Oishinbo, a famous manga that teaches you all about Japanese food

I read a lot of manga when I was growing up, and so did my mom. She was obsessed with this one series called Oishinbo, a story about a food critic and his culinary adventures across the country &mdash it was so detailed and precise that you learned a ton about Japanese food and how to enjoy it just from reading.

Several volumes of Oishinbo are already available in English &mdash Oishinbo: Ramen and Gyoza, Oishinbo: Sake, Oishinbo: Izakaya--Pub Food, and Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice are some of them.

I can confidently say that, if you want to learn about the intricacies of Japanese food, or if you want to know why Japanese people are so obsessed with white rice (last winter, I went to a restaurant in Tokyo where their specialty was white rice), reading this series is the best and most fun way to do it. The newest volume, Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi, and Sashimi, comes out in July and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Oishinbo, Volume 1 by Tetsu Kariya

Comments

[Garth Webb]

This sounds very interesting! I read the first volume of Yakitate Japan (AMZN: http://tr.im/pEg5) about a Japanese boy who wants to create the national bread of Japan and I liked it a lot. Before then I'd never really thought about food manga...

[Jorgebob]

These are great comics! I have about 30 of the Japanese language ones. I was given a couple of them by a Japanese former graduate school classmate of a friend. I've since seen the animated and live TV shows and the theatrical release. The stories are full of great information and served me well on my trips to Japan. This comic book is resposible for fueling my food obsession. There's also Natsuko's Sake but I've only seen the TV show.