Seafood lovers from Down Under

The main dish request was something seafood but not Sushi, so I recommended my favorite dish, Nanban Marinade of salmon!

My guest couple was from Australia and they were also visiting Taiwan and Hong Kong prior to their arrival into Tokyo. Both are dream destinations for foodies in Japan and I had a lot of questions to ask!

To be honest, I have spent a lot of time working as a travel writer so I am good at asking questions, rather than answering them. But of course I answered all my questions from my guets, too (I hope I did).

We also cooked two side dishes with great sauces; sweet & savory Miso sauce for grilled eggplants & sesame sauce for spinach, full of aromas!

My guest liked sesame sauce very much that she told me she was going to get a traditional sesame pounder.

I hope my guests liked their home cooked food at Tokyo apartment…
Many thanks for coming!

Akiko

Gyoza & Karaage class for Canadian foodies

The menu for this class was;

Gyoza dumplings with pork and vegetables, Chicken karrage(Japanese style fried chicken), spinach with Tofu sauce, Miso soup and black rice.

My guests were from Montreal, Canada and they booked the class several months ahead of time! They informed me one of the gentlemen does not eat dairy products so I picked up a creamy white sauce made with Tofu as one of our side dishes.

I hope my guests enjoyed their time at my kitchen!

many thanks for coming!

Akiko

Chicken & Gyoza class with Aussie Danish foodies, Oct 2017

The main dish for this early October class was Chicken Teriyaki, side dishes as a small portion of Gyoza with pork & vegetables, as well as spinach with sesame sauce.

It was a lucky class as one of my guests happened to be a cooking teacher at primary school, so everything proceeded very smoothly. Lucky for me too, as I could exchange some interesting recipes with her after the class! My twin daughters are looking forward to trying them very soon during their winter vacation.

People gathered at my kitchen on this day were a lovely family from Denmark and a talented couple from Perth, Australia. So naturally the conversation got started about the Danish royal family and a bride from Australia! What a small world.

Chicken Teriyaki dish was a request and the Dad was particularly patient to learn the recipe. With authentic Mirin and Shoyu simmered together, Teriyaki sauce would naturally turn thick and shiny.

If you like it sweeter, you may add more Mirin or sugar. If you prefer savory, maybe reduce the amount of these sweet seasonings. Home cooking is always simple once you understand the basic formula.

I hope my guest enjoyed their experience at my kitchen as much as I did.

Many thanks for coming!

Ramen without Dashi broth, still yummy! /June 2017

At this class, one of the guest preferred not to use any seafood. I usually make Dashi stock and pork /chicken stock for making Ramen soup. As you may have heard, Dashi stock is the backbone for Japanese culinary but it uses smoked bonito fish flakes etc., thus not recommended if you do not like seafood. But don’t worry, Ramen without Dashi turned out absolutely gorgeous with other seasonings.

In fact, there are many recipes of Ramen around Japan and the variety just keeps growing all the time. There are not a few bloggers in Japan who enjoy Ramen shop-hopping and report on each Ramen they tasted.

Talking about blogs, another guest lady was a food blogger and her page was full of yummy photos. It was a pity I cannot read Spanish or Italian, the language she is writing, but all the photos are really mouth-watering.

Her lovely daughter was also joining my cooking class. As a youngest participant, she was naturally appointed to hand-mixing of sticky Gyoza fillings, the most tiring part of Gyoza making but she has completed her mission very well.

The whole family were such foodies that the father, a very skilled vegetable chopper, explained to me some interesting stories about Italian Ravioli making. It was a fun class with lots of food information exchange!

I hope they enjoyed their time at my kitchen. Many thanks for coming,

Akiko

Flower bud as a spring delicacy on April 24th Tempura class

I welcomed a couple from Quebec, Canada and the lady turned out to be a professional working at the culinary institute. Her husband had lived in Tokyo for some years before and very knowledgeable about our food culture so I was quite nervous not to disappoint them with my cookings.

Both of them were such lovely foodies, who really enjoy cooking. We were chatting and chatting about all kinds of foods and it was such a fun time!

They liked Tempura and my easy side dish of crushed cucumbers very much, while they told me that sweet egg roll omelet was a little strange taste for them, as French omelet is always savory. It is truly interesting to know what is appealing and what is not so.

For this Tempura occasion, I picked up our popular spring delicacy, called ‘Fuki no Tou’ as one of the ingredients for deep frying. I googled up the English translation of Fuki, which was ‘butterbur scape’ or Petasites japonicas. Does it make sense? Maybe it is not eaten much outside Japan. Here is a photo of Fuki no Tou.

Fuki is a kind of vegetable and it looks like Rhubarb but the taste is totally different. Only around spring time, buds of Fuki flowers are available and I like to eat them as Tempura. It has some bitterness along freshness, appreciated as a sign of early spring nutrition.

My guests from Quebec liked Fuki no Tou, as well as prawns, eggplants, Shiso leaves, Okura, Kabocha pumpkins etc. I hope they enjoyed their cooking experience at my kitchen as much as I did.

Many thanks for coming!

Akiko

Ramen class on Oct 22nd’16

There is a lovely young couple from Switzerland today’s class. They requested Ramen class so I gave the class on the Saturday afternoon.

They traveled over Japan for a couple of week, and the cooking day was the day before they fly back to Switzerland. I was wishing the class would be one of the memorable experiences their trip in Japan.

I usually share how to make Dashi stock, which is Japanese fundamental soup stock, however, I don’t give when the ramen classes because the stock made from chicken. The today’s guests asked about what is the dashi stock, so I shared how to make dashi stock.

Adding a pinch of salt makes dashi flavor nicer for tasting like a clear soup.I served the soup during our cooking time.

It is dashi-kampai time. I was glad they liked it.

We had kept cooking Ramen after the tasting and finally we enjoyed ramen for early dinner.

The menu on Oct 22nd ’16

Miso ramen with sautéed vegetables, sautéed minced pork, braised pork, a seasoned egg

Cucumber with sesame dressing

Pork Gyoza

Since the eating time was early dinner around 4:00pm, I suggested to visit a basement of Takashimaya department store (depachika) in Shinjuku after the class. Depachika is one of the Japanese food cultures, foodies MUST visit during Stay in Japan.

Here is about the Depachika

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/attractions/dining/depachika/

Thank you for the precious time!

Kisshy