Day: December 25, 2018

Book review: Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine

Oishinbo a la carte, Volume 1: Japanese Cuisine.Oishinbo a la carte, Volume 1: Japanese Cuisine by Tetsuya Kariya and Akira Hanasaki.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

I’m pretty surprised that the Masterchef crowd haven’t latched onto the long-running Oishinbo (The Gourmet) the way they’ve put boots on the ground for Gourmet Traveller. Perhaps it’s because there’s a loud-mouthed character in this seinen manga who’s perfectly willing to underscore their lack of culinary knowledge, rather than to foster their kitchen fantasies.

I mean:

ALSO YOUR MOTHER ALWAYS HATED YOU. 

(more…)

Book review: The Penguin Book of Oral Poetry

The Penguin Book of Oral Poetry.The Penguin Book of Oral Poetry edited by Ruth Finnegan.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

Just a short review, as it’s almost impossible to adequately review anthologies of poetry, I find.

First, this took a long time to read – almost two years on and off – because I found I couldn’t inhale whole tracts of it at a stretch. It’s probably best used as an occasional thing, as something you dip into when the mood strikes. I think it’s probably doing a disservice to the cultures covered to whip through all of their inclusions in one setting, anyway.

Two verses and THEN the solo, right? 


(more…)