa, and his daughter Koishi. If their potential clients can find them, they share their story of that one dish with Koishi. Her father does whatever it takes to be able to recreate the dish when the client returns two weeks later, and hope that the dish illicits the correct memories.
This book has has a similar structure to other books like Before the Coffee Gets Cold. There are episodes where we meet each new client, learn their story and then hear the outcomes. Another comparison would be the TV show Midnight Diner, which has a similar structure with the clients coming and telling their story and going again. It seems that these styles of stories are the Japanese books that are coming across my radar because I have read a couple of others this month which have a similar structure
Because food, like music, can be such a trigger for memories, a lot of the stories in this book are about the people who we have lost.The first story is about a man called Hideji, who is a former colleague of Nagare. They had worked together as police officers. He is now trying to track down exactly what made his deceased wife's version of nabeyaki- udon so special. He has moved on and now has a new relationship but her nabeyaki-udon just isn't the same!
Other stories include woman looking to recreate a beef stew that she was eating when she received quite a shock, a man looking to recreate a mackerel sushi he ate 50 years ago, a woman looking to recreate a Napolitan Spaghetti dish she shared with her grandfather, a woman looking for a tonkatsu and a man looking for the recipe for nikujaga which his mother used to make.
There is so much food in this book! So much! One of the enjoyable things is that often Nagare has to travel to different areas in order to learn more of each client's origins and as a result we get to see food from those various areas. But we also get glimpses of life in Kyoto which is where the diner is. We also get some insights into some food culture. For example, there is a particular character who has a very strong opinion on the use of the word dessert.
"There's also dessert - sorry, I mean the mizugashi course. So please take your time," said Koishi, shrugging her shoulders.
"That's right, Koishi. There's no such thing as "dessert" in Japanese cuisine. The fruit served at the end of the meal is called mizugashi. We're not in France, after all!" said Tae, her nostrils flaring.
"Really, Tae, you never change, do you? Always fussing over the strangest things.....I'm not sure it really matters," said Nobuku, setting down her bowl.
"No, it does matter. If you mess around with language like that, it's culture that suffers. Traditional Japanese sweet dishes are in decline precisely because people insist on calling them English words like "dessert"!"
I really enjoyed this book, and yes, the cat on the cover plays a role!
We have recently booked a trip to Japan next year, and we will be stopping by Kyoto for a day. Maybe I could stop in at the Kamogawa Diner and see if they can figure out the secret to my garlic prawn dilemna and try some mizugashi?
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
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