The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai and translated by Jesse Kirkwood
Pack up cos we’re going on a Kyoto food trip!
Get to my age and you’ll realize that nostalgia can be just as vital an ingredient.
Warning. Don’t read this hungry.
Father and daughter duo Nagare and Koishi run the Kamagowa Food Detective Agency where they can recreate any food you dream of eating again but is unable to do so. Koishi interviews the customers about the meal they want recreated - where and when they ate it and what it tasted like. She also asks a little bit of the customer's background to get a sense of the dish. Nagare then recreates the dish using the information Koishi has gathered during the interview.
I had initially thought that Nagare and Koishi recreates the dish by just trial and error through the information in the interview. But they actually do real detective work. For example, this one customer asked to recreate a particular udon that his deceased wife used to make. To do this, Nagare went to the neighborhood the couple used to live to get a sense where the wife sourced her ingredients to make the udon. Nagare used to be a policeman so he knows a little bit about snooping. The detective work that Nagare does is my favorite part of the book.
The chapters are structured as one story with the chapter name as the food the customer wants recreated. Each story's flow is basically the same - a customer describes their requested dish, Nagare then "solves" the case, he goes on how he was able to get the exact taste the customer is looking for, then we get the reason why this customer wants to eat the said dish again. Towards the end of the visit, the customers end up learning more about themselves than when they first arrived thanks to Nagare’s detective skills. The stories behind the dish are heartwarming - reminding us that food isn't just food. It's memories, it's friendship, it's family, but also heartbreak.
Aside from the detective work that the father-daughter does, they also run a restaurant serving traditional Japanese food. The book showcases Japan’s varied food culture. Nagare recreates regional dishes tied to a prefecture’s heritage and season and sources local ingredients to a T. He even scrutinized the water used to recreate a requested dish. Each chapter is filled with mouthwatering descriptions of food and flavor. When a first time visitors dine at Kamagowa Diner, they are served with a feast. Something like this.
Japanese literature has one of the most unique stories I have ever read. I don’t think I have ever read a culinary mystery novel before! The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a comfy and short read. I think you can finish it in an hour or two. From now on, I think I will be dissecting every restaurant dish I taste. Sayonora and I’m off to eat ramen now.
What I’m Reading This Week
In between starting the draft of this review and scheduling it, I actually finished two books and I feel like I am in this floating state without a book in hand. I am planning to just reread old favorites but can’t still decide what to read next. Can you help me pick my next read? Right now I’m just playing a video game to tether me between books.
