I just bought Harumi's Japanese Cooking and am excited because I'm finding it hard to cook my usual dishes in Japan. First of all, trips to the grocery store in search of never-before-purchased ingredients always turn into hour-long field trips spent wandering the aisles, peering at packages and reading what I can (which isn't much). My attempt to make pizza was a dismal failure, mostly because the flour was all wrong and the paper I bought was not parchment paper after all. Also, I don't think the salt I used was real salt. (Sadly, I bought it because it came in a panda-bear-shaped container, so I can really only blame myself.)

The food magazines in Japan are amazing, like the most beautiful food porn you can imagine: close-up pictures of perfectly-frosted cakes sitting on cute little plates next to tiny, adorable forks. It's ridiculous. And unfortunately, it's all in Japanese. So I was excited to find this book, which is translated into English and filled with recipes calling for ingredients I actually have access to. Last night I made four dishes, which I thought was rather ambitious; new recipes usually take me awhile to make because I'm paranoid I'll make a mistake. But the meal was amazing! Look:

I made salmon teriyaki with fried mushrooms and leeks; green beans with black-sesame dressing; garlic fried rice (molded into little triangles); and carrot and tuna salad. It was all delicious and super-easy. I've joined the legion of Japanese housewives who love Harumi -- she beats Martha with one swift chop of her super-sharp Japanese knife.