I read this while very hungry. The section on sushi nearly undid me.
Barthes inciteful series of essays compares Western to 'Eastern' or Japanese culture. Japanese culture has been a source of inspiration, if I may use so vague a work, to French art and artists. Yet, Barthe's essays reveal, through a semiotic analysis, that the assimilation of Eastern culture by the French was really very limited. Indeed, he explores the dramatic arts and, as mentioned above, food. The cooked food of the west versus the uncooked/raw food the the east. These translate into signs and meanings to be deciphered by the cultural theorist. I recommend the read, even if you do not use it in essays or in methodological approaches, because Barthe's writing is important in the literature of structuralism to post-structuralism.