Professor Van Tarpley’s Fall 2025 class is gonna be yummy
and there’s room for more at the table!
Hello! I am Professor Van Tarpley, from the SDSU History Department. In preparation for my upcoming Fall 2025 class on “Manga and Japanese History” (HIST 454, MW 2:00-
3:15p.m., open spots available!), I just completed a four-dish series of manga-inspired Japanese home cooking.
The dishes, and their role in manga:
Nabe (hot pot) — a classic “stone soup” meal of hopeful dreamers leaving the countryside for wildly expensive Tokyo, as well as hungry college students. A marker of community formed in the midst of struggle and striving.
Hambagu — the favorite dish of every little kid in manga, and a “gap” craving of secretly childish office workers.
Hittsumi — chicken and hand-torn dumplings. A symbol of Aomori/home, and a key plot dish in the cooking-heavy manga Kiyo in Kyoto (one of my all-time favorites).
Doria (mine was a curry doria) — A cheese-topped rice casserole that is a famiresu (family restaurant) mainstay. Found in many after-school and cozy date scenes in manga.
Reflections:
–The most work to prepare: Hot pot. I thought my from-scratch stock was a little too seaweed-heavy for my family, but it turns out that this was everyone’s second-favorite of the four dishes. Nabe has a lovely appearance, also.
–The secret star ingredient: Gobo (burdock root). This looks like the love child of a very long carrot and Harry Potter’s wand, but it pulled serious weight in both the nabe and hittsumi. I learned that the secret is not to peel it — there is so much taste in the skin.
–Better than the sum of its parts: Doria. Pretty quick, quite tasty. This would be an easy and
unusual company main dish. It also heats up wonderfully as a leftover.
–Runaway winner: Hittsumi. This is one of the tastiest things I have cooked or eaten all year. The dumplings are fun to make. The daikon and naganegi are really, really good here.
Check the Schedule of Classes and Register Today!
There will be a session on food in manga in HIST 454. Please break apart your disposable chopsticks (under the table, while holding them horizontally) and join the class!