Being in Japan, I really want to learn how to make some Japanese food that is not just curry or chicken fried rice! I want our family to appreciate both of our cultures which includes appreciating both American and Japanese food. There are lots of different cooking classes, but they are very expensive. And when you go to a class, it is structured and focused on the class; I would rather hang out with a friend and have a good time while learning how to cook. A friend of mine offered to teach me how to cook Japanese food (yes, not ALL of my friends here are foreigners, but they do all speak English:) and I gladly took her up on the offer. She is also a stay-at-home mom of a 21 month old little boy who likes to topple over little Priss Pooh. Today we had our first cooking lesson and I hope we do many more. It was so much fun, even though my kitchen looked like a tornado came through by the end of it. Let me tell you, I have a fairly decent size kitchen for Japanese standards, but with two adults trying to cook with two little ones at their feet, it spells disaster at the end. In spite of the mess, the food was delicious.
We cooked basic food today - nothing too fancy. I wanted to learn how to use my fish grill so we bought some fish at the supermarket and grilled it in my little bitty fish oven. She offered to show me how to cook the fish with the whole fish intact - eyes and all - but I decided for my first lesson to stick with the basic piece of fish I could find at my local Kroger. It was so yummy. We did not have to marinate it or anything and the taste was out of this world. We also made these rice balls called Onigiri. I see people eat these all the time, especially at picnics or on the go. They are actually shaped like a triangle, but when I tried, they were shaped like a ball. I definitely need to keep working on this. You can put whatever you like in them. We made them today with seaweed, a Japanese type of spinach, sesame, and little pieces of cheese for the kiddos to get a little dairy.
We also bought two "weird" items that she said a lot of foreigners are suspicious when trying. One was called Natto and it had a very distinct smell. It was a soy bean but there was some type of goo in it when you stirred them together and made it very sticky and hard to eat. I tried it but it was not one of my favorites. Kan said he does not really like it either. Good thing because I did not really plan to buy it again. I let my friend take the extra one home and she just laughed. Her little boy LOVED it! I gave one bite to Miyako and she did not even try it - she simply gave it back to me. For our dessert we had O-daifuku. There is a sweet bean here that the people love. They often trick me with this bean as I have been known to buy a piece of bread or a pancake type food, only to bite into it and taste this sweet mushy bean. The first time I did this, I thought I was buying something with chocolate chips. You can imagine my disappointment when I bit in and tasted a bean, not knowing it would be a bean but was rather expecting a chocolate chip. Anyways, the O-daifuku is a mushy type sweet and in the middle is this sweet bean. It actually grows on you and I am beginning to like it. In the check out line today a lady behind us had some, only they looked covered in chocolate. When I asked about it, my friend said they were covered in a bean type sauce. The lady with the "chocolate covered" o-daifuku then proceeded to tell me, through my friend, that it is not chocolate but it is very tasty and good for you. :)
I wish I had thought to take pictures but between the mess of my kitchen and trying to feed two toddlers with one high chair, it just did not happen. Next time I will show pictures of what I actually prepared. I am really excited to know how to use my fish oven. I am thinking we will have fish once or twice a week now. Good times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
When we were in Taiwan we would buy what looked like it was a cinnamon roll, but it was the same sort of pastry with a swirl of sweet bean paste. You are right , it grows on you. We are definitely conditioned to like sweeter things. We kind of learned that if a food was described as " healthy and good for you" it really meant that it tasted bad! Don't get me wrong, most of what we ate was absolutely delicious and healthy....just be on guard if someone says it's good for your health! Congrats on your new cooking skills!
You know how they say the teacher becomes the student? You have far surpassed anything I could have helped you learn. You go girl! Now you are teaching ME!! ;)
the first time I had the sweet bean paste, I had bought these mini bread rolls to dip in my soup...BLLLaaaaaHHHHH, must be said, I do like the stuff now, it does have a tonne of sugar in it though, so don't believe your Japanese friends when they try and tell you it is healthy!
I really recommend the book 100 recipes from japanese cooking, ISBN 4-7700-2079-1
it has all the basics in it and is bilingual so if you are stuck for an ingredient just take it along to the supermarket and point at what you want, I got mine when I first moved here and still use it, out of all the cooking books it is the most used.
Post a Comment