The Restaurant of Love Regained - A Review

This book came recommended on Senior Reading Raccoons, a group I follow on FB. I finished it yesterday and I am still wrapped in the warmth of the book, pretty much like how the main character, Rinko had felt by the aromas of her cooking. From the moment I had come across a mention of Rinko giving madeleines to her landlord to reduce the rent of her love nest, I was sold. When have I last read a book which wasn't a cookbook that featured a madeleine? Never.  

And then on the 17th page I came across this passage - At first, the words my grandmother used to describe differing amounts of seasoning such as tekitou and anbai were like another language to me. But I gradually came to understand what they meant. They were soft terms with rounded edges that painted a vague picture of the appropriate amount of flavour, and only those words could describe the resultant state of perfection. 

I have often felt this way too when I have wanted to express flavours in our Indian cooking which mostly did go by handfuls, pinch of of our spices to get that yumm flavour in our rasams or sambars. I got the happy feeling that this book and I were going to like each other a lot.

The Restaurant of Love Regained, written by Ita Ogawa has been (thankfully) translated from Japanese to English by David Karashima. To a large extent the tone and story seems to have not got lost in the translation but what cuts through the language barrier is the story itself - Deceived off her entire life's worth of things by her Indian boyfriend, Rinko, without a moment's hesitation decides to journey to her hometown in the mountains with the only precious thing that isn't stolen - her grandmother's pickled vegetables. She doesn't have a very good relationship with her mother and so she decides to make her visit short and favourable for her, but ends up staying put and opening a restaurant that would cater to only one table a day. That is to say, she would serve food exclusively to a person/couple/family for just one meal in a day.

Sample this paragraph:

I had lost everything else I'd ever owned. But I still had my body and all the secrets my grandmother had taught me, and my tongue remembered everything - the fried butterbur with pickled plums, the cooked burdock with vinegar, the assorted sushi full of vegetables, the steamed egg hotchpotch served with broth, the milk pudding made with only egg whites, the steamed buns flavoured with soybean flour, and many other dishes besides. 

Delicious isn't it?

This is one of those books that not only lets us peek into the culture of the place, in this case Japan, through its important constituent - food and various ingredients, but also affirms the belief of how cooking can transform people when made immersingly and lovingly. There are only about 193 pages in this book, but even so there are elaborate details of how Rinko gets the restaurant up and running right from selecting a place, doing up the interiors to making dishes for the guests who come there. Its all written in such loving detail that I pondered over many pages and went back a few times to savour the words and the food actually.

There were things that would leave to never return and there were things that always remained. There were things that stayed dormant while you sought them out and the world was full of all of these things. 

I did have problem about the lack of communication between Rinko's mother Ruchiro and herself, which by itself would have solved quite a few misconceptions Rinko has of her earlier memories, but I felt the author had her reasons. I did think Rinko could have spoken to her mother about her problems with her or at least asked her grandmother whom she loves a lot and who is incidental in her taking up cooking as an occupation. There isn't much detail also of what this problem is between her mother and herself, except that at the age of 15 she takes her bags and leaves her mother to pursue her education in the city. Was it because she thought her mother was quite amorous and flaunting her sex appeal to customers who visited their bar Amour? Was it because she didn't know her father? We can only speculate. She stays with her grandmother who teaches her most of the intricate details of Japanese cooking. Why she has such antagonism towards her mother is never fully addressed. 

There is a revelation at the end of the book that you would never see coming, but which ties up all the loose ends in the story. There will, however, be no lack of interest till then in reading this wonderful book with its vivid description of the seasons and nature and food. Rinko relates her experiences in life to the food she cooks or has cooked, like the one given below:

"It was a place filled with layers and layers of memories for me, like an intricate millefeuille."

Perhaps it is a very Asian thing, but her resilience on losing everything she has owned in her life, including money she has been saving with her boyfriend to start a restaurant, is commendable. Though she is hurt emotionally by her boyfriend's deception, she is matter of fact about her future. She finds happiness and solace in her cooking, in taking care of her mother's pet pig, Hermes and while spending time with her childhood friend Kuma.

There are bits about cutting and portioning pork which a vegetarian might have difficulty reading, but most of the book venerates the food she makes and the animals and birds whose life she takes to prepare her masterpieces. There is so much to love in this book. 

Do read it!