I’ve been meaning to write a review of The Manga Cookbook
I’d seen this book come up a lot while doing Amazon searches for English bento cookbooks, but never quite got around to buying this one because I really wasn’t sure what it was. The title was confusing and I didn’t really understand that it was an actual cookbook done in manga. I finally bought it a couple of months ago and was pleasantly surprised by what I found inside.
The cookbook is in black and white, but the introduction and first 16 pages of the book are a color photo gallery of the final product recipes in the book. It even includes instructions on how to use chopsticks.
While they aren’t exactly professional looking photos, they do give you an accurate idea of what the food should look like in real life. The recipes themselves have step by step illustrations drawn by Chihiro Hattori.
The book is hosted by three characters: Miyuki (the girl seen above), Coo (her little Pokemon-looking mascot), and Miyuki’s boyfriend Hiroshi (seen on the cover). Miyuki, Coo, and Hiroshi take you through each recipe, giving you tips on cooking and explaining the background of some of the foods.
Although this is more of a Japanese food cookbook in general, most of the recipes in the book are perfect for bento, including things such as Nikumaki (meat & veggie rolls), Onigiri, Tonkatsu, Apple Bunnies, and Bunny and Chick Eggs.
In the above photo, you can see that they also include stovetop cooking instructions for rice, which is great for people who don’t own rice cookers. I haven’t had the right amount of motivation to try it yet because it’s hard to convince myself it’s worth it when a rice cooker is but a few feet from my stove. Plus, it reeks of the kind of recipe I’d totally screw up, especially since part of the instructions includes turning the pot of rice upside down. In my universe, such things should not be done lest you want rice on the floor because what can go wrong, will go wrong. I’d bet it’ll work just fine for you though!
After certain recipes, there is a section for “Miyuki’s Notes” in which she will give you further advice or insight on the food she describes how to prepare. In the back of the book, there are 26 pages for you to make your own notes on cooking.
In total, the book is 160 pages and features 29 recipes, though two of them are instructions for making specific bento lunches (train bento and garden bento). With step by step instructions, easy to follow illustrations, and cute characters to guide you through it all, I find this book to be a great starter for people wanting to get into making cute Japanese lunches. All of the recipes (save for the desserts and the kamaboko in the California Roll, which is usually imitation crab anyway) call for common ingredients that can be found in any supermarket. My only complaint is that the book doesn’t stay open very well. If you’re a big manga fan and want to give Japanese cooking or bento a try, this is definitely the book for you.
Amazon even sells the book bundled together with a bento box in a Manga Cookbook Gift Box Set
Manga University had contacted me back when the New York Times article came out and offered to send me a book for review, but since I’d already purchased it, I asked if they’d be willing to give that book away to one of my readers. So, if you’d like to try and win a copy of The Manga Cookbook, post a comment here telling me why you’d like to win this book. I’ll accept comments until next Monday (December 7) and then randomly draw a winner.
Also, one last order of business was the little commenting event I held last month:
I ended up with just under 100 comments, so I donated $25.00 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Thanks to everyone for the comments!
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I would like to win this book for my son. He is sixteen and into all things Manga. I love making Bento so this is a natural crossover of our interests. At that age it is sometimes difficult to have things in common with your parents.
I love cookbooks! I probably buy those just as enthusiastically as most women buy new clothes. Frankly, I think I get the better bargain!
Thankyou for the review of the cookbook. I was wondering about it myself but since I cannot see a copy online had decided to wait. I would love a free one.
I would like this book because I have no idea how to make anything cute for my bento!
I would love to try my hands at bento-ing but really don’t know where to start so this book would be really helpful! Thanks. :)
I would love this cookbook because I’ve seen it several times but been nervous to buy it. I have a few bento cookbooks but many of them don’t give good instructions and rather assume you know how to cook in the Japanese style. This sounds like a great cookbook to learn with.
Trying new foods helps me stay interested in eating enough to live.
I would love to win this cookbook for my niece! She is learning to cook, and loves helping in the kitchen. I already have a small bento box and cute accessories ready for her christmas present, this would be a great bonus. Thanks for all your inspiration, I love reading your site! :)
I’d like to win this because it seems a great collection of straight-forward recipes that can be used as mains in Bento!
I’d also like it so that I can pass some recipes on to my sister, who makes her bento now but unfortunately only knows how to make about two different things. (I’ve been there before)
I want this book because it would be my first bento cookbook! :D
I need this book because I don’t have a bento recipe book and I really need help making sausages look cute.
I’m a bit of a cookbook collector and since I’ve been getting more and more interested in bento (in the hopes of making it for my fiance’s lunches, while I’m on Christmas break from grad school and he’s working), this book would be a fun way to treat the both of us. I’m also seriously curious about what kind of tricks they’re using for cooking rice that involves turning the pot upside down. I never use a rice cooker, so I am thoroughly intrigued as such a weird stove top method.
I’ve been lurking around on Bento Lunch on Livejournal. I have learned how to make so many awesome money saving healthy lunches for myself and my other half. I can’t wait for my little girl to go to school so I can make her lunches she can show off. :D
I would love to have a book so I can cook in the kitchen and have a guide rather than having to run back to the computer. As well as.. I have been unemployed for a little over a year now so our budget is super tight. Since there are so many people out here with more customer service experience and tech support experience I have been having the worst luck getting rehired somewhere. So, I also wouldn’t mind winning something… bring some Christmas cheer around here since there will be 2 presents max for my little girl only.
One more thing I can think of. I have been reading whatever manga I can get my hands on since I was 11 (so 13 years). Started with Inu Yasha and have since grown up a bit and started reading Trinity Blood, etc… So this book catches my eye every time I hit up Amazon.com.
I’d love to get this cookbook because I’ve been making bento on my own for a while now, but haven’t had much luck with local bookstores for decent Japanese recipes. I am also a bit of an otaku so this is an ideal pairing for me. :) Thanks!
I absolutely adore Adventures in Bentomaking! I really look forward to reading them. You are so creative!
I have a 14 year old son that was “made” in Okinawa… He has never eaten a hamburger. However, he will eat tofu, soba, seaweed, miso, etc like it is going out of style! He has named his white cockatiel, Tofu, and our other cockatiel, Kohii. He is heavily into Yugioh, and plays in tournaments here in town almost every Friday and Saturday. He has won some tournaments against 30 year olds! I was thinking that the Manga Cookbook might convince him to start taking a few bento lunches to school again. He hasn’t brought a bento to school since he was in about third grade. I bring a bento to work everyday. My bentos aren’t beautiful like the ones you make, but I do make good use of leftovers, and get better nutrition than the people at work that eat out every day. And, I have a lot of fun making them. Tomorrow’s has a candy cane made of rice.
Thank you for your consideration of me and my son for the Manga Cookbook.
PS: We are spending several days in Japantown, San Francisco just before Christmas. My son loves it there, and won’t even consent to go to the waterfront or Ghirardelli because he doesn’t want to leave Japantown!
I think I need it because I never bento anymore! I need something to motivate me, and tell me how to do things right. I’ve been looking at that book for quite some time but I never have the money to buy it. I think it will be just what I need to get myself going again. ^.^
Hemm… Love to have this book since it’s hard to find here in Indonesia and it’s gonna be so pricey if it’s available here. I love bentoing by using Indonesian food in my bentos and so seldom use the Japanese cooks or ingredients since I know little about them and know little about how to cook/make them. Hope I can learn more through this book :D. And the last, simply because I want to have this book :D
Good luck to all those looking to get the book! I would love to get it but there are so many deserving people I’ll just shell out a buy it! I wanted to thank you Pikko as you have inspired me to start making bentos and to create my own (less beautiful) bento blog! I am looking forward to the Bento swag I am hoping to get for Christmas! Keep up the wonderful work!
I would like to win this cookbook because I’ve been seeing it on Amazon.com for a while now. Like you, I was interested but not really sure what they were offering. I would like to add this one to my collection to have more bento recipes to make for myself and my fiance!
This book sounds absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much for offering the drawing. What a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection. This book would definitely delight my daughter, as well! Thanks again. ^_^
I am such a cookbook addict! Yet I still don’t own a bento cookbook. I got the bento bug a couple years ago and your site is one of the ones I keep coming back to for ideas.
I would love to win a copy of this book for several reasons. First (and probably most importantly) of all, I’m still quite a beginner at cooking Japanese food. There’s quite a strong learning curve, and it’s been hard to learn from books that assume I’m familiar with some of the techniques. Crème brûlée or a killer crown roast? I’m your girl. Figuring out which kind of rice should be used for what or how to steam veggies without turning them to mush? Not so much… I also would love to work from a book that shows realistic pictures of the food as it might (hopefully) look if I make it. It’s all fine and well to have a cookbook full of ultra-slick impossibly beautiful food photos, but I want to have a high but realistic goal to shoot for. Also, I live somewhere that leaves me with a half hour drive (according to google maps… it actually takes more like an hour) to the closest Japanese foods store. Oh yeah, and I generally don’t have access to a car. So it’d be awesome (and much greener) to have a Japanese cookbook that used mostly ingredients that I could get at the local (bike-ride distance) grocery store! Finally, I have an allergy to shellfish, and this is one of the first Japanese cookbooks that I’ve seen that doesn’t make me reach for my EpiPen. If you ask me, that’s a good thing :)
Hmm.. I actually have this book, and yes for it being a cute book to teach for Bento from a manga aspect.. ^_^ Nice gesture!
I would love to win this book. I think this will be a great chance to learn how to cook in a learning style that’s best for me, visually. I am a huge manga fan and pictures like this will make learning how to make bentos easier than expected. My girlfriend is also an avid manga reader and having this cook book will give us a great chance to cook and learn together. We’re planning to move to Japan as well too so having a nice bento that’s easy to make for lunch everyday will be of great help to us. Btw, didn’t know you lived in Hawaii too until I looked up your about page, lol.
Hi! The reason I would LOVE to have this book is for their simple and cute recipes, and also because illustrated cookbook are my favorites ones! As it is in manga, you have jokes and comics as much as you have step-by-step instructions, I find it totally awesome!
Hi everyone,
I’m the president of the company that published “The Manga Cookbook,” and I wanted to let everyone here know how excited everyone at Manga University is to see such enthusiasm for our book!
We spent more than three years planning, writing, editing, illustrating and testing the recipes for “The Manga Cookbook,” and we are very proud of how it turned out.
Unfortunately, several people who have commented here seem to have had a hard time finding “The Manga Cookbook” for sale.
If your local bookstore or library doesn’t have “The Manga Cookbook” available, please ask them to contact us directly and we’ll assist them in getting it :-)
It’s word-of-mouth from Japanese-food enthusiasts like all the folks here who have made “The Manga Cookbook” a success, and we continue to count on you for your support!
Thanks again — we really appreciate it!
Glenn Kardy
President
Japanime Publishing/Manga University
Tokyo
I have just started to make bentos for myself because ever since college, I have been eating unhealthy. I wanted to start eating healthy again and I am across LJ bentolunches and saw how easy it is to bring good healthy food to school instead of just some turkey sandwich.
The only problem with me and making bentos is that I never cooked in my life!!! So I’ve started to look for bento friendly foods online. This book will help expand my knowledge of Japanese cooking, help me perfect the apply bunny, and I just love manga in general ( I own all the Naruto manga!!!)
I’ve been looking at this book forever and just haven’t purchased it but it looks wonderful. My dd would love to use it to help me make her lunches and snacks.
I would love to get my hands on this book… even for 2 weeks… I need more bento recipes.. :-D
I really appreciate your cookbook reviews, as I am new to bento making.
I work at a bookstore, so I was able to pick this up yesterday after work and I am in love with it!
Thanks!
Pikko Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I’m glad my reviews help and that you love the cookbook!
Ohh, one of my friends recoomended both this book, and your site to me! =D I like your site, btw. And shall one day get this cute and simple cookbook!
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