Wow, today kind of made up for our light courses. Folks in the community have been riling up and are giving it their all for this MMF! Hopefully, I don’t miss any of them! We wouldn’t want to keep you hungry, yeah?

At our homebase, I served folks with probably my most favorite dish from Oishinbo: Bacon Nabe. Seriously, any dish with bacon is perfect! I also assembled some foodie mangavores and we spent an hour babbling about Food manga and how we’re embracing the genre.

Ash seems to embrace Oishinbo’s Ramen and Gyoza quite well. But more than just the dish, he actually appreciates how the series values sustainable food culture in the title. I think Oishinbo’s one of the more vocal titles about their opinion on food. There were a couple of chapters dedicated to whaling and while a good number of protesters (including their friend, American sushi chef, Jeff Larson) Tetsu Kariya still conveyed his thoughts of supporting whale consumption granted that whaling is regulated (he even made suggestions at how Japan was quite reasonable with their whaling).

Lori Henderson also gave her take on Oishinbo’s Japanese Cuisine and thinks that the feud between the Kaibara’s animosity towards his son lacks depth. I think I can’t blame her because a lot of these are unexplained in the ala Carte editions. On Kaibara’s end, Yamaoka’s severance from his family was a great disrespect to the legacy of what he and his wife had built, a gourmet association that had the high standards of taste and cuisine. I think these were not greatly explored in the ala carte editions, but Kaibara, towards the middle part of the series, has spoken to Kurita that if she was involved with Yamaoka, then maybe she can change him and bring him to greater culinary heights.

Over at Animemiz, Linda Yau talks about how she appreciated  Oishinbo: Joy of Rice as it seems that she has nothing but affection for this ingredient. Hopefully, Viz publishes an Ala Carte edition for Japanese Sweets (Wagashi) because those will definitely tackle mochi and dango!

In Manga Out Loud, Ed Sizemore also hosted his own awesome podcast about food manga (and OEL) with Johanna Draper Carlson, Michelle Smith & Deb Aoki! I honestly wanted to have a talk with Deb as well as she always keeps me hungry when she posts her food expeditions over at twitter! But I’m happy to hear this podcast as they also discuss what does food manga entail before digressing to Drops of God. I must agree with Michelle’s opinion about how the series seems to focus on branding wines, and while this isn’t clear in the earlier volumes, as more wines were unveiled as part of the 12 disciples, the narrative in the wine becomes more apparent. The series has been blamed for sparking a wine boom in China, Japan, and Korea. I think it’s more fascinating for Asian cultures who have never appreciated wines and mostly drank it either as a sign of social status or sucking up to their boss.

Johanna herself also gave her own contribution by listing down the various reviews she’s done for food manga. And these are lot but if you do host a site named Comics Worth Reading, I’m quite sure many of you will definitely find a food manga you’d like to grab for this feast.

Izandra, who has been my partner in crime in cooking for this feast has submitted for the Ultimate Menu by going to her favorite bakeshops that cook some pastries that appear in Antique Bakery. I do love going to bakeshops and more often than not, I taste their cakes that are similar to those in Antique Bakery. In the Philippines we have a shop named Bizu whose opera cake reminded me of those served in Antique. After seeing Izandra’s entry, I kind of wanted to get a piece of cake. ; 3;

We’ve still got a few more servings for the MMF! We’re running until the 27th so do keep on sending your entries with #oishinbommf over at twitter! Or send me an email over at punkednoodle at gmail!