Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking: Memories and Stories from My Family's Kitchen (Emiko Davies)

Practically any home-cooked Japanese meal revolves around rice. It sits beside miso soup, pickles, tofu, and a piece of grilled fish at breakfast. It soaks up the sauce in a comforting donburi bowl, or is wrapped in nori for the ultimate portable lunch—onigiri. And it’s there for dinner, perhaps served with a pickled plum, some mild Japanese curry, braised fish, or even a Japanese-style Hamburg steak.

The everyday meals, cooked in the homes of Japanese mothers and grandmothers, is the food that Emiko Davies grew up with. They’re the dishes she makes for her own children: simple, satisfying food like tamagonogohan (stir fried egg and rice), soba noodle soup, Japanese curry, yakisoba, and miso soup, prepared with whatever seasonal vegetables happen to be around.