Welcome to Litsy!

A retired detective and his daughter run a successful food recreation restaurant and the new customers bring forward stories of loss, love, misunderstandings and valuing the gifts you have along with painfully good descriptions of food.
5/5 stars, read for a collection of short stories that will remind you of the power of food to shape one‘s life. I also really enjoy the traditional food ware described, it‘s fun to look each piece up for images.

My return trip to Kyoto and the Kamogawa Diner was a delight! I‘m a vegetarian but all of the dishes are described so mouthwateringly. Cosy in all the right ways! I love how Nagare & Koishi work together as food detectives - they have a beautiful father-daughter dynamic.

Cozy, gently humorous and quite thoughtful. What a cool way to showcase the important part nostalgia and food play in our lives. While at times hopeful, it never crosses into saccharine.

Lovely

Koishi & Nagare run a small cafe that also operates as a food detective agency, working to recreate formative recipes from their customers‘ past.

A wonderfully cozy follow to the 1st book. More insight into the father/daughter pair that work together, & more thoughtful discussions of how food/grief/memory/family can be entwined, & such delicious descriptions of food, I felt like I needed to find a ramen place as soon as I finished!🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Lovely little novella about the author's years in Kyoto.
Really good description and detail.

It‘s a lovely travel memoir of a tour guide living in Kyoto, friendship and being young. I liked the atmosphere in the beginning as it describes this friendship that comes to an end, and somehow, the whole city is a reminder of that.

What makes it a so so is that I expected a bit more from it, something lyrical and nostalgic but some parts of the book were more about how the author didn‘t like her job so much…

Lovely memoir about being young, living in Kyoto and feeling your insecurities with yourself and others. Enjoyed.🌿

This book touched my heart. Rose loses her unknown Japanese father and travels to Kyoto for his last will. She discovers the country, its culture and its people and all of this offers her the most beautiful way to mourn the father she never met. Thank you Cassie for bringing it to my attention! 🌹 🇯🇵

#FoodAndLit #Japan

This one's a soft pick for me.

A woman loses her father and travels to Japan. There's so much in this one about grief and the temples and gardens were described with such beautiful imagery that I felt like I was walking through them.

My only complaint is that because it was short some parts of the story felt rushed.

Overall, it was a heartfelt read and I love Barbery's writing style.