Real Japanese Cooking: Traditions, Tips, & Techniques with Over 600 Authentic Recipes, written by Makiko Itoh, features an incredibly diverse collection of Japanese homestyle recipes across 512 pages along with 400 photographs and an indispensable guide to ingredients and techniques. A few highlights include Clear Mushroom Soup, Kyoto-Style Simmered Tofu, Sweet Potato Rice with Sesame Salt, Duck Soba with Nanban Sauce, and Fruit Shiratama. I will also be sharing her recipe for Tataki Cucumber following the review.
Disclosure: I received this book from Tuttle Publishing in exchange for my honest review. All opinions and statements are my own.
Real Japanese Cooking is currently available for preorder and set to release on August 5th, 2025.
Makiko Itoh
Makiko Itoh is a bilingual food writer and translator. She created the website, Just Hungry, in 2003 and launched her blog dedicated to bento, Just Bento, in 2007. She also writes a monthly recipe column for The Japan Times.
Makiko is the author of The Just Bento Cookbook (one of the first Japanese cookbooks I ever owned!) and The Just Bento Cookbook 2. She has also translated many Japanese cookbooks into English, including The Real Japanese Izakaya Cookbook and Classic Home Cooking from Japan.
She was born in Tokyo, grew up in New York and the UK, and is currently based between Yokohama and Switzerland.
Real Japanese Cooking
Makiko has been working on Real Japanese Cooking since 2019 to bring together a comprehensive overview of beloved and a few lesser known regional dishes from across Japan.
She begins with a short introduction of her life and inspiration behind writing the book, then covers notable ingredients, essential (and not so essential) equipment, different styles of Japanese food, how to balance flavors, setting the table, putting together meals, and even the etiquette surrounding chopsticks and dining.
Chapters are divided according to the following: Soups; Stews and Simmered Dishes; Grilled, Baked and Pan-Fried Dishes; Fried Dishes; Egg Dishes; Tofu Dishes; Vegetable Sides; Rice Dishes; Sushi and Sashimi; Noodles; Hot Pots; Savory Pancakes and Dumplings; Steamed Dishes; Pickling and Fermentation; Breads, Buns and Cakes; and Sweets and Desserts.
Between the recipes, I loved reading all of Makiko’s sidebars and essays for individual ingredients and dishes such as the history of okonomiyaki, how cheesecake became popular, and the best cooking methods for noodles and rice. There are also base recipes for different types of dashi, including a vegan option.
Many of the recipes are paired with a quarter to full-page photo. Measurements are listed in US Customary and Metric. Titles are written in English and Japanese. Each recipe has a headnote with background information, yield, helpful tips, variations, and serving ideas.
Tataki Cucumber
To pair with the review, I made Makiko’s Tataki Cucumber (たたききゅうり, Tataki Kyuri)! This dish comes together in minutes and is a refreshing way to use cucumbers during the summer heat.
Simply roll Japanese cucumbers in salt, lightly smash to break them apart, then marinate in a sesame ginger dressing for 10 minutes before serving.
The result is a side dish of light and crisp cucumber pieces with a smashed, uneven surface area perfect for absorbing the flavors of the dressing.
Japanese Cucumbers
If possible, try to use Japanese cucumbers (きゅうり) for the Tataki Cucumber. These long, slender cucumbers have a thin, crisp skin with little to no seeds.
If unavailable, I sometimes swap for Persian cucumbers. They are shorter, so you may need to add a couple more. If those are unavailable and you have to use the larger garden cucumbers, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon before using.
Fresh cucumbers are best to easily smash while also staying crisp. My kids still aren’t the biggest fans of cucumbers, but they sure do love helping in the smashing technique. Take care when hitting with the rolling pin though. Too much and they will become watery (and fly across the kitchen).
For those in Northern Virginia, I have been able to locate Japanese cucumbers seasonally at Marufuji Japanese Market in Tysons Corner.
While living in Los Angeles, I would usually get them at Mitsuwa or Tokyo Central in Torrance.
Variations
Makiko mentions a few variations in case you want to add a little more flavor to the cucumbers.
One garlic clove can be grated and mixed into the sauce. Dried chili pepper flakes or Chinese chicken stock paste are other optional additions.
Other Dishes
We also made the “Grilled” Miso-Flavored Onigiri, Curry Udon from Scratch, Pasta with Miso Meat Sauce, and Thick Omelet Sandwich.
I was so excited to see so many Onigiri recipes from the Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Onigiri and even The Devil’s Onigiri (with aonori, tenkasu, and mentsuyu). I started with a personal favorite, the “Grilled” Miso-Flavored Onigiri. Freshly steamed rice is formed into a triangle, pan-fried until crisp, then finished with a sweet red miso glaze.
The Curry Udon from Scratch was such a comforting dinner. Thinly sliced pork (or beef), abura-age, and onions are simmered in a dashi base with curry powder until thickened and paired with chewy udon. If you are short on time, there is also an option for Curry Udon with Leftover Curry.
My son has made the Pasta with Miso Meat Sauce twice now. A delicious twist on meat sauce, ground beef is simmered with diced vegetables, miso, and amazake to make a hearty addition to spaghetti. It is finished with a little butter and grated cheese before serving. The sauce also freezes well for future meals.
The Thick Omelet Sandwich was another personal favorite. Soft and fluffy shokupan slices are used as the base to hold a thick Dashimaki Tamago Omelet (dashi-flavored layered egg omelet) with simply a little mayonnaise and Japanese mustard to bring it all together.
Real Japanese Cooking is a fantastic pick for those interested in Japanese cuisine for the home cook. The range of recipes is quite extensive from light soups, salads, pickles, homemade furikake, and small bites to comforting noodles, rice dishes, eggs, one-pot meals, bread, sandwiches, meat, sushi, sashimi, desserts, and almost everything in between. I especially appreciated the index divided by main ingredient to easily look up options based on what I had on hand.
Many of the ingredients are starting to become more available in larger American grocery stores. Some items may require further searching such as abura-age, daikon, fresh seafood, kombu, wakame, bonito flakes, shiso leaves, umeboshi, kudzu flour, dried mochi rice cakes, natto, yuzu, shimeji mushrooms, kinako, and more. Substitutions are provided when possible.
Tataki Cucumber Recipe
Excerpt from Real Japanese Cooking
Tataki Cucumber
Ingredients
- 4 small Japanese cucumbers or 2 large
- salt for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons roasted white sesame seeds
For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Sprinkle the whole cucumbers with salt, and roll them hard on a cutting board to eliminate any surface bumps.
- Rinse the salt off and pat the cucumber dry.
- (If using larger garden cucumbers) Halve large cucumbers, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon.
- Bash the cucumbers several times with a rolling pin to partially crush them, then break them apart with your hands into easy-to-eat pieces.
- Put the cucumber in a bag with the sauce ingredients, push out the air, and close the bag. Let marinate at least 10 minutes. (You can also do this in a bowl.)
- Serve sprinkled with the sesame seeds.
Leave a Reply