Recipes of Japanese Cooking, or "Eigo de Tuskuru Washoku"

I love this book. This is my go-to Japanese cookbook. It has beautiful color photographs, and includes the basics of Japanese cuisine: sukiyaki, sushi, miso soup, mochi, karaage, tenpura, nikujaga, lotus root, burdock, soba etc. etc. etc.
And plus, the Janglish is really charming. "'Silken' tofu coated with sauce is tasty and pleasant on the tongue" ! How can I resist?
I bought this in Japan, and the only complaint is that some of the ingredients are mistranslated or hard to find, like nagaimo (or "stinking snotfruit" as I have heard it called in some circles.)

Salt Grilled Akule fish with Savory Cabbage

Two gorgeous whole hooked Akule were at our grocery store. Here we are living on an island and I almost never cook fish-- I just don't really know how! Plus their goggly eyes looking up at me through the saran wrap, it's almost too much. But these guys called my name. They're a small fish-- about 1/2 lbs each-- with nice white flesh.
We got them home and Matt cleaned them out for me and scraped off their scales(one of which I see lodged in my cookbook), and left the heads on . I patted them dry, rubbed them all over with red sea salt, and dredged them in flour. Then I heated about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a big skillet over medium high and threw the suckers in to brown. They cooked for about 6 minutes per side and got a nice golden crust on them.
Meanwhile I chopped up a quarter head each of green and purple cabbage, threw those in a little saute pan with 1 inch of chopped fresh ginger, about 3 tbsp mirin, and a tablespoon of hoisin sauce. I stirfried that for about 2 minutes-- until the cabbage is still crunchy but warmed through and the sauce is bubbling.
I served the fish whole on a bed of the cabbage. Yummmmmmy.

Roy Yamaguchi's "Roy's Feasts From Hawaii"

This book is full of beautiful color pictures of food, of course-- mouth watering dribbles of sauces and splashes of pestos-- caramelized meats and gleaming fruits. But even more enticing than the food are the full page spreads of Hawaiian landscapes: cattle grazing in the Kamuela highlands, waterfalls, oceanscapes. And smiling Hawaiians selling lettuce, plucking basil and netting fish look wholesome, tanned and welcoming. The recipes tend toward the fussy (cut out 35 1/2" rounds of zucchini, squash, and pepper skins to make scales, julienne everything) but are deliciously sophisticated Asian Fusion Pacific Cuisine.
Aloha! E Kaukau kakou!