I just got a big box of food manga from amazon.com today. Before about a year ago I hadn't realized such a genre of manga existed and was so well populated. My first taste was from a review I read in a food magazine about a bread baking manga called "Yakitate Japan!"
Its about a boy who is trying to create the national bread of Japan. His challange is that Japanese like rice too much to care about bread, so no one has created one yet. This national bread will be called 'Ja-Pan', a play on words since 'Pan' is the Japanese word for 'bread.'
The first volume was really entertaining despite (or because?) how over the top dramatic it was. Not sure how bread can be dramatic? Read it! I Just got volume 2 and I'm itching to see how it continues.
The second manga I got was on a tip from my friend and fellow TypePad blogger, Lisa Katayama of Tokyo Mango. She posted about 'Oishinbo', a manga that focuses on a different type of Japanese food in each volume. She does a better job explaining it in her post than I could. So well in fact, that I bought the first three issues:
I'm looking forward to learning more about sake and gyoza!
