Rice, Noodle, Fish

I guess Matt Goulding's Rice Noodle Fish (2015) is essentially a travel book, but it is a also a collection of stories about people, known as shokunin, who have devoted themselves to perfecting an aspect of the food culture of Japan. Although some of the people profiled by Goulding are not Japanese by birth. The book starts out with a correspondence with Anthony Bourdain-in which Goulding gets his blessing for the project. The book is divided into the different regions that he traveled (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Noto) followed by Plus-a feature that focuses on some aspect of Japanese culture as well as other mini-essays on Japanese food and other things Japanese. Much of the information was somewhat redundant for me, but I did learn some things about the food culture. I enjoyed the stories. But  I enjoyed meeting Ken Yokoyama, former hotel concierge that helped Goudling navigate kaiseki ryori in Kyoto, and Fernando Lopez the Guatemalan Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki grill chef, as well as the Flatts (an Autsralian / Japanese couple), who run a ryokan on the Noto peninsula and keep the food culture of the region alive. I enjoyed Goulding's food journey and look forward to reading his second book, Grape, Olive, Pig:Deep Travels Through Spain's Food Culture.