© Tetsu KARIYA, Akira HANASAKI/Shogakukan Inc.

Oishinbo is now going full swing and we are just under halfway through the A La Carte series (see my reviews of volume one and two). This volume focuses on ramen and gyoza and focuses more on how foreign food has become a part of Japanese cuisine. However it’s becoming obvious that the individual chapters have been selected from numerous volumes as we start to see cameos from persons familiar to the characters but whom we have never met. Yet this aside, the collection of ‘courses’ remains a great way to sample the soul of this popular cookery manga.

But the chapters, whichever volumes they were plucked from, remain entertaining. Ramen is a foodstuff which every fan of Naruto will be very familiar but gyoza is slightly more alien. The search for the Ultimate Menu continues and it’s becoming clearer with each chapter that Yamaoka and Kurita are attracted to one another (they eventually marry later in the manga) and Yamaoka is once again at loggerheads with his father, Kaibara Yuzan. However it’s no longer a case of the son beating his father as there are occassions when Kaibara bests his son due to more knowledge regarding specific foods and this makes for a nice change.

At the same time, the focus remains firmly on how ramen and gyoza are prepared and their place within Japanese society. Indeed it’s fascinating to see how ramen are made and the importance of the smallest items like condiments which can make or break a meal. The historial importance of food is also not overlooked and, thanks to reading this volume, I even learnt how to correctly eat ‘ramen rice’.

Once again there is a recipe to try and the notes at the back are entertaining and also fill in gaps – such as informing the reader who a specific character is. There’s also a teaser for the next volume which focuses on vegetables and I’m already eager to get my hands on it. 

Oishinbo: Volume Three is released on May 19th priced $12.99.