A very lighthearted cozy novel. The reading felt like being snuggled up in a warm blanket. While I wouldn't call it magical realism, it has similar tones to stories that are in that category. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is an accurate comparison given that the settings of both novels are similar and have an air of mystery. I would recommend this one be read in parts rather than all at once. This is because it can come across as a bit repetitive since each story follows the same pattern with some variations. Even despite some of the repetitiveness, I just enjoyed the characters and seeing what old memory was unleashed through the love of food. The only thing that bothered me was that there weren't any recipes for the dishes!

The adorable cover with the cat in the ramen bowl is what really made me want to read this book on NetGalley. I thought The Kamogawa Food Detectives was an endearing Japanese book that serves as a love letter to food - and proof that food can serve as a love language!

Nagare is a retired detective who now runs a small restaurant with his daughter. On top of being a restaurant, they also offer “food detective” services for those who want to track down a dish from their past. I think the sentiment is really fun and beautiful - the importance of food to our psyches is crazy powerful, and the memories tied to certain periods of our life can be pulled from the food we used to eat. This book had me starving each time I picked it up because of how descriptive it was with the different elements of the food being cooked. I will say that I found it easy to read because I’m a bit familiar with Japanese cuisine, but if you’ve never eaten or seen Japanese food, this might be difficult to get through because not a lot of context is given. I feel like I could easily picture these delicious foods in front of me like I was one of the diner’s customers, but that’s only because I’ve heard of this food before. For example, tonkatsu is made, which is a deep fried pork cutlet typically served on top of a bed of rice, and I know that because I’ve eaten it before and not because the book explained to me what it was. I think if I wasn’t so familiar with Japanese cuisine, I would feel a bit frustrated or would pause a lot (which would sour my reading experience) to Google what they were talking about.

I also think this book felt a tad repetitive, because the chapters have very similar storylines: a customer comes in, harps on Nagare for how difficult it is to find their restaurant, tells their story, and later gets to taste the food. But regardless, I liked every single storyline! I loved seeing the thought process of Nagare looking for the dish’s background or origin. It was interesting seeing him dig into the details of his customers’ past and find things I wouldn’t have expected. Even if it became a little repetitive, I still really enjoyed this book.

I’ve found that sometimes, the beauty and nuance can be lost when Japanese literature is translated into English. Sometimes the sentences can feel stilted or too straight forward, but I understand that fundamentally, their linguistics and overall structure of language and grammar are vastly different. This book unfortunately falls victim to the inevitable problem of things getting lost in translation.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Group for giving me this e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a hole-in-the-wall diner owned and operated by a father and daughter. The duo are food detectives who are sought after by locals looking to recreate dishes of their past.

This is a quick, and easy read, and do not read this while hungry because the dishes describes are mouth watering.

I love Japanese food and my stomach ached at list of dishes prepared for the diners.

The issue is that each section deals with one local and his or her problem recreating a dish from their childhood or past, offering little in the way of character development.

Each chapter begins the same; with the customer mentioning how difficult it was to find the diner, the father's devotion to his deceased wife, and how well the father has recreated the food and how touched the diner is at being able to taste a dish beloved from the past.

All of these elements were in each chapter featuring a particular dish and soon became repetitive and tedious to read.

The translation was also kind of odd, but I know it's not easy translating any original work from its native language to English.

The premise had great potential, if there was more of a mystery element added in it would have held my interest, but this didn't meet my expectations.