Japanese Cooking Class at Tomo no Kai
One afternoon we all traipsed over to Tomo no Kai, a women's association in Kanazawa, for a class in Japanese cooking. These infinitely patient women gave us a lesson in the basics of preparing Japanese food.
Step 1: Slicing
We got started on the tempura first. Pierre, at left, and Sondra, at right, were put to work slicing and arranging various things for the tempura dish.
We also made shrimp, green bean, and mushroom tempura. Even before we got to the school, those ingredients had been artfully arranged on these cooking platters.
Step 2: Batter and Deep Fry
Next came dipping the tempura ingredients in the batter and slipping it into the deep fryer using long o-hashi (Japanese-style chopsticks). Since this was pretty much the funnest part of the preparation, everybody wanted a chance.
Step 3: Arrange Nicely
Our cooking senseis emphasized how important appeance is in Japanese cooking. As the tempura was finished, each piece was arranged nicely on a small serving tray along with garnishes.
Step 4: Soup
We also made a clear fish broth soup to go with the tempura.
Step 5: Onigiri
The last course was a pair of onigiri, traditional Japanese rice balls (originally food for traveling, and in modern Japan still often used for a similar purpose of food on the go, although they more likely come from the combini (corner convienence store) nowadays. We each made two onigiri, one traditional type with umeboshi, a very tart Japanese pickled plum, in the middle; and a second one with salmon in the middle.
Step 6: And now, we eat!
As every participant in a seder knows, eventually you do get to eat at this kind of thing. In Japan, one says "itadakimasu" before eating, which we did as a group before partaking (most of us, including myself, has already learned about saying itadakimasu at our homestay houses).
Our food was quite yummy despite the fact that we had a hand in making it (thanks to our senseis). After finishing our food, we walked back to Biz Cafe and Famille!