Oishinbo: À la Carte - Quickie Ramen

Oishinbo: À la Carte

by Kariya Testu and Hanasaki Akira

2009, VIZ Media LLC

To say that I am a fan of Japanese comics is an understatement. I wrote my thesis on them. The walls of our son’s room are lined with over two thousand manga, because we had nowhere else to put them. So it is difficult to exaggerate the pure joy that comes over me when I lose myself in a very good food-themed manga series.

Of the several culinary manga available in English, none is as long-running as Kariya Tetsu and Hanasaki Akira’s Oishinbo. The series is, in fact, exactly as old as I am, and has only recently been put on hold, in the midst of a Fukushima-related controversy. As far as food manga goes, this is a classic.

Only a handful of anthologies of Oishinbo have been translated and published in English, under the label Oishinbo: À la Carte, collecting stories revolving around themes such as sake, rice, fish, or ramen. I would honestly be hard-pressed to choose a favourite, and was very sorry when new volumes stopped coming out.