[3] The series depicts the adventures of culinary journalist Shirō Yamaoka and his partner (and later wife), Yūko Kurita.

It was adapted into a live-action film directed by Azuma Morisaki, starring Kōichi Satō and Rentarō Mikuni, which premiered on April 13, 1996.

In March 2016, writer Tetsu Kariya announced on his blog that he wanted to end the manga after it returned from hiatus.

He is a cynical food critic who is tasked by the newspaper's owner, along with the young Yūko Kurita, to provide recipes for the "ultimate menu".

In this story, characters who visited the nuclear plant suffer nosebleeds that don't stop, and they conclude that the government should help people move away from the area because of the radiation.

This prompted an intense backlash, both from local governments in Fukushima and across Japan; even Shinzo Abe weighed in, calling the claims "baseless rumors".

Despite these statements, Kariya stood by the story in the midst of the controversy, saying he had researched Fukushima for two years and could "only write the truth," but noted that he was not expecting such a strong reaction from the public.

[37] The following month, Shogakukan Inc. put Oishinbo on hiatus, its last appearance being the May 12, 2014, edition in the weekly Big Comic Spirits.