The first book in a series, it follows retired police detective Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter Koishi who run an unassuming diner in Kyoto I picked up “The Kamogawa Food Detectives” by Hisashi Kashiwai late one night, not realizing it would set off an intense craving for minced meat manto with chili garlic sauce at 1 a.m. in the morning. The Japanese novel, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, unfolds as a series of interconnected stories fueled by the transformative power of culinary nostalgia.