JAPANESE COOKING RECIPES is for the home chef who wants to learn more about Japanese cooking--and not just the how-to of making specific dishes. The text is in both English and Japanese, which is distracting at first, but one gets used to it.

I always try to cook multiple dishes in a cookbook before I review it, but I was only able to do one in this before my access expired; however, I reviewed quite a few before selecting the one I cooked (Ginger Pork). The reason I'm giving the book three stars is because of the ingredients and the directions provided. For example, the amount of ginger specified for the ginger pork recipe was a half a knob--which is a pretty broad range--and the fact that the temperature for cooking the dish wasn't specified. Did I manage to cook the recipe? Yes, and it was tasty (though it could have used more ginger!), but I'm an experienced cook of dishes with Asian flavors. I wouldn't give this cookbook to someone who is just starting their cooking adventure.

One definite positive of the book was the explanation of what could go wrong and why for different dishes. That's a very handy feature, and useful for recipes beyond the ones in this book.

My thanks to NetGalley for access to the ebook in exchange for my honest review. ( )