9780593717714: The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0593717716 ISBN 13: 9780593717714
Verlag: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?


Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by . . .


The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.


A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hisashi Kashiwai was born in 1952 and was raised in Kyoto. He graduated from Osaka Dental University. After graduating, he returned to Kyoto to open a dental clinic. He has written extensively about his native city and has collaborated in TV programs and magazines.

Jesse Kirkwood is a literary translator working from Japanese into English. The recipient of the 2020 Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize, his translations include The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto and A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1
Nabeyaki-Udon

1

Walking away from Higashi Honganji temple, Hideji Kuboyama instinctively turned up the collar on his trench coat.

Dead leaves swirled in the chilly air. That must be the famous Mount Hiei wind, he thought to himself, knitting his brows as he waited for the signal to change.

It was just like people said: in Kyoto, the cold cuts to the bone. In midwinter, freezing air rushes down from the mountains that surround the city on three sides. In Kobe, where Hideji had been born and raised, the winds that blew down from Mount Rokko were formidable too. But here, the quality of the cold was somehow different. As he made his way down Shomen-dori, he cast his gaze towards the snow-capped peaks of the Higashiyama mountains in the distance.

Hideji stopped a postman sitting astride a red scooter and asked for directions. 'Excuse me. I'm looking for a restaurant round here. The Kamogawa Diner, I think it's called.'

'If  it's Mr Kamogawa you're after, his is the second building after that corner,' replied the postman in an extremely matter-of-fact tone, pointing down the right-hand side of the street.

Hideji crossed the street and stood in front of the two-storey structure. It didn't look much like a restaurant, though traces of a former sign and a display window remained. Two squares of white paint had been scruffily applied to the exterior wall. However, it had none of the gloominess of a vacant building, instead radiating a human warmth that suggested it was still very much a working restaurant. While its appearance might have been off-putting to the average tourist, the smells drifting out were enticing, and from inside came the sound of cheerful banter.

'This place has Nagare written all over it,' muttered Hideji, casting his mind back to the days he'd spent with Nagare Kamogawa, his former colleague. The two of them had both moved on to other things now. Despite being Hideji's junior, Nagare had been the first to quit the police.

He looked up at the restaurant, then opened the sliding aluminium door.

'Welcome to - oh! If it isn't Hideji!' Koishi Kamogawa, a round tray in her hands, froze with surprise. Koishi was Nagare's only daughter, and Hideji had known her since she was a baby.

'Koishi! Well, aren't you all grown up,' said Hideji, removing his coat.

'Hideji? Is that you?' called Nagare as he emerged from the kitchen in his white apron.

'So this is your place, after all,' said Hideji, grinning broadly at Nagare.

'I can't believe you found us. Please, take a seat. Sorry the place isn't much to look at.' Nagare wiped down the red cushion of one of the chairs.

'I guess I haven't lost my intuition yet,' said Hideji, blowing into his numb hands to warm them as he sat down.

'How many years has it been, you reckon?' asked Nagare as he removed his chef's hat.

'I suppose the last time was your wife's funeral.'

'You were a real help that day,' said Nagare, bowing in gratitude. Koishi followed suit.

'I don't suppose you could rustle something up for me? I'm ravenous,' said Hideji, glancing sideways at a young man who was shovelling down a bowl of katsudon.

'I usually ask first-time customers to leave it up to the chef,' said Nagare.

'Sounds good to me,' said Hideji, meeting Nagare's gaze.

'Coming right up, then. Just give me a moment,' said Nagare, donning his hat again as he turned away.

'Oh - and no mackerel, please!' said Hideji, before taking a sip of his tea.

'Don't worry - I remember. We've known each other long enough!' replied Nagare over his shoulder.

Hideji looked around the restaurant. Apart from the young man, the five counter seats by the kitchen were unoccupied. There was no one else sitting at the four tables either, and nothing resembling a menu in sight. The clock on the wall showed ten past one.

'Koishi, can I get some tea?' said the man eating katsudon, setting his now-empty bowl down on the counter.

'You shouldn't wolf your food down like that, Hiroshi. It's bad for your digestion,' said Koishi, pouring tea from a small Kiyomizu-ware teapot. Meanwhile, Nagare brought out Hideji's food on a tray.

'Looks like quite the feast!' said Hideji, his eyes widening.

'Not really. They call it "Kyoto comfort food" these days, but in the past no one would have dreamed of charging people money for simple fare like this. Still, I thought it might be the sort of thing you'd enjoy.' Nagare was unloading various dishes and small bowls from the tray, arranging them one by one on the table.

'You're not wrong. Looks like your intuition hasn't faded either.'

As Hideji's gaze skipped between the various dishes, Nagare went on:

'Stewed arame and deep-fried tofu. Okara croquettes. Kikuna leaves dressed with sesame and miso. Kurama-style sardine. Hirosu tofu ball in broth. Pork belly simmered in Kyobancha tea. Fresh tofu curd with sour plum paste. Oh, and Koishi's rice-bran-pickled cucumbers. Nothing too extravagant. If anything, the highlights are probably the firmly cooked Goshu rice and the miso soup with ebi-imo taro. Anyway, enjoy the meal. Oh, and make sure you put a good sprinkle of sansho pepper on the soup - it'll warm you right up.'

His eyes gleaming, Hideji nodded along to Nagare's every word.

'Tuck in while it's hot!' urged Koishi. Hideji sprinkled the sansho pepper and picked up the bowl of miso soup. When he sipped it one of the chunks of taro tumbled into his mouth. Chewing on it slowly, he nodded once, twice, and then a third time.

'This miso soup's fantastic. What rich flavours!'

With the thin-rimmed rice bowl in his left hand, his chopsticks danced back and forth between the dishes, reaching towards each in turn. He took a piece of the pork belly, dripping with sauce, and set it on top of the white rice before transporting it to his mouth. As he carefully bit into the meat, a smile began to spread across his face. Next he crunched through the coating of the okara croquette, savouring the soy pulp filling. When he placed the hirosu tofu ball on his tongue, the delicately flavoured broth oozed out, some of it spilling from his mouth. Hideji wiped his chin with the hand holding his chopsticks.

'More rice?' asked Koishi, offering him her tray.

'You know, I haven't eaten this well in quite a while,' said Hideji, placing his depleted rice bowl on the tray.

'Well then, better eat your fill!' said Koishi, hurrying off to the kitchen with the tray.

'Is the food alright?' said Nagare, coming over to the table just as Koishi was leaving.

'More than alright. I'm struggling to believe a mere mortal acquaintance of mine could have put this kind of meal together.'

'Oh, no need for that kind of talk. I'm just an old codger who happens to run a restaurant,' said Nagare, looking humbly at the floor.

'So, Hideji, what are you up to these days?' said Koishi, appearing again with the bowl, now piled high with rice.

'I retired from the force last year. I'm on the board of a security company in Osaka now,' said Hideji, gazing eagerly at the glistening white rice before getting to work with his chopsticks.

'Sounds like they've sorted you out with a nice position. I have to say though - you haven't changed a bit. Still got that sharp look in your eyes!' said Nagare, meeting Hideji's gaze.

'The bitterness of these kikuna leaves works very nicely. A real Kyoto flavour, isn't it.' Hideji positioned the rest of the salad on top of his rice before polishing it off. Then he crunched on one of the pickled cucumbers.

'How about steeping your rice in tea? You could mix it with some of the sardine. Koishi, why don't you pour him some hojicha?'

Taking her cue, Koishi poured the hot tea from a Banko teapot.

'So you...

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Verlag
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593717716
ISBN 13 
9780593717714
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Deutschland

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Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  1035009595 ISBN 13:  9781035009596
Verlag: Pan, 2024
Softcover