Much enjoyable than I thought. The writing kind of hooked me and I liked how it was not entirely focusing on heartbreaks, grief and foods but also towards one’s self-discovery, friendship and community. Told in episodic narrative, I followed Momoko who gets dumped one night and found herself to waking sober up in a small, struggling Amayadori café owned by Iori. She shared her story with Iori and Hozumi, a young trainee monk who is a regular and cooked her ex’s favourite curry recipe that later spark an idea to Iori in starting The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favourite Recipe Funeral Committee; a weekly gathering to help his café in getting more customers by inviting people to come and cook their heartbreaks recipes and share their stories.

The friendly interactions in between Momoko, Iori and Hozumi were so admirable and I loved how apart of tale on broken relationship, it also delved into stories of familial bonds, career stress and unrequited love. The food sounds yummy (with actual recipe tied to the story) and I liked how each go so sentimental with an intimate reason of how it was attached to their memories. My fav would be Kimura’s episode about missing the taste of his late wife’s onigiri, Hozumi and his mom’s pizza recipe also both Nagi’s hamburger steak and Momoko’s curry.

Loved the moments of realisation, acceptance and that buried resentment at the end of each episode, though with no high drama or twist in its exploration it was still a fairly reflective and uplifting read overall. Glad that I enjoyed it despite the mixed reviews on goodreads