A Dictionary of Japanese Food: Ingredients and Culture Richard Hosking

At last, what every Westerner in a Japanese restaurant or market the first truly comprehensive dictionary of Japanese food and ingredients. Standard dictionaries can often mislead us--with akebia for akebi, sea cucumber for namako, plum for ume. Hosking's dictionary includes not only dishes and ingredients, everything from the delicate mitsuba leaf to the dreadful okoze colorful appendices disclose such aspects of Japanese culture as the making of miso to the tea ceremony and the influence of vegetarianism.

With Japanese-English and English-Japanese sections, A Dictionary of Japanese Food explains the nuances and eliminates the mysteries of Japanese food.