What Did You Eat Series

“A story that is by turns sweet, fascinating, and bitter, seasoned with all of the skill of a talented author and worth your time.” – Anime News Network
 
From the James Tripee Award Winning author, Fumi Yoshinaga, comes a casual romance between two 40-year-old men and the many meals they share together.

A hard-working middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo come to enjoy the finer moments of life through food. After long days at work, either in the law firm or the hair salon, Shiro and Kenji will always have down time together by the dinner table, where they can discuss their troubles, hash out their feelings and enjoy delicately prepared home cooked meals!

“A story that is by turns sweet, fascinating, and bitter, seasoned with all of the skill of a talented author and worth your time.” – Anime News Network

From the James Tripee Award Winning author, Fumi Yoshinaga, comes a casual romance between two 40-year-old men and the many meals they share together.

A trying day at court, the aches and pains of aging, and the rising cost of living put Shiro through quite the wringer. Kenji is also in for a few surprises, as discussions about the future and an unexpected New Year’s visit to his family’s home lead to some shocking revelations and an unforeseen proposal. Fortunately, the two always have the comfort of a meal made with love to see them through. Good thing, too, because when a premarital quarrel threatens to torpedo Gilbert/Wataru and Kohinata’s wedding plans, it’s up to Shiro and Kenji to find a way to save their friends’ happiness—without putting their own relationship at risk.

Wedding bells are in the air as Gilbert/Wataru and Kohinata begin preparing for their upcoming nuptials. Pushed to his limit by the stress of finding an LGBTQ+-friendly venue and getting wedding-hot, Gilbert turns to his good friends Shiro and Kenji for the comforting company and soul food he knows he can rely on. This save-the-date announcement also means Shiro can finally broach a conversation years in the making with Kenji, and colors a significant step he takes in connecting his family with his life partner. And because when it rains it pours, big changes are also in store for Shiro at work…

Shiro is the managing partner at a law firm, and he de-stresses every day after work by cooking with his live-in boyfriend Kenji. They’ve been together for almost two decades now, and while they’re no longer as lovey-dovey as they used to be (they’re in their late fifties, after all), their relationship is nothing but peaceful. But what happens when the two of them suddenly bump into Kenji’s ex, who just so happens to be a buff and handsome-looking guy?

From the James Tripee Award Winning author, Fumi Yoshinaga, comes a casual romance between two 40-year-old men and the many meals they share together.

A hard-working middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo come to enjoy the finer moments of life through food. After long days at work, either in the law firm or the hair salon, Shiro and Kenji will always have down time together by the dinner table, where they can discuss their troubles, hash out their feelings and enjoy delicately prepared home cooked meals!

From the James Tripee Award Winning author, Fumi Yoshinaga, comes a casual romance between two 40-year-old men and the many meals they share together.

This slice-of-life series follows the ordinary lives of a middle-aged, gay couple and the ever-changing,
delicious variety of homecooked meals they share.

Shiro and Kenji are now well past their youthful years, and with a stable relationship and a stable career for them both, what could possibly go wrong? But Kenji finds himself in a bind one evening after a few drinks with one of his hair salon regulars. Meanwhile, a mysterious and beautiful woman greets Shiro with a friendly smile on the street during their grocery shopping, and Shiro insists that he doesn’t know her.

Two rather long-awaited encounters unfold in this installment of Fumi Yoshinaga’s heartwarming slice-of-gay-life series. After fifteen years of living together, Shiro meets Kenji’s family for the first time over dinner at a high-end unagi restaurant. Meanwhile, Kenji finally gets to know Kayoko, one of Shiro’s few friends, after a chance encounter at the supermarket. A rare argument breaks out, and circumstances both at work and at home continue to change for Shiro, but what remains a constant is the hearty meals the two of them share at the end of each day.

From the James Tiptree Award winning author, Fumi Yoshinaga, comes a casual romance between two 40-year-old men and the many meals they share together.

Gilbert invites himself over for a hot-pot made with common-folk ingredients, and Shiro wonders if things will be weird with Kohinata. Kenji tries to put off entering his 50’s for as long as possible, until Shiro reframes the idea of birthday celebrations, just as an old college classmate of Shiro’s passes away. Changes are afoot at both Kenji’s salon and Shiro’s law firm…but the one constant is that there is always good food and great company to be enjoyed.

As his clients get on in years, Kenji starts offering house call haircuts, which leads to the most emotional moment of Kenji’s career as a stylist. Shino asks for someone to split the burden of clerical work at the office and the firm ends up with a very perceptive new employee. And Kohinata calls Shiro in a panic asking for help with Gilbert, and ultimately makes Shiro a very intriguing offer…

Madam surprises Shiro with a gift that he quickly puts to good use. Shino asks Shiro for advice on how to keep her new husband fit and healthy. Kayoko invites Shiro to a cherry blossom picnic, at which Shiro is rescued from romantic disaster. Kenji gets a spiffy new suit for his birthday, and the couple considers the implications of a new same-sex partnership certificate law in Shibuya…

Shino gets engaged to someone unexpected, Shiro’s cooking buddy Kayoko contends with her growing family, and Shiro confronts new challenges as his parents get on in years—and the common thread in each family unit is cooking that comes from the heart. Shiro gets a surprising offer at work, and Kenji comes home with a surprise of his own…

In this volume, the intrepid lawyer/gourmand Shiro deals with the closing of his beloved local supermarket and his aging parents (and growing older himself), dodges lawyerly politics, and reveals a shocking secret to Kenji about why their apartment is so cheap to rent.

Shiro continues to showcase an array of inventive yet simple-to-make dishes, and his cooking buddy Kayoko comes up with tasty recipes to cook up Mr. Kohinata’s food after his fridge breaks down.

The recipes include celebratory year-end-only dishes as Shiro rings in the New Year at home, with Kenji, for the first time.

For Kenji’s birthday Shiro gifts a trip together to Kyoto, but the lawyer’s uncharacteristic spree has the easy-going hair stylist fearing the worst. Also in this volume, “brownies” enter Shiro’s lexicon and repertoire.

Shiro finally introduces Kenji to his parents, and when a major case forced him to work long hours, he fails to come home for dinner for days on end.

In this volume of discovery and acceptance, we learn that happiness depends on small constant pleasures (meals first and foremost)—and that the reason Kenji fell for Shiro has to do with an ’80s manga. As the couple’s relationship deepens, author Yoshinaga takes the slice-of-life genre to unique heights.