THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES

A father-daughter restaurant duo serves up six cozy vignettes in the first installment of this bestselling Japanese series, translated by Kirkwood.

In the back streets of present-day Kyoto, Koishi Kamogawa and her father, Nagare, are running a restaurant that isn’t your ordinary dining spot. Sure, the Kamogawa Diner features mouthwatering cuisine, but the thing that sets it apart is the way Koishi and Nagare scrupulously re-create meals from their clients’ hazy memories, investigating all avenues in their quest for authenticity. In “Nabeyaki-Udon,” an older widower seeks to experience the dish just the way his late wife used to make it. In “Mackerel Sushi,” a distinguished gentleman of means hopes to taste sushi just like he used to eat on the veranda of his neighbor’s home as a boy. And time is of the essence for a piano teacher on a desperate quest to re-create the perfect “Tonkatsu.” Given that only a vague ad in Gourmet Monthly has alerted people to the restaurant’s existence—the ad doesn’t even include an address—clients seem to happen upon the place by sheer luck, or perhaps fate. Though each of the six stand-alone chapters follows the same formulaic recipe, Kashiwai’s unique blend of seasonings is more than enough to transform each into a five-star-worthy dish. Koishi and Nagare strive to re-create not only the precise dishes their clients want, but also to envelop them in a warm memory blanket of nostalgia. Readers won’t find dead bodies or scandalous affairs here, but they will eagerly devour each morsel of this miso soup for the soul, complete with a purring cat called Drowsy for good measure.

A nourishing collection of bite-sized stories with a hearty dash of savory flavor.