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7 Cooking Manga Good Enough to Eat
From Antique Bakery to Yakitate!! Japan: Gourmet Graphic Novels for Foodies

By Deb Aoki, About.com

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From the land of Iron Chef comes cooking manga -- Japanese comics about the thrills and spills (mostly spills) that happens when you turn baking, frying and slicing into a competitive sport, and turn the kitchen into a backdrop for romance, comedy and intrigue. Bite into these tasty tales and if you find yourself with a craving for a cream puff or Chinese noodles in the middle of reading these stories, don't say I didn't warn you...

1. Oishinbo ala Carte by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki

Oishinbo Ala Carte Volume 1 by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki, published by VIZ Signature Manga

Journalist Shiro Yamaoka is more than just a reporter: he's a trained gourmet chef who has the tenacity, skills and the tastebuds to find the very best cuisine that Japan has to offer. With his co-worker Yuko Kurita, Yamaoka is out to find the ultimate flavors and dishes at restaurants grand and humble alike. But it's not all fun and food for Shiro, as he must also compete with rich and arrogant father, Yuzan Kaibara. Kaibara is a demanding gourmet who terrorizes cooks all over Japan with his demands for only the best food and finest preparations. As Shiro takes on his gastronomical quest, readers are treated to a mouthwatering education in the finer points of cooking and eating.

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2. Yakitate!! Japan by Takashi Hashiguchi

Yakitate!! Japan Volume 1 by Takashi Hashiguchi, published by VIZ Media / Shogakukan

Young Kazuma is a prodigy with a unique talent. He has the 'hands of the sun' or the innate ability to knead and bake outrageously creative and sublimely delicious bread. Although he can bake baguettes, croissants and danishes with ease, Kazuma dreams of creating the ultimate bread for Japanese tastebuds -- the elusive "Ja-pan" (pan = "bread" in Japanese). Filled with delectably detailed trivia about baking, Yakitate!! Japan is the ultimate comic for carb-lovers.

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3. The Antique Bakery by Fumi Yoshinaga

Antique Bakery Volume 1 by Fumi Yoshinaga

In The Antique Bakery, a scruffy ex-professional, a former boxer and a gay pastry chef with a talent for making sweet treats and for breaking men's hearts whip up a delightful yaoi manga confection of romance, drama and comedy.

Filled with lots of delectable details about the finer points of making French pastries, this is one comic book that will have you craving cream puffs by the time you get to the last page.

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4. Kitchen Princess by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi

Kitchen Princess Volume 1 by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi from Del Rey Manga

Kind-hearted Najika loves to cook for her friends, but now that she's at the exclusive Seika Academy, she finds it'll take more than just a perfect crème brulee to find her place in this elite environment and to find her childhood crush, a mysterious prince who's now a student at Seika.

Kitchen Princess is a sweet (in more ways than one) shojo manga story filled with fantasy, romance and more than a few tasty recipes that even beginners can try to create culinary magic in their kitchen.

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5. Mixed Vegetables by Ayumi Komura

Mixed Vegetables Volume 1 by Ayumi Komura, published by Shojo Beat Manga / VIZ Media

Hanayu's parents own a pastry shop, but her dream is to become a sushi chef. Meanwhile, her classmate Hayato's family runs a sushi restaurant, but he loves baking sweets. You'd think that all the ingredients for romance are there for these two high school culinary students, but love sometimes requires a slow simmer before it's ready to serve.

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6. Iron Wok Jan by Shinji Saijyo

Iron Wok Jan Volume 1 by Shinji Saijyo, published by Dr Master Publications

Take a cup of Iron Chef, add a heaping half-cup of Hong Kong kung fu and a can of Red Bull and you have the hyper-active cooking manga Iron Wok Jan.

Jan Akiyama is a talented, albeit arrogant chef who's mastered the art of Chinese cuisine. When he arrives at Gobancho, the finest Chinese restaurant in Tokyo, he's burning with the desire to show everyone that he's got the right stuff to 'wok' the culinary world. Along the way, readers are taught some astounding (and sometimes useful) tips, tricks and trivia about food and cooking. Sheep brain soup anyone?

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7. Project X Challengers: Cup Noodle by Tadashi Katoh

Project X Challengers: Cup Noodle by Tadashi Katoh, published by Digital Manga Publishing (DMP)

Although it's not technically a cooking manga, Project X Challengers: Cup Noodle provides enough detailed information about the ingredients and the preparation required to turn this 3-minute meal from idea to worldwide reality. If you've ever poured hot water on a cup of freeze-dried noodles, you'll be fascinated by the struggles that the Nissin team went through to get everything just right. After you discover how difficult it was to get just the right type of shrimp and the best noodles, you'll have a new appreciation for this instant meal that took years to make.

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