Fuchsia Dunlop writes has some of the most startlingly authentic yet approachable English language cookbooks on Chinese food.
I’d highly recommend something like this for your library.
Can't comment on Japanese but I really love Every Grain of Rice for Chinese cooking. Definitely learned a lot from that.
I’m Chineses so I’m speaking primarily about Chinese dishes... virtually any dish that doesn’t already have rice or noodles in the dish itself can be paired with rice. I usually start by looking for recipes for a specific dish, something I’ve had at a Chinese restaurant or seen on a menu.
I also love Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. It has a lot of recipes that I grew up with.
Both from Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice.
I'm not the biggest fan of diet foods/fads, I lost a whole bunch of weight just watching out portion sizes and cooking more. I like to follow Michael Pollan's nutritional plan which is, in order of importance, eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice is an accessable book for Sichuan cooking. I've learned a lot from it myself.
I prefer Sichuan food so the ones I follow tend to have more Sichuan recipes. Here are some English ones that I like:
​
Chinese with passable subtitles:
​
For English language cookbooks, pretty much anything from Fuchsia Dunlop, but Every Grain of Rice is my favorite. This one has a section explaining pantry ingredients and uses that is good for people new to Sichuan cooking.
Lots of chinese food fits that criteria. Some good beef recipes here, that youtube channel has lots of good recipes. Woks of life is another good resource, if you want a book this one is great.