The Book : Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Food: 'Spicy duck and soba noodles in broth' from Japanese Home Cooking by Sonoko Sakai
Before:
While most of the countries we have done so far have been chosen after either a book or dish was discovered, Japan was more of a last minute decision when I realised I had both a book and a recipe I wanted to try and thought, 'hey, three birds, one stone'. Having heard good things about Before the Coffee gets Cold, and enjoying all the Japanese literature I have read before, I picked this up a while ago and never got round to reading it. Faced with a reading slump I could not get out of for love nor money, the idea of a relatively short, easy read was very appealing. The recipe book, Japanese Home Cooking, was a purchase from earlier in the year. I had tried a couple of recipes from it, but as a lot of the recipes require the preparation of a number of elements first, another lockdown seemed like a great time to dive in to this one particular dish I'd been eyeing up for a while.
The recipe required a bonito and kombu dashi, or broth, (which in itself needed a trip to a Japanese supermarket for the kombu) and a shoyu tare, sauce, which I had made previously for another recipe so had everything for already. I had to substitute a couple of things, such as the Japanese leeks for the topping. Usually these are easy to get here, but I guess I got unlucky on my trip to the supermarket and given the Covid situation it seemed irresponsible to go traipsing round the city for them. So I did a mushroom topping instead. I love mushrooms. I did not make the soba noodle by hand. I would love to try sometime, but given all the other prep I decided to stick with shop bought this time round.
A note about this book: It is lovely. Sonoko Sakai breaks down all of the elements of Japanese food and cooking and explains them all so wonderfully. It is such an interesting read. The first half of the book talks about the Japanese pantry and gives information and recipes for the essentials of Japanese cooking, such as the aforementioned dashi. The second half then shows you how to use though basics in meals, with chapters detailing breakfasts, meat dishes, sweets, and more. It is peppered with stories about food and the relationships she's forged because of it. If there's one thing I've learned this past year (and there might be only one thing), it's that I love recipe books that are also used to tell the stories of food. If you are looking for a book of easy, low maintenance recipes this may not be for you. But if you want to delve deeper into Japanese food and dedicate some time to it, then it is totally worth it.
Before the Coffee gets Cold was a lovely read. The premise is that there is a café that allows you to travel back in time, however there are rules to follow. Let's face it, there has to be, otherwise it'd be a mad free for all, unable to be contained in the pages of this short novel. It managed to be both simply written and beautifully descriptive at the same time. Some of the books we have read so far have really stuck with me for a long while after, but I have to say this did not so much. I don't really think this is a criticism. Sometimes it is good to be left with much to ponder at the end, and sometimes you just want a nicely told story. This was exactly what I wanted at the time, and it delivered wonderfully.
After:
The soup was delicious. Everything you expect from a Japanese broth - somehow incredibly light and yet also layered with flavours, and gratifyingly warming. The duck came out perfectly, which I am very smug about although as usual, the recipe really did the heavy lifting there. The book was a lovely read, perfect for a bit of a book slump. Both would be ideal for a cold evening curled up on a sofa. Unfortunately I was unable to arrange for the weather conditions to be quite right, but reminiscing over the Christmas we once spent in Japan helped create a bit of that atmosphere. Highly recommend both.
Other Japanese literature you may be interested in:
Anything by Haruki Murakami - some parts of his writing I'm not such a fan of, but I love his style
The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa - not finished this yet, but I'm loving it so far
There is so much Japanese literature translated into English. It's definitely worth checking it out. (EDIT (31/07/21): found an article 'Beyond Haruki Murakami: 9 Japanese Authors You Should Know' and Mieko Kawakami and Sayaka Murata are both now on my ever increasing list of authors to check out.)
**Note for future self: Need more synonyms for 'lovely'.**
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