A case of tracking down lost flavors
“The Kamogawa Food Detectives” series by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood) is, if you’d allow me a food analogy, like a bento with an array of things.
Think bits of Japanese culture—from descriptions of Kyoto and changing seasons, down to its detailed lists of seasonal fare—a generous serving of interesting human stories, and a touch of detective mystery, all wrapped up in a steady-paced, episodic, “Midnight Diner”-esque format that’s light-handed and, well, easy to read and digest.
The cat on the cover is a great draw, too.
It’s cozy and light enough that reading a case or two has become my pre-bedtime ritual for the past week—a midnight snack, if you will (though it only succeeds in making my stomach rumble more). If anything though, the series has at least satiated my craving to restart a decent reading habit.
“We find your food”
The Kamogawa Diner is, on the outside, a nondescript spot. But once you get to the street and follow the aroma of good food, you’ll be led into the restaurant-slash-detective agency run by father-daughter tandem Nagare and Koishi Kamogawa.
Koishi takes care of the front of house—welcoming diners who stumble in, and doing preliminary interviews with their (food) detective agency clients, while Nagare runs the kitchen and does the field work.
Their promise is simple: “We find your food.” That straightforward claim is what brings all sorts of people from around Japan to their restaurant in Kyoto, through hot summers or harsh winters.
A former detective himself, Nagare’s new career as a restaurateur sees him use his sleuthing to a more flavorful use. Given more or less two weeks and the clues Koishi briefs him with, he’ll track down lost, forgotten recipes and recreate it to a T—and unearth a few truths about his clients’ hazy memories while he’s at it.
There’s something satisfying about how each missing dish case gets cracked. The delectable descriptions of the dishes are a factor, of course—you just can’t help but imagine what it all looks, smells, and tastes like—but there’s also something exciting about learning why their clients could’ve been attached to sometimes such simple or “ordinary” dishes, and later learning the unique ingredients or methods that were used to make them.
Not chef or culinary-school level techniques, mind you—but often simple swaps, adjustments, or mixes that remind you why they say cooking is a powerful love language and food is how we remember.
Food nostalgia
There’s a reason the series’ premise works, and it all boils down to science. While we often think of food as involving the sense of taste, it actually engages all our senses, including sight, texture, sound, and smell—the latter being closely linked to the system of the brain’s nerves and networks called the limbic system. This controls our emotions and drives, as well as memories.
Thus, eating certain foods associated with significant memories activate key parts of our brain, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, which are responsible for processing and regulating emotions.
According to Paul Breslin, professor of nutritional sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA, the reason certain tastes can evoke such vivid memories is because our brains have built a connection between flavors and a distinct time, place, and/or emotion.
“You don’t remember every time you see a stop sign because there’s nothing distinctive about it. But you might remember the chicken soup your grandma used to make you when you taste something similar,” Breslin says in an article by SBS.
Sometimes, our food memories can be so strong that we feel so compelled to taste (and relive) it again—hence why many of Nagare’s clients in “The Kamogawa Food Detectives” series come to him in the first place, even decades since they’ve last had the dishes they ask him to recreate.
Recently, I came across a social media post that went along the lines of how incomparable the pain is of craving for a dish that you can’t eat in your hometown or home country. After a buffet of renewed food memories courtesy of the Kamogawas and my own reminiscing of past “dishes I can’t stop thinking about”—I can’t help but wish the Kamogawa Diner was a real place.
Looks like we’ll just have to settle for vicariously living through the novels, for now.
The fourth installment of “The Kamogawa Food Detectives,” entitled “A Serving of Hope” is set to be released in October
