THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES by Hisashi Kashiwai is the most mouthwatering novel I've ever read. You'll be longing for Japanese delicacies from page one, whilst becoming immersed in the tender and heart-warming story of the detective duo formed by the father and daughter from the Kamogawa Dinner, a family-owned restaurant specialized in cooking the exact same dish that the customer longs for and is unable to find. How do they do it? Like all detectives, by searching into the person's past: where they tasted the dish, where they lived, where the ingredients were obtained, what they manage to remember from the taste... In each chapter of THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES the reader is presented with a new case, a new background story dealing with the past, as well as the life stories of the father-daughter food detectives. A widower looking for the Nabeyaki Udon that his wife used to cook, a first love's beef stew, a hotel owner's white tuna sushi, the exhusband's fried pork chop, Napoli pasta with grandpa or mama's potato goulash. ‘First, I investigated the soup stock. Or rather, I found out where Chieko did her shopping. That was my starting point. I made a trip over to the Jūnenji temple area where you live. Seems you didn’t do a great job of keeping up with the neighbours. But Chieko certainly did. When I asked her neighbour about her, she remembered her very well. Apparently, they even went shopping together at the Masugata shopping arcade. You know, over in Demachi.’ Nagare spread out a map and pointed to the area in question with a pen. ‘Oh yes. The place with that traditional sweet shop where people line up all day for the mame-mochi,’ said Kuboyama, glancing at the map with his chopsticks still in hand. ‘Yes, yes, that’s Demachi Futaba. And just next to it is the Masugata shopping arcade. The locals don’t shop at touristy places like Nishiki Market – they go to Masugata. Apparently, Chieko got most of her ingredients there. There are all sorts of different shops. You can buy ingredients for making dashi stock – you know, things like kombu and bonito flakes – from Fuji-ya, chicken from Torisen, vegetables from Kanekō . . . It seems Chieko had her favourite shops where she always bought her ingredients. Even now, the local housewives haven’t given up on Masugata – they still do all their shopping there.’