I rarely buy books without having heard of them before, but if it’s Japanese and has anything to do with cats, I will buy it. No questions asked or blurbs read. And that’s how I ended up acquiring The Kamogawa Food Detectives, written by Hisashi Kashiwai and translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Food holds memories, and rediscovering a dish from your past can be very meaningful. That’s what Nagare and his daughter Koishi are for, recreating important dishes through some proper detective work. Each chapter follows a certain customer whose life story we get a glimpse of. Very much like in Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.

I enjoyed the food aspect, even though descriptions of meats and such usually make me uncomfortable. Maybe it had to do with the fact that all of the dishes are unfamiliar to me, I was just happy to learn about them, plus they are written quite sensually. My favorite stories are about an old woman recounting a marriage proposal that she fled from and a retired police officer, who wants to taste her late wife’s specialty once more before getting remarried.

But this is guilty of false marketing: the cat on the cover has barely any role in the stories! And actually, this is another thing in common with Before the Coffee Gets Cold books. I guess cats sell books, not just to me, but in general.