Marshall

My favourite sauce: Soy Sauce.

Tonight, I barged in on my best friend Dannie’s late afternoon nap to find myself chatting with her mum Kathy instead. Kathy is a part of the Heritage Committee of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and they’ve recently put together one of the most interesting cookbooks I’ve read in ages: Just Add Shoyu: A culinary journey of Japanese Canadian cooking. Hot off the press, this book is an entirely volunteer project and a complete labor of love. They aren’t widely distributed yet (try the JCCC or Wanda’s Pie in the Sky) but I managed to beg a copy off Kathy with the intent to give it to my mum for Christmas.

Spine

I’ve only had the book for the last hour (part of that hour spent behind my camera obviously :P) but the recipes remind me of some of the things I used to have as a kid in Hong Kong. Many of the street eats and comfort foods in Japan are easily found in the rest of East Asia as well and one of my favourites used to be fried wieners. The recipe Shoyu Wieners produces the same result as a trip to my favourite Dai Pai Dong in Kowloon City, just sweet enough and when made with tinned wieners, a super cheap snack.

Fave Recipe

One of my favourite things about cookbooks is the macro photography to go with the recipes. I’ve always loved the range of colours, design and form in the cookwares, dinnerware and cutlery. Each one of the recipes in this book is accompanied by a beautifully shot photo of the end result. My particular favourite, once again, is the photo of the Shoyu Wieners. I love the deep blues in the dinnerware and table in the background and the bright red-burgundy of the soy-brown sugar coat on the little sausages.

Cover + my rice cooker

The back of the book includes a series of stories and a history lesson on Japanese cooking in Canada from 1800 onwards through the internment years to today.

I can’t possibly recommend this cookbook more, and for around $40 it wholly contributes to the ongoing work to preserve Japanese-Canadian history through the JCCC. I know I’m picking up a couple more copies when I can for Christmas presents!

  1. guy-bert posted this