What Did You Eat Yesterday? Review: Two Men Make Dinner Together Every Night and That Is the Whole Story
by Fumi Yoshinaga
Read the first volume. If it doesn't hook you, put it down. It'll hook you.
Buy What Did You Eat Yesterday? on Amazon →*Affiliate link — I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Quick Take
- The cooking manga where the relationship is the point and the food is the medium — Shiro and Kenji's partnership is depicted through what they eat together, and the recipes are real and reproducible
- Yoshinaga's handling of the gay couple's life — its ordinariness, its specific social navigation in contemporary Japan, its domesticity — is the work's defining quality
- 20+ volumes ongoing; one of manga's most beloved long-running slice of life series
Who Is This Manga For?
- Readers who want cooking manga where the food connects to emotional life rather than competition
- Anyone interested in LGBTQ+ manga that depicts adult gay life with ordinary complexity
- Fans of slice of life that moves slowly and finds value in the mundane
- Readers who want to actually cook the food depicted — the recipes are usable
Content Warnings & Age Rating
Age Rating: M (Mature) Content Warnings: The relationship is adult and LGBTQ+; mild sexual content; the M rating reflects the adult relationship rather than graphic content
The M rating is accurate. The content is adult in register rather than explicit.
Yu's Rating
| Category | Score |
|---|---|
| Story Depth | ★★★★★ |
| Art Style | ★★★★☆ |
| Character Development | ★★★★★ |
| Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers | ★★★★★ |
| Reread Value | ★★★★★ |
Story Overview
Shiro Kakei is a lawyer who is careful about money and careful about his private life — he is gay and closeted professionally, comfortable at home. His partner Kenji Yabuki is a hairdresser who is more openly gay and considerably less concerned with what anyone thinks. They have been together for years.
Shiro cooks dinner most nights. The manga follows his meal planning — the careful budgeting, the seasonal ingredients, the recipes for simple Japanese home cooking — alongside the life he and Kenji have together. The cooking is not separate from the relationship; it is the relationship made visible.
Characters
Shiro Kakei — His carefulness extends from his legal work to his cooking to his management of his identity in different social contexts. His character is the most fully realized portrait in the work.
Kenji Yabuki — His openness and warmth provide the emotional color that Shiro's carefulness sometimes suppresses. Their complementary quality is the basis of the partnership.
Art Style
Yoshinaga's art is precise and unshowy — her character work conveys emotional states through small gestures rather than dramatic expression. The food is drawn with the same specificity she brings to character work: it looks edible and real.
Cultural Context
What Did You Eat Yesterday? depicts the specific experience of gay men in contemporary Japanese society — the professional closeting that remains common, the legal situation of same-sex couples in Japan (no marriage equality at time of serialization), and the domestic life that exists despite these constraints. The ordinariness the manga achieves in depicting this life is itself a political statement.
What I Love About It
The chapters that depict Shiro's meal planning — his mental arithmetic about ingredients, his navigation of the grocery store, his decisions about what to make for whom — reveal character more precisely than any scene of emotional confrontation could. What Shiro chooses to cook is who Shiro is.
What English-Speaking Fans Say
Western readers describe What Did You Eat Yesterday? as one of the most genuinely comforting manga available in English — the domesticity and the warmth of the relationship make it reliable comfort reading. LGBTQ+ readers specifically cite the adult, undramatic depiction of a gay partnership as unusually valuable. The recipes are consistently described as actually working when cooked.
Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning
The chapters focused on Shiro's parents — their understanding and non-understanding of his life, and the specific gap between what they know and what they choose to know — are the series' most emotionally precise examination of the social navigation Shiro constantly performs.
Similar Manga
- Antique Bakery — Gay bakery slice of life by Yoshinaga
- Oishinbo — Long-running cooking manga with domestic focus
- The Way of the Househusband — Cooking comedy with domestic focus
- My Hero Academia (contrast) — Everything this isn't
Reading Order / Where to Start
Volume 1 — Shiro and Kenji's established relationship and the first recipes.
Official English Translation Status
Vertical published the English edition. Ongoing; multiple volumes available.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The depiction of a gay partnership through domestic life is exceptional
- The recipes are accurate and reproducible
- Shiro and Kenji are among manga's most fully realized adult characters
- The slow pace is the point and works completely
Cons
- The slow pace requires patience and tolerance for the mundane
- The M rating may limit accessibility for younger readers
- Ongoing — no complete ending available yet
Format Comparison
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
| Individual Volumes | Vertical; ongoing |
| Digital | Available |
Where to Buy
Read the first volume. If it doesn't hook you, put it down. It'll hook you.
This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
*Affiliate link — I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
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Written by
Yu
Manga Enthusiast from Japan
I grew up in Japan and manga literally saved me during a tough time in elementary school. My English isn't perfect, but my love for manga is real — and I want to share it with you.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.