Posts Tagged ‘Tetsu Kariya’

Ask the Vegetable Garden

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Viz only released seven volumes of Oishinbo A la Carte in the United States, despite there being about twenty volumes to draw from (as well as over 100 volumes of the unabridged manga, but it’s understandable that no one wants to go through the massive undertaking of translating and releasing the entire series). The A la Carte volumes draw from the entire back catalog of Oishinbo adventures, and thus can be read in any order, which is how “Vegetables” came to be the final volume that I read. And it’s a personal shame, because the vegetable volume is probably the weakest of the entire series as released in English.

Many of the stories presented in Oishinbo have a very technical minded focus—how to cut, season, boil, grill, and so forth—with the stated intent to bring the best flavor out of the ingredients. With a lot of the food presented, the flavor and texture were often dependent on well each dish was prepared. This was especially prominent in the volumes on fish (including sushi and sashimi), rice, and sake. But with vegetables, the emphasis switches more to the quality of the ingredients. It’s not that the quality didn’t matter before, but here it is paramount and almost a given. As long as the vegetables are native to the area and not treated with pesticides and herbicides—a point hammered forth repeatedly in this volume—the vegetables will be delicious, and the characters must learn to appreciate that. Most of the stories are about how the goodness and purity of vegetables will bring people together and solve their problems. That’s fine in small doses, but in succession it can get boring.

The best story in A la Carte Vegetables is an installment of the ongoing Ultimate Menu vs. Supreme Menu battle, where Yamaoka and Kaibara Yūzan do battle with cabbages and turnips. The battles are some of the most exciting  parts of Oishinbo, so it’s good that they included one here. But even that story comes down to the goodness and purity of vegetables, and the way Yamaoka is always missing or misunderstanding some key ingredient has become rather formulaic after reading seven (much less a hundred) volumes.

Even with that repetition I still find the series an enjoyable read, and am sad to see the English-speaking world denied any further volumes of this addictive and mouthwatering manga.

Oishinbo A la Carte: Vegetables
story by Tetsu Kariya
art by Akira Hanasaki
translated by Tetsuchiro Miyaki
edited by Leyla Aker and Jonathan Tarbox
published by Viz Signature (San Francisco, 2009)
ISBN 978-1-4215-2143-5

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The Soul of the Japanese Kitchen

Friday, October 29th, 2010

One of the problems I had with the Oishinbo A la Carte series was its lack of context. By collecting stories based on the foods they cover, they gave you a generous helping of a particular subject, but there were also snippets of actual plot that were tantalizing, but ultimately not very filling—they just made you hungry for more.

Read multiple volumes, however, and the larger picture starts to emerge. It’s still somewhat fragmentary, but sometimes it seems like the stories were chosen far more carefully than just by what foods they feature. One volume may reference a story that happens to appear in another volume; others may contain essential back story.

So it seems in Oishinbo A la Carte:  Japanese Cuisine, where they take a more general direction with the food spotlighted. Here, the focus is on the “fundamental ingredients” that constitute the “soul of the Japanese kitchen.” We get to read about making dashi (stock), sashimi, chopsticks, the tea ceremony, and general hospitality. At the same time, we receive a healthy dose of the cast, learning more about Toyama, Kyogoku, Tomii, and even Kaibara and Yamaoka. Want to know why Yamaoka can’t stand his father? The answer is revealed here!

It’s always interesting to see early chapters of the manga, as there have been significant changes in the character design (never mind the art style). Kurita has seen the most dramatic progression, but even Yamaoka has his evolution as well—in early chapters he seems to sport a bad attempt at facial hair and he tends to roll the sleeves of his suit up. It is also in the earlier chapters that we see the most plot development; in running so long with the same plot (the Ultimate Menu), the characters end up stuck in a holding pattern. I suppose things will start to progress again once the creators decide to end it, but we’re almost at thirty years already.

On to the food! This volume feels a bit less instructional than others, because they focus more on the culture surrounding food in addition to the food itself. There is still a bit about cutting sashimi that was very informative, and the volume contains two recipes for seabream sashimi, both of which sound delicious and appear relatively easy to prepare. However, this volume’s main instructional purpose is to make the reader aware of their etiquette, both in preparing and serving food as well as eating it. Food is more than taste; it’s an experience.

Oishinbo A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine
story by Tetsu Kariya
art by Akira Hanasaki
translated by Tetsuchiro Miyaki
edited by Leyla Aker
published by Viz Signature (San Francisco, 2009)
ISBN 978-1-4215-2139-8

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Building the Ultimate Menu

Friday, October 15th, 2010

With over 100 volumes published since Oishinbo started in 1983, Viz didn’t stand a chance trying to release it like any other manga, one volume at a time in original publication order. They’d never catch up, and no one would shell out the money for a complete set. Luckily, the Japanese have already solved that problem by releasing the series in “a la carte” edition, which selects stories from throughout the comic’s run for their thematic elements. As Oishinbo is a food manga, all the volumes are organized by different types of food.

Oishinbo A la Carte: Ramen & Gyōza is the second collection in the “A la Carte” series, though Viz has chosen not to number them here in the United States. The book is broken up into six stories or “courses,” reprinting 11 chapters from the manga. The stories are taken from different periods in the comic’s history, which is evident from both the art style, character design, and plot points—the latter most relevant in how two of the main characters started off as co-workers, became friends, and are now married with twins…all present in this particular volume.

Each story stands pretty strongly on its own, with little background knowledge needed of the characters and premise beyond the three paragraphs offered at the beginning and the short character bios. However, there are still the occasional questions, such as when a character appears who isn’t explained in the introduction, as well more of the background between Yamaoka and Kaibara—if they’re father and son, why don’t they share the same name? Little things like this don’t hurt the individual stories, but they can be confusing. There’s so much going on that the reader isn’t privy to since they’re only getting a taste of the overall comic.

Despite all this interesting narrative stuff going on, the real star of Oishinbo is the food. Each individual story is really just a vehicle for talking about the meals that Yamaoka and his friends/co-workers eat, in this particular case, ramen and gyōza. Out of the six stories reprinted here, five are about ramen and one focuses on gyōza, an uneven balance. The topics are diverse, but tend to hover around the general premise of “someone is in trouble, and Yamaoka is the only one who can save them.” The problems always come down to food in some way, and Yamaoka is always a reluctant savior. What keeps him going is partly pity and guilt, but in many cases, these problems become another venue for his rivalry with Kaibara.

The nonfiction elements really come out in each chapter when they talk about the food, as the characters explain how ramen and gyōza are made and Yamaoka talks about what good ramen and gyōza should be. He doesn’t just describe the taste and texture, but also explains how everything works—cooking techniques, ingredients, even in some cases, the sort of “chemistry” that pulls a dish together. This book not only arouses curiosity about these foods, but in some cases could be used to make them, as we are taken through the process behind each dish step-by-step. The book even helpfully includes a recipe for “Oishinbo-Style Miso Ramen” at the start, though I admit that the recipe was a lot easier to follow once I read the comic it was based on.

Overall, Oishinbo is an excellent book for foodies. It’s incredibly informative, and will definitely put you in the mood for Japanese food. The stories themselves are pretty fun and enjoyed reading them just to see what was going to happen—my favorite was “A New Gyōza”—but you could never do this book without the heavy food element, as the details of the food often provide their own plot resolution.

I’m definitely going to check out the rest of the “A la Carte” series, though I suspect that further reading will also serve to pique my curiosity about the series’ underlying narrative further. Why is there such bad blood between Yamaoka and his father? And exactly how long is this “Ultimate Menu” project supposed to last anyway?

Oishinbo A la Carte: Ramen & Gyōza
story by Tetsu Kariya
art by Akira Hanasaki
translated by Tetsuchiro Miyaki
edited by Leyla Aker
published by Viz Signature (San Francisco, 2009)
ISBN 978-1-4215-2141-1

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