Tag: food

The Kamogawa Food Detective by Hisashi Kashiwai

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The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a uniquely beautiful enjoyable book whose stories combine tantalizing food dishes with the search of said dish by people’s long-lost memories. All this done by a father-daughter food detective team. It’s completely satisfying with remarkable food dishes as well as the mysteries surrounding them. For those able to find the detectives, they hope their search for the missing taste will also help them find the peace they are searching for in their life.

Although they own a restaurant, the father-daughter duo also has an advertisement in a food magazine which allows those who find the ad, to find the detective agency within the restaurant. The clients come in and relay a memory of a certain dish they were fed, try to give as much information about who, what and where they were when they ate it, and then leave the rest to the detectives. Along with the detectives, is an adorable cat named Drowsy, who seems to have terrific intuition as to the emotions of the people trying to find their memory.

Without giving too much away from this delightful story, there are four people who come to visit the detective agency. The food dish stories are:

Nabeyaki Udon which is about a man seeking resolution in order to move on with his life.

Beef Stew about lost love, but was it really lost?

Mackerel Sushi about forgetting where you came from and the importance of the past in order to live in the present.

Napolitan Spaghetti is about food memories which we see and feel one way, not realizing what the truth was from the past which follows us forever.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a book of hugs. One for the stories and one for the readers.

Thank you #NetGalley #G.P.Putnam’sSons #HisashiKachiwai #TheKamogawaFoodDetectives for the advanced copy.

The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath

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The Secret Ingredient is just the most beautiful story filled with grace and kindness. It’s about friendship, loss and the coming together of people through companionship and recipes from their pasts. It’s about heartbreaking pain and how with the help of others even though there is darkness, you can get to the light. In more ways than one.

Kate Shaw’s life changed in the blink of an eye. Now, three years later, with the grief and guilt still overwhelming her, she decides to quit her job as a teacher and do something else. Not sure what, she just knows she as to do something to stop her life from spiraling out of control. Not very close to her mother, she carries her burdens alone. In the dark. With no comfort.

But that suddenly changes when an elderly man named Charles knocks on her door. He tells her the story of how her home use to be a bakery of sorts with tea and he and his wife Mary used to go there. He tells her his wife is ill and the one thing he thinks will help her are the scones which came from this bakery. Now, Kate not only does not cook, although her grandmother did and she still has her recipe book, but the thought of any kind of cooking breaks her heart.

But Charles convinces Kate that Mary would so much appreciate the scones that she could help her make them. In the meantime, as Kate is looking around her neighborhood, which while working she really never did, or never wanted to do, she meets another person, Della who loves to garden. Della offers to help Kate with her gardens which have been neglected. In return, Kate invites her to the tea to try the scones. Della is divorced and lonely, but her dog is everything to her. Of course, she jumps at the chance. Then there is Jack, who himself was a famous restaurant owner/chef who gave everything up. You see, Jack has lost his mojo and by mojo, his sense of taste. Without that, he has nothing. Or so he thinks.

And those my friends are the wonderfully charming characters you will learn to love and care about, even if you say you won’t. It’s about opening up about fears, pasts, guilts and losses. It’s about a group of unknowns who meet and through the love of eating, cooking and memories begin to bond and grow in strength separately and together. My friends, it’s about love.

Each person brings something to the table as they not only share meals but share themselves with the others. Every person has their own special secret ingredient in life. Sometimes if your very lucky you will find others whose ingredients will combine with yours and you will find true happiness in your life too.

Thank you #NetGalley #OneMoreChapter #SueHeath #TheSecretIngredient for the advanced copy.