Make It Japanese - January 2024

Over the last two years, some of my favorite faces in food media just… disappeared. Whatever happened at Buzzfeed cleansed familiar, comfortable personalities from the space while they recovered in their own way and moved on. Alvin got going with the Babish Culinary Universe. Andrew sometimes shows up at Watcher, and Inga is going solo. I wondered– where is Rie? Then I found out she had a cookbook coming out. Of course I bought it. I loved Rie.

​Best known for her Make it Fancy series at Tasty, I wasn’t sure what to expect when Make It Japanese arrived on my doorstep. I knew that she was a knowledgeable cook. I knew that she originally came from Japan, and as a result, I first got to know her while she worked on the Worth It series as their interpreter. Food media is often about making something ridiculous and rarely about making it simple. Make it Japanese makes it simple.

I don’t eat heavily, and I live alone. Cookbooks that often include recipes to serve a family of four are too much for me in my current life. In all of the recipes I have tried while cooking from Make it Japanese, I come out with smaller portions of leftovers than I have while trying recipes from other sources. I am learning how to cook simple, worthwhile foods from Rie’s culture and her current lifestyle as a new mom. I’m not wasting my time.

Her pork bun recipe stood out to me right away. I love making steamed buns, and I’ve used the bao recipe from the Pixar short for this purpose for years. I almost always struggled with the dough, however. Something wasn’t quite right. The recipe made so many buns that my freezer would be full for a year with the remnants. Rie’s pork bun recipe included fewer ingredients and a smaller amount of dough, resulting in eight large steamed buns. The dough came together easily, and closing each bun did not feel like a struggle for my life. I told everyone who would listen that this was the easiest recipe for a pork bun I had ever tried.

I found that most recipes came together quickly and easily for someone at my skill level while I still pushed myself into trying new flavor combinations. I’ve made Onigiri before, but never of the grilled variety.

Accessibility - 5/5

As is the case with all cookbooks focused on a certain country’s cuisine, there can be some ingredient barriers. Asian ingredients are becoming more accessible across the country, and where your store may not be able to provide, online markets can. There are still plenty of recipes within the book that can be made using basic Asian pantry ingredients, such as her Japanese Potato Salad, that are widely available without having to order bonito flakes off of amazon.

I did not struggle with finding ingredients to cook a different recipe from this book multiple times a week at my local grocery store. For that reason, I rated Make it Japanese a full 5/5.

Difficulty - 5/5

There are a variety of recipes within Make it Japanese that can both challenge a seasoned home cook and help ease a newbie into the world of cooking simple Japanese food. I learned everything from how to make mochi donuts to the basics of cooking short grain sushi rice on the stovetop. I often utilize my Zojirushi, but the skill is now there.

Originality - ⅘

Variations on some of these recipes exist out in the world already. The originality of this cookbook’s recipes lies with the way they come together and are written to produce smaller servings than others. It’s a perfect book for someone like me who lives alone and often cooks only for themselves.

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