• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

December 14, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

Oishinbo A la Carte: Vegetables

oishinbo_veggiesI mean no disrespect to Tetsu Kariya or Akira Hanasaki when I say that the Vegetables volume of Oishinbo A la Carte irresistibly reminded me of 1970s television. Back in the day when there were only three networks, hour-long dramas doggedly followed the same formula: they dramatized a problem — say, drinking and driving, or falling in with a bad crowd — then resolved it with a little action and a lot of talking, culminating in a freeze-frame shot of the entire cast laughing at corny situational humor. Oishinbo follows this template to a tee, using hot-button issues such as bullying and pollution to preach the healing power of vegetables. The stories are as hokey and predictable as an episode of CHiPs or Little House on the Prairie, but entertaining in their sincerity.

Take “The Joy of a New Potato,” for example. The story begins with big-shot executive Misaki Hacho treating the Ultimate Menu team to an expensive meal. Shortly afterwards, Yamaoka discovers that Misaki has fallen on hard times, selling his business interests and trading his lavish home for a two-room flat. Kurita and Yamaoka invite Misaki’s family on a country outing, teaching his children how to harvest and cook potatoes. Though the denouement of the story is predictable and a little credulity-straining — Misaki’s son declares the potato outing “a hundred times better” than the extravagant birthday party that dad threw him the previous year — the message is heartfelt: doing things with your children is more important than doing things for them. Other stories in this vein include “The Bean Sprout Kid,” in which Yamaoka defends a quiet, frail boy from his classmates; “Good Eggplant, Bad Eggplant,” in which Tomio’s son overcomes his lifelong hatred of aubergines; “The Story of Vegetables, Now and Then,” in which a wealthy industrialist learns an important lesson about pesticides; “The Breath of Spring,” in which a cook woos her estranged lover with an asparagus dish; and “The Taste of Chicken, The Taste of Carrots,” in which a grandmother’s homemade chicken soup inspires a picky eater to add veggies to her diet.

No volume of Oishinbo would be complete with at least one epic food battle, and Vegetables opens with a doozy: a three-part contest revolving around cabbage and turnips. For most of the showdown, Yuzan appears to have the upper hand, preparing simple dishes that emphasize the unique flavors of the star ingredients. Yamaoka’s fortunes change, however, when Arakawa’s mother comes to the city for a visit, bringing wild grape juice and walnuts with her. The bold flavors of the grapes and walnuts inspire Yamaoka to take a page from his father’s book, trading elaborate preparations for straightforward ones that enhance the “muddiness” of the turnip.

As I noted in my review of the first volume, the structure of the A la Carte edition of Oishinbo is both its strength and weakness. On the one hand, organizing each volume around a particular kind of food makes for a fun, educational introduction to Japanese cuisine; a better title for the US edition would be Oishinbo: Beyond Pocky and California Rolls, given the sheer diversity of the food described in each volume. On the other hand, the series’ thematic organization robs the series of its continuity; we never have a chance to see Kurita and Yamaoka’s relationship evolve from co-workers to spouses, as we’re constantly seeing them at different stages of their courtship, nor do we have any sense of how the Ultimate Menu vs. Supreme Menu contest is unfolding.

Still, it’s difficult to deny Oishinbo‘s appeal. Imagine Iron Chef crossed with Mostly Martha, and you have some idea of why this sincere, somewhat hokey, series is as addictive as gyoza: it reminds us that food is an essential ingredient in all human relations, the glue that binds friends, families, and lovers in times of joy and crisis alike. The best of the A la Carte series.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

OISHINBO A LA CARTE: VEGETABLES • STORY BY TETSU KARIYA, ART BY AKIRA HANASAKI • VIZ • 266 pp. • RATING: TEEN

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Manga Critic Tagged With: Seinen, VIZ

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Twitted by manga_critic says:
    December 14, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    […] This post was Twitted by manga_critic […]

  2. Bloggers of the roundtable « MangaBlog says:
    December 15, 2009 at 7:58 am

    […] (Manic About Manga) Kris on Oishinbo A La Carte: Japanese Cuisine (Manic About Manga) Kate Dacey on Oishinbo A La Carte: Vegetables (The Manga Critic) James Fleenor on vol. 2 of Samurai Harem (Anime Sentinel) Jason Punda on vol. 1 […]

  3. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » The Best Manga of 2009 says:
    December 17, 2009 at 10:52 am

    […] never read on an empty stomach! (Click here for my review of Oishinbo A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine; click here for my review of Oishinbo A la Carte: […]

  4. Mangia! Mangia! Readers Recommend Their Favorite Food Manga « The Manga Critic says:
    December 11, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    […] Oishinbo was another title that appeared on several folks’ lists of best food-themed manga. Clarissa Ryan admitted that, finances permitting, she might have bought the full run of this 100+ plus series: I like Oishinbo‘s detail-orientedness, both in explanations and in drawings, and its even-handed approach to what can be surprisingly touchy subject matter. The art is a mixed bag: people are drawn in a style so rough that I originally thought the series was from the early 70s, while food is carefully depicted. Anyway, I like it enough that I’ve given several volumes to Japanese-food-loving friends as gifts. The runners-up for me are Yakitate!! Japan and Addicted to Curry. Both are really pretty dumb, but I can’t resist the delicious depictions of two food categories I really love–breads and curries–combined with actual recipes and ridiculous shounen parody. […]

  5. Mangia! Mangia! Readers Recommend Their Favorite Food Manga says:
    February 20, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    […] Oishinbo was another title that appeared on several folks’ lists of best food-themed manga. Clarissa Ryan admitted that, finances permitting, she might have bought the full run of this 100+ plus series: I like Oishinbo‘s detail-orientedness, both in explanations and in drawings, and its even-handed approach to what can be surprisingly touchy subject matter. The art is a mixed bag: people are drawn in a style so rough that I originally thought the series was from the early 70s, while food is carefully depicted. Anyway, I like it enough that I’ve given several volumes to Japanese-food-loving friends as gifts. The runners-up for me are Yakitate!! Japan and Addicted to Curry. Both are really pretty dumb, but I can’t resist the delicious depictions of two food categories I really love–breads and curries–combined with actual recipes and ridiculous shounen parody. […]

  6. The Drops of God, Vols. 1-2 says:
    December 16, 2011 at 4:00 pm

    […] to learn that The Drops of God is an entertaining way to learn about wine; as titles such as Oishinbo and Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! demonstrate, a skilled writer can fold a […]

  7. The Best Manga of 2011: The Manga Critic’s Picks says:
    January 8, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    […] Oishinbo handily demonstrated, a skilled writer can fold a considerable amount of educational detail into a […]



Before leaving a comment at Manga Bookshelf, please read our Comment Policy.

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.