I am currently doing a casual January in Japan on my blog, so I thought I should at least try to cook something Japanese for Weekend Cooking. We have been talking about trying to do Japanese chicken curry for a while so this seemed like the perfect chance.
The idea of what to cook was actually inspired by a new cafe near work. When I go there for lunch, they generally have a few different options, but they always include chicken katsu, Japanese chicken curry, and chicken parma (which is chicken schnitzel with a tomato sauce, ham and melted cheese on top) as a minimum. The interesting thing...they all use the same chicken with breadcrumbs as the base.
So what's the difference between chicken katsu and chicken schnitzel. There are two main things. First, is the type of breadcumbs - katsu has panko breadcrumbs whereas a schnitzel tends to have normal breadcrumbs. The second is that katsu also tends to be deep fried whereas schnitzel is shallow fried.
We ended up using a variety of recipes, from the instruction on the back of the Japanese curry cubes to this video at Recipetin Eats Japan to show us how to butterfly the chicken thighs. This is when you slice the thicker ends of the thigh and fold them out so there is a more even thickness before dipping them in flour, eggs and panko breadcrumbs and frying them.
I do have a recipe in one of my cookbooks to make your own curry cubes, and we might still do that at some point, but for this recipe we just went with the store bought variety.
This is not a precise recipe, as you can adapt it to your own tastes and, as I mentioned before, it is a bit of a mix of various different ideas.
What I will say is that this was delicious. The katsu was really crunchy. We will definitely be putting this into our regular rotation, although if my husband has his way we will just use store bought schnitzels for convenience reasons.
Japanese Chicken Curry
Chicken thighs, butterflied
Eggs, whisked
Flour
Panko breadcrumbs
3 Potatoes
2 Carrots
2 Onions
Japanese curry cubes (for example Golden Curry or Vermont brands)
Rice for serving
For the curry sauce, cook the onions until they are tender but not browned. Add the cubed carrots and potatoes along with sufficient water. When the potatoes are cooked add the curry cubes and cook according to the instructions.
Cook the rice
While the curry is cooking, take the thighs and dip them in the flour so that they are well covered, then dredge through the egg mix, followed by the panko breadcrumbs.
Deep fry for 3 minutes on each side, until the katsu are golden brown and cooked through.
Slice across the narrowest part of the chicken and place on top of the rice and then add the curry sauce.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Out for dinner Sunday - Japanese Chicken Curry Monday - Chicken kebabs, baked potatoes, coleslaw Tuesday - Pork chops, chips and gravy Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise Thursday - Friday - Away for the weekend
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
When I reviewed three Japanese foodie books last week, I had no idea I would be back so soon with another one but here we are.
Over the last few years I have been reading more and more Japanese and Korean fiction, and a large proportion of those have been set in restaurants and cafes. I have also read several books that have been set in bookstores or libraries. So when you find one which is Japanese, foodie and set in a library, of course I am going to have to read it!
Otoha Higuchi really wants to work with books, but working in a large chain bookstore isn't working for her at all. When she is contacted by someone known only as Seven Rainbows offering her a job at a library known only as The Night Library she is at first hesitant. The money isn't great, but it does include board and some food. Whilst her ambitious parents aren't pleased Otaha needs to get out of her current situation so she accepts.
The Night Library isn't really a library in the normal sense of the word, especially seeing as you can't borrow any of the books. It is more a collection of books that have been donated by many authors after their passing. It might include their own books, their research books, the books that they personally loved to read. The people who loved their books might come to the library just to look at the books that their favourite authors loved, or researchers might come to look for specific references. You could call it a book museum.
It is called The Night Library because of the unusual opening hours which are from 7pm to midnight each day.
One mystery about the library is who the owner is. No one has ever met them which the employees do find a bit odd. All instructions for them come via the manager, Mr Sasai.
Otoha's first task in her new role will be to unpack, sort and catalogue all the books as the come in from the various donations. They will then be stamped with an individually designed stamp for each author and then shelved in the library. I did find myself googling to see if the author's that were mentioned were real Japanese authors or made up. I think it is a combination of both
If you have read book like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, you know that often these styles of stories have a fairly standard structure that are almost like connected short stories. This book is far less episodic than most Japanese books I am reading. There is a through story as we follow Otoha as she gets settled into her new role but we also get to hear the stories of the other characters including the manager Mr Sasai, and co-workers Ako and Minami.
Throughout each of the episodes we find out what happens when a new collection arrives, we meet some of the people who come to the library to look at the collections from specific authors for their own reasons, we hear about the team members who has fallen out of love with reading, and about books that start mysteriously appearing in the library but aren't part of the collection. We also meet an author's sister who just wants all their books gone, immediately. Finally, the whole team must deal with the news that the library is going to be closing for a while, but could the owner really be meaning to close it permanently?
I mentioned that this was also a foodie book. That comes in the form of the staff dinners which are prepared by the chef Mr. Kinoshita. He creates menus based on mentions of food in various books.
The episodes each have plenty of food references but specifically
Episode One - Shirobanba Curry
Episode Two - Mamaya's Carrot Rice
Episode Three - Anne of Green Gables Bread and Butter and Cucumbers
Episode Four - Seiko Tanabe's Simmered Sardines and Okara
Final Episode -Yoki Mori's Canned Food Recipes
So much of the food sounded really delicious.
In closing, I thought I would share a quote from Episode Three. As you can see from above, the meal being served is cucumber sandwiches, which the chef was serving with a small bowl of peas. I thought this exchange from page 144 between Otoha and the chef was fun.
"Those are green peas sauteed in butter. I finished them by adding a spoonful of sugar. Do you remember how, when they invited Mrs. Morgan to Green Gables, Anne added too much sugar and spoiled the peas?"
"You've read the books very closely, Mr. Kinoshita. Much more than I have."
"No, just the parts about food. I pored over those to come up with a menu."
As always, he served her coffee after the meal, along with a side dish. Brown, slightly large cubes.
"Mr. Kinoshita, this is ....?"
"Chocolate caramel."
"Really? Anne's chocolate caramel? The kind she always wanted to eat?"
"That's right."
"Ever since I was little I've always been curious about what it tastes like. Whenever I eat Morinaga brand Chocoballs, I wonder if that's how her chocolate caramels tasted."
Otoha took one of the chocolate-colored squares and popped it into her mouth. It melted in her mouth, with a thick aftertaste of both chocolate and caramel. A taste similar to the kind of fresh caramel chocolates that were popular here a while ago, but with a pleasant aroma of milk.
"This is so good!
Otoha then suggests they should market the caramels but the chef is adamant that it is way too much work!
I really enjoyed this novel, which is the first I have read by this author. It looks like they have been quite successful in Japan for a long time, but it seems that this is the first to be translated into English, with a new one coming later this year! I will definitely be reading it!
We met Ernest Cunningham in the first book in the series that has his name in Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone, which I read last year and loved. While I don't read a lot of mysteries any more, that one was fresh and funny and I knew I would be reading more. Lucky for me I am coming to the series late so I still have two more books in the series that are already published!
After the events of the last book, Ernest changed from being someone who wrote books about how to write books, to actually writing a book of his own, all about the events at his family reunion which turned out to be very deadly. But now he needs to write a follow up. The pressure is on!
He and his partner are invited to be guests at the 50th anniversary of the Australian Mystery Writer's Society festival, of course they say yes which is being held on The Ghan. Ernest does know that he is pretty lucky to be there although he is not entirely confident that he belongs there. There are going to be 7 guest authors in total ranging from one of the biggest names in crime fiction in the world, to an author who had a big hit twenty years ago and is about to release their next novel, the literary (with a capital L) writer and then Ernest who has just published his debut novel. Ernest is hoping that he will get the inspiration he needs to pen his next book using his imagination, but before he gets to that point he has to work out hidden connections, old crimes, bad reviews and so much more. Add to that mix some publishers and the fans and the scene is set.
Once the train leaves Darwin, it doesn't take long for things to start getting off track (see what I did there?). There are some interesting interactions between the guest authors and Ernest starts to wonder if he is just seeing signs of things that aren't really there. However, when one of the authors dies, it would seem that there is definitely something deeper going on. Who better to solve a crime than six crime writers, although to be fair, they probably also know the best ways to get away with a crime.
Just like in the first book, there are plenty of times that Ernest breaks the fourth wall with the reader. He is writing the book after the events, so you know that he has to survive, but we get the benefit of hindsight where he can see the errors he has made along the way. We also get handy recaps of where we are at, including a name check count as he believes that according to the Golden Rules of mystery writing the killer's name will be mentioned a precise 106 times by the end of the book. Despite this, I was still surprised at several of the reveals!
Ernest tells us very early in the book “Seven writers board a train. At the end of the line, five will leave it alive. One will be in cuffs. Body count: nine. Bit lower than last time. And me? I don’t kill anybody this time around." As readers we get to ride the story as it unfurls one surprise, one body, one big reveal at a time. Murder isn't funny, but we certainly get a few laughs along the way!
As much as my husband and I do love to explore the world, we also still love to explore Australia. One experience that is definitely on our to-do list is to take the train known as The Ghan which goes from Darwin to Adelaide (and vice versa) through the middle of Australia. When we do get to do the trip, I am glad that it won't be with these people!
Another fantastic entry in the Ernest Cunningham series. Can't wait to read the next one!
I am sharing this review with the Bookish Books challenge hosted at Bloggin' Bout Books.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026
I am pretty sure most of us could do at least 20 books that we are looking forward to but the rules say ten. I am sure when I visit other posts I will find even more books that I wish I had included on the list! It happens every year.
The Hobart Hotel by Mary-Lou Stephens (March) - I have enjoyed Mary-Lou Stephens previous books and I think this one sounds good too!
The Model Murder by Amanda Hampson (April) - This is the fourth book in the fabulous Tea Ladies mystery series set in the late 1960s in Sydney
Start at the End by Emma Grey (April) - I read both of Emma Grey's previous books last year and gave them both 5/5 stars. I have high hopes for this book!
Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama (February) - I have read a couple of this author's books now. In the first one there was one element which annoyed me but I was charmed by the second one. This is the start of a series!
A Far-Flung Life by M L Stedman (March) - It's been 13 years since M L Stedman's debut novel, The Light Between Oceans, was released! I was very surprised when I saw that she finally had a new novel coming out.
Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See (June) - I am always excited at the prospect of a new Lisa See book.
Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (May) - This is the sixth book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.
Don't Brake My Heart by Leonie Mack (June) - I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Head Over Wheels, so I am looking forward to this one
The French House Share by Gillian Harvey (January) - Gillian Harvey has become an auto-read author for me over the last couple of years.
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (February) - I have absolutely loved the last few Kate Quinn novels I have read. Excited for this one!
We are well and truly back into the swing of things in terms of being back at work (not that I took a break), reading and blogging!
Last week I finished a couple of books.
The first was the super fun Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson. This is the second book in the Ernest Cunningham series. I already have the third book in the series out from the library.
Another library book I read this week was Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Hirada, who is a successful Japanese author. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more from her once the English translation is released.
I have started reading Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye who is a Korean author. So far this one is cute!
I have a couple of other books on the go which I have started and not made much progress on. I am hoping to at least finish my audiobook this week. We'll see.
I'm watching
Last year I listened to an audiobook called The Man Who Pays the Rent by Dame Judi Dench. I had also previously watched an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? where she could trace her family line to members of the Danish Royal Court. This week I watched a show called Shakespeare, My Family and Me where she was looking for evidence that maybe her ancestor could possibly have met Shakespeare when the Danish court visited England. It was very interesting!
I also watched the recently released movie adaptation of The People You Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. I thought it was a very watchable rom-com. I laughed out loud at some points, and rolled my eyes at others!
Life
It is summer in Australia but our weather has been a bit all over the place. Last week we had a few very, very hot days! I was glad that I was just able to stay at home. Unfortunately, that means it is also bushfire weather and there were several burning over the last few days. They are fortunately a fair way from me, but there have been lives and homes lost. The biggest impact for me was when I did open the back door, all I could smell was smoke. It is always eerie and brings back bad memories of really bad fire days we have had in the past.
Last week, it was our meetaversary. Apparently we can't call it an anniversary now that we have a wedding anniversary as well. It was 9 years ago that we first met, so we went out to dinner at the Meat and Wine Company. It was a delicious meal.
Have you ever seen the two movies about The Fisherman's Friends? They are really nice, feel good films about a group of fisherman who were discovered singing sea shanties at their village harbour and have gone on to have successful music careers. We went to see them on Saturday night, and it was so much fun! My favourite parts were when they sang without any musical accompaniment - oh the harmonies! - but really the rest of the songs were just sung with an accordion and some guitars. It was a really fun night!
Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing. I try very hard to visit all the links, and often end up adding books to my own TBR pile as a result!
This month, I will be sharing the statistics for both December and for the whole of 2025!
In terms of the books read in December, there were 44 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 15 participants. There were 43 individual titles reviewed, written by 41 different authors, There were 4 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 8 or just 1.
So which book was reviewed more than once for the challenge?
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones was reviewed twice. It is billed as both horror and historical fiction. We don't often see horror on our list. It was reviewed by Bree at All the Books You Can Read and by Laura at Laura's Reviews who said it was "one of the best books I’ve read this year or ever".
Their were two authors who were reviewed twice this month but with different titles. Shellie from Shellie Loves Books shared two Agatha Christie reviews with us. The first was The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding which I want to read now just because of the title! The second was The Sittaford Mystery.
Now, let's move onto the stats for the whole of 2025.
There were 709 reviews linked up for the challenge throughout the year, shared by 35 participants. There were 613 individual titles reviewed, written by 41 different authors, There were 4 reviewers who shared links for 40 or more books each. Our top contributor was Laura from Laura's Reviews who contributed an amazing 96 reviews! Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 96 or just 1.
This compares to 665 reviews in 2024, 846 reviews in 2023, 841 reviews in 2022 and 775 reviews during 2021
So which books were reviewed the most during 2025? Drumroll please!
There were two books that were reviewed four times each.
The Predicament is the second book in the Gabriel Dax mystery series and it was reviewed by Cathy at What Cathy Read Next, Helen at She Reads Novels, Margaret at Books Please and by Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog. After reading these reviews I picked this book up, although I do need to read the first book in the series first.
There were a further 9 books that were reviewed three times which were
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
The Elopement by Gill Hornby
The House of Seymour by Joanna Hickson
The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley
The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
The Versailles Formula by Nancy Bilyeau
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Here's a breakdown of review by title
4 reviews - 2
3 reviews - 9
2 reviews - 52
1 review - 570
If we look at the authors who were reviewed multiple times, then perennial favourite Agatha Christie is up there with 20 different reviews contributed. I don't think that is a surprise given that quite a few people are doing both this challenge and the Read Christie challenge. However, the other author with 20 reviews was Laurie R King, thanks wholly to Kim on Goodreads who worked her way through the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series this year.
Other honourable mentions go to Irina Shapiro who had 7 stories reviewed as did Kate Quinn, although she also contributed to a short story collection so technically could be counted as 8! The late, great Kerry Greenwood also had 6 reviews, all of her Phryne Fisher series.
Here's a breakdown of review by author numbers
20 reviews - 2
7 reviews - 2
6 reviews - 1
5 reviews - 2
4 reviews - 6
3 reviews - 25
2 reviews - 81
1 review - 375
And here is the breakdown for the number of reviews for each month
And for the fun stat, there were 58 different books reviewed that had some variation of the words death and murder in the title!
Last year I added a column to my spreadsheet for the times I thought "oh, I would like to read that" when I read someone's review. That happened 42 times! And how many did I actually read - just three. Just goes to show that this challenge is bad/good for your TBR pile, depending on your perspective!
So now we look forward to the 2026 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. If you are interested in joining us, the sign up post is here. We would love to have you join us and see what you are reading!
I now have a number of Japanese foodie related series on the go, and today I am sharing about three of them. For the most part, I find them to be very easy, smooth reads which is perfect when you are looking for a book to get lost in.
The Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated by Jesse Kirkwood)
Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai is the third book in the Kamogawa Detective Agency series which is a series that I really enjoy. So far there are 11 books published in Japan, and I am really hopeful that we will continue to see these books translated into English.
There is no doubt that this book fits a very common structure for lots of these cozyish books. In fact, all three of the books I am talking about today have the same characteristics with short stories where the connection is that they feature the same main characters. Often, the story is about looking back to people who they miss.
In Menu, as in the previous books in the series, we have a several individual characters who come looking for the small restaurant in Kyoto which is home to the Kamogawa restaurant and is also home to the detective agency. And lets not forget also home to the cat named Drowsy
In each story, the character is looking for a very particular taste that brings back memories of a particular time in their life. Food, like music, is definitely a key that can unlock memories of particular people or situations. They come to the cafe and share what details, if any, they remember of the dish and then former policeman turned chef Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi then try to track down the exact dish. Then the customer returns two weeks later to see if they have been able to recreate it correctly.
In this book the dishes that he needs to recreate include
Kake soba
Curry and rice
Yakisoba
Gyoza
Omurice
Croquettes
I like that the food is very accessible. It's not fancy, and some times it is the merest change of an ingredient that changes the dish from just the every day to something that the customer remembers so well!
There are a lot of lovely little details in each story. For example, one of the customers is the person who makes the special lacquerware that they use in the restaurant. Having been to Japan I now have a much better idea of what they are talking about, as we had some meals that were served in some beautiful little bowls
Even though this third book is more of the same as the previous two books, the stories still delight me! Bring on the fourth book.
Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (translated by Jordan Taylor)
When we travel we like to collect Christmas decorations. When we were in Japan last year, we looked in quite a lot of the tourist shops and didn't find any Christmas decorations anywhere. I was aware from previous reading that a Japanese Christmas cake is basically a fluffy strawberry and cream cake and that lots of Japanese people like to have Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Day but that was about it in terms of Christmas traditions, which isn't all that surprising given that the majority religion is Shinto. It was therefore a bit of a surprise to realise that this book is a Christmas book.
This is the second book in the Full Moon Coffee Shop series which features giant talking cats, a magical cafe that generally only comes out on full moons and amazing sounding food and drinks. However, the magical cafe can also pop up anywhere in the week leading up to Christmas and this is when this book is set.
This time the stories are also a more connected than they sometimes tend to be in these styles of books. Satomi works hard and long hours in an advertising agency in Tokyo. She is afraid that her boyfriend is going to propose and that he is going to expect her to move away from the sitter. Koyuki is a temp at the same agency. She does good work but never seems to be able to convert her temp work into a permanent role. The final main character is Junko, who is Satomi's sister in law. She has long been estranged from her parents, but when she gets a message to say her dad is dying, she takes her young daughter to meet him for the first time.
For each woman, the encounters at the Full Moon Coffee Shop helps them to look at both their past and their present to understand what happiness might look like in the future.
I mentioned the fantastical sounding food. In this case there is a Cheese Fondue and Candy Apples, a New Moon Mont Blanc and Sparkler Iced Tea. Here is just part of the description of the tea:
"I have prepared this drink for you," he said placing a rather large glass in front of me. It was transparent and shaped like an ancient vase with no handles. Inside was tea, ice and a sparkler firing off bits of light. "It is Sparkler Ice Tea."
I brought my face close to the glass in astonishment, staring dubiously at the sparkler twinkling inside the liquid. How in the world does it work?
The master said, "Tea and memories are extracted like leaping sparks. It will be ready to drink when the sparks have scattered and the last fragment falls."
I read this one on a plane trip to Brisbane and it was the perfect way to pass the time.
This series currently has 6 books in the series. Once again, I will be looking for the next book in the series.
The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Cafe by Yuta Takahashi (translated by Cat Anderson)
The Chibineko Kitchen is in a small seaside village not too far from Tokyo. They specialise in kagezen, which are traditional meals offered in remembrance of loved ones. The twist here is that it is possible that, for the duration of the meal, you can have one last conversation with them, one last chance to tell them that you love them, and to say goodbye.
This book is the second book in the series, and once again we meet both Kai, the young man who runs the restaurant after taking over from his mother, and Kotoko, who was one of the people whose stories we read about in the first book. And then there is Chibi the calico cat.
There are four stories in the book
The first is about Nagi, a young woman who has been ill for most of her life. She has broken up with her boyfriend when he proposed to her because she thinks it would be unfair to marry her. Now, she has come to the restaurant to talk to her mother, who also died young.
Next, we meet a man named Keita who had basically shut himself in the apartment that he shared with him mother. When she dies, he takes on her job cleaning at the community aged care centre and begins to find a purpose.
The third story is about an older lady named Mitsuyo who feels isolated despite living at the aged care centre. She comes to the restaurant hoping to talk to her favourite singer.
And finally, Kumagai, who is in the same theatre group as Kotoko, visits the restaurant to see his son
What makes this book a little different is that you not only get the stories, but you also get the recipes for the food. They include
Tofu no Misozuke (Miso-marinated tofu)
Buta Bara no Kara-age (Fried pork belly)
Iwashi no Kabayaki-don (Soy glazed sardines on rice)
Shime no Kare (Curry using leftover hotpot)
There are currently 10 books in this series in Japanese but this is only the second one to be translated into English.
It is interesting that not only food and structure connects these stories. Cats also play a part in all three of these stories. The other connection is also that, even though some of these stories feature characters who have suffered great loss, particularly in Menu and Calico Cat, ultimately they are stories about finding hope and joy.
Saturday - Baked chicken fried rice Sunday - Curries, rice and roti Monday - Chicken Stir Fry Tuesday -Sausages in tomato sauce with mash potato Wednesday - Homemade pizza Thursday - Out for dinner Friday - Takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
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