Cookbook: My Japanese Table

the appetizer:

My Japanese Table, A Lifetime of Cooking with Friends and Family by Debra Samuels includes recipes like String Beans with Crunchy Toasted Peanuts Ingen no Peanutsu Ae; Simmered Daikon with Citrus Miso Sauce; Eriko's Onion, Clam, and Potato Fritters Kakiage; and Elementary School Sampler Bento.

My Japanese Table
A Lifetime of Cooking with Friends and Family

by Debra Samuels

Click to buy My Japanese Table

In Debra Samuels' new cookbook My Japanese Table, the bestselling author, food writer and cooking instructor takes readers with her on a journey to Japanese home kitchens.

With more than 25 years of experience as a cooking instructor teaching groups of Japanese how to cook American food or American teachers how to put together a Japanese obento lunch, Samuels' recipes capture pockets of time from across four decades of experience there. Designed for people who love Japanese food, My Japanese Table, is filled with recipes collected from cooking instructors and friends. It also offers useful cooking tips, and is sprinkled throughout with personal stories and her love and enthusiasm for Japan.

Highlight recipes include familiar favorites like Chicken Teriyaki and Jumbo Shrimp Tempura as well as contemporary ones like Lobster Hand Rolls with Wasabi Mayonnaise, Spicy Tuna Tartar Shiso Wraps and Mochi-Wrapped Strawberries. Debra also provides an educational chapter on Obento, the Japanese lunch box. When her son was a first grader in Japan, Debra created a daily obento for him, just like all the other moms in the neighborhood. She is still crazy about Japan's bento boxes—and shows how to adapt them to western-style lunchware.

Debra Samuels also provides a variety of attractive and healthy recipes that suit the weight conscious adult at the office as well as children and teens. In addition, Debra's Japanese Dessert chapter includes new favorites like Black Sesame Ice Cream, Toasted Sesame Chiffon Cake and Matcha Mochi Cupcakes.

About the Author

Debra Samuels, cookbook author, food and travel writer and cooking teacher, has been working with children and families for over twenty-five years. Since 2000 she has been a regular contributor to the food and travel sections of The Boston Globe. Debra has lived abroad for more than a decade in Japan and Italy, where she studied Italian, Indian, Korean, and Japanese cuisine. She has done countless cooking demonstrations and classes on food culture in the Boston area as well as for the Japan Information and Culture Center of the Embassy of Japan in Washington DC, the United States Embassy in Tokyo and for its American Cultural Centers in Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka.