Though she is a noted authority on the Chinese cuisine with many popular books to her credit, Nancy Chih Ma"s enthusiastic interests in gastronomy extend to the foods of many nations of the world. And, as a result of this enthusiasm, she has come to know and understand many different ways of thinking and eating. It is not surprising that, since she has lived in Japan for a long time, her understanding of and appreciation for Japanese cooking should be both extensive and profound. After exhaustive investigations and inquiries, however, she learned that, regrettably, in Europe and the United States, Japanese food is thought of as something to be enjoyed solely in restaurants. Few American cooks entertain the notion of preparing attractive, nutritious flavorful Japanese foods in their won kitchens for family and guests. The nature of many cookbooks on the subject does little to rectify this situations, since they tend to be specialists manuals concentrating on difficult purely traditional foods and make no effort to modify Japanese foods to tit them into the American way of life.Having deplored this state of affairs for a long time, at last Mrs. Ma, with the cooperation and assistance of her daughter-in-law Sachiko Ma and her daughter Helen Ma Yamawaki, has written this book, which enables anyone to prepare authentic Japanese foods easily and with materials readily obtainable. The three authors have devoted all of their thought and attention to devising Japanese dishes that will be at home in the American family.