Cooking Classes

Our tempura feast!

Being in a major city, it's fairly easy to find cooking classes taught in English, particularly for Japanese and other Asian cuisine.  I find the selection particularly interesting because we don't have a lot of different Asian restaurants where we live in the US - a couple of Thai and lots of American-style Chinese and sushi but that's about it.  Mom and I decide to try out a few cooking schools while she's here. 

Mom carefully pouring the plum wine -
maybe she added an extra splash or two!

We start at the ABC Cooking School in Tokyo Midtown with some Japanese food - tempura!  But in addition to that we create a typical Japanese salad, soup and a dessert.  The dessert is a plum wine jelly, which turns out to be a nice finish - something light after the fried items.

The soup is okay (I discover I'm not really a fan of fish bouillon) but it's the salad that gives Mom the most trouble.  It's thinly sliced celery and cucumber, and it's fascinating to see how slicing them using a potato peeler changes the taste.  It wasn't the potato peeler that was the problem, but the dressing of sesame oil...which Mom turns out to be very allergic to.  When she first started coughing we thought it was just a byproduct of her being sick, but while eating she starts again as she has the salad.  Then when cleaning up she went to wash the salad bowls - and that's when we identify the culprit.  We watch out for it the rest of her visit here, but she doesn't have any more problems.

Mom trying not to cough as she distributes the salad.

Carefully coating the shrimp...

I don't have a deep fat fryer here, so I thought I'd have to wait to cook tempura until I returned to the US, but our instructor just prepares it in a pot on the stove.  I can do that!  We're able to try out a few different vegetables and shrimp.  We learned the trick to keep the shrimp straight when it cooks, versus curling up - you have to slice it in a few different spots.

Pretty!

As part of the course we learn a little about presentation, too.  We create a little star in the mushroom and learn how to follow the 12 steps to create a fish paste butterfly.  Hmmm....that's something I don't think I'll be trying again.

The instructions...

The butterfly that looks nice is made by the instructor.

We're also informed there is a particular method of serving the tempura - from the plate it's on, to folding of the paper below it, to how the salt is piled up, to the way it's arranged on the tray, etc, etc.  That's a lot of rules!  Hmm...I don't think I'll be doing all that, either.

My tempura - arranged in the proper way!

Now I know what to do with the dollar
store fans - they're rice coolers!

Staying with the Japanese theme, we take a sushi making class.  This is lots of fun, and something I might do in the US.  It's so easy to buy delicious sushi here (and actually, very few Japanese people prepare it at home themselves) it's much easier to let a professional do it.  We do pick up some tips, like the rice should be cool before you start working with it.

I don't take a lot of pictures in this class - your hands are generally covered with rice and vinegar.  But here's my finished tray - it turns out pretty tasty!

I need to buy one of these wooden trays!

At the beginning of the class - no splashes or stains!

For our third class we go to the Michiko Selection Cooking Studio to learn a little about Thai cooking.  We have several recipes to prepare here, too.  The standout is the phad thai, made completely from scratch (sauces, everything).  It's excellent, but a lot of work and time.  This one I might just go out and order instead of cooking again.

Grill pan - when you can't have a real grill!

We also cook satay, and I finally learn how to eat it with the cucumber relish that is served with the satay in restaurants.  I also ask the correct way to eat Thai food - and it turns out, they eat using the spoon and use the fork the way we use a knife (to slide the food onto the utensil).  However, if I'm given a choice between eating with a fork or a spoon, I'd prefer the fork (it feels strange eating rice with a spoon)!

I'm working, too!

Not really a breakfast food, but...bananas, cream...
it seems like it should qualify!

The dessert is bananas in coconut milk, and it's delicious.  In fact, we've already made it again!  We served it as a breakfast item though - not quite the correct time of day to eat it.  It's good by itself, but I bet it would also taste well over pie or cake.

After the class we get to sit and enjoy our meal with the other participants.

After cooking all morning it feels good to sit down!