Tag Archive for:  food

Agedashi Tofu, Okonomiyaki pancake & more

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This was a private class with 2 main dishes & more; Agedashi Tofu (deep-fried Tofu dipped in Dashi sauce), Tempura of prawns and mushrooms, and savory Okonomiyaki pancake with pork, cabbage, etc.
My guests are from Chicago, USA. A lovely couple of an architect and a doctor wishing to try some Japanese homemade dishes.  For some reason, I felt very close to the lady from the beginning, then we found out that we are both mothers of twin kids! meaning you have gone thru a lot and survived those sleepless days…

There was a lot of chopping and slicing and frying to do, but we made it beautifully!  Plenty of food and fun chatting over the lunch table.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Juicy, crispy and chewy!

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It is amazing how Ramen & Gyoza are widely known as Japanese food. Today s guests are beautiful sisters from Australia. Welcome to Tokyo!
If you are keen to experience the local feeling of these comfort foods, home cooking is one of the best options, especially for Gyoza.

Oishii but very hot!! The first bite of Gyoza is always hoooot so be careful.
Enjoy the juicy filling, crispy bottom, and chewy steamed top of dumplings.

Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Sushi-making & Sake-tasting for Nike

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In early December we welcomed a group of 20+ people from Nike!

This was the 2nd time organized a gathering for this global company in Tokyo. We were very happy to hear that participants liked their team-building lunch back in August, so they decided to contact us again for an evening function.

We planned a Sushi roll & Temari Sushi cooking class. All ingredients for fillings and toppings were prepared in advance, but the guests had to make their Sushi seasoning and mix it with steamed rice, then start rolling & shaping their Sushi for dinner.

Although this cooking class was held after a long day at their global meeting, everybody did great work and everything went so smoothly that all results were beautiful and delicious!

After enjoying our tasty Sushi and other food including chicken Karrage, spinach with sesame sauce, fresh colorful veggies with Miso-Mayo dip, pork slices, sweet egg rolls, etc., it was time for the Sake tasting quiz! There are lots of types and brands of Sake in Japan. It was hard for us to choose just a few kinds, but we hope it turned out a good opportunity for our guests to try something different.

We would be very happy if we could be of a little help to discover some new charms of Japanese gastronomy!

Yuki & Akiko

 

Seafood but No Sushi Class

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The main dish request for this class was “something seafood, but not Sushi” as the couple has already learned how to make Sushi before. So we did our popular seafood main dish Nanban style marinade of fried salmon & swordfish.

For side dish choices, my guest picked a menu using Kaki, the seasonal fruit of autumn and one of few indigenous kinds for the land of Japan. Plus sweet & savory Miso sauce with grilled eggplant.

My guest couple told me they were living in a motor house and I was as curious as always, so they showed me some photos, and it was way beyond my imagination, truly gigantic! Their kitchen in the motor house is much bigger than mine in the Tokyo apartment, with all kinds of nice equipment.

I am sure they can cook anything in their beautiful kitchen. Hope they have tried out our Japanese home cooking recipe back home.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Private Class for Vegetarian Dishes with Autumn harvests

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The main dish was chosen as Vegetarian Ramen for a guest lady from Israel who has been vegetarian for many years. Side dishes include cold fresh cabbage with Konbu, Gyoza dumplings with lotus root, Kaki (persimmon) & greens dressed with creamy Tofu sauce, etc.
My guest was very interested in Japanese Dashi soup stock with dried Shiitake mushrooms & Kombu kelp. Both are essential products for Umami in our cuisine.
Kombu is very rich in glutamate or glutamic acid, which is contained in most vegetables but by far the most in dried Kombu. Another ingredient known for richness in glutamate is dried tomato.
Dried shiitake is known for its richness in guanylic acid or GMP, like many kinds of mushrooms around the world including dried porcini. This may be explaining why many Japanese people are deeply in love with Italian food!?

My guest lady was a medicinal food professional with vast knowledge about Chinese herbal medicine & diet, so it was very inspiring to share some time with her in the kitchen cooking and talking about various vegetables and foods!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Seafood lovers from Down Under

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The main dish request was Chicken Karaage, one of our best sellers & very popular home cooked food all over Japan!
We also cooked chicken meat balls with our autumn/winter vegetable, lotus root, seasoned with Miso.
When I cook these chicken menus for my family, I usually pile them up on a simple big plate and tell my kids ‘Help yourself!’ But for my guests from Australia, I chose a little bamboo basket to serve our chickens to add a touch of Japanese taste and welcoming feeling.
In our rice, we added some Black Rice. This type of rice is popular among Japanese ladies lately as it is rich in fiber, vitamin B, minerals etc. In short, good for your health & beauty!
As we enjoyed our lunch, we talked about various social & cultural topics of Japan as well as Australia. Very relaxing moment with yummy food after a few hard working hours at kitchen!
I hope my guest ladies form Australia enjoyed their time at my place as much as I did.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Chicken Karaage & Chicken Lotus Meat Balls class

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The main dish request was Chicken Karaage, one of our best sellers & very popular home-cooked food all over Japan!
We also cooked chicken meatballs with our autumn/winter vegetable, lotus root, seasoned with Miso.
When I cook these chicken menus for my family, I usually pile them up on a simple big plate and tell my kids ‘Help yourself!’ But for my guests from Australia, I chose a little bamboo basket to serve our chickens to add a touch of Japanese taste and a welcoming feeling.
In our rice, we added some Black Rice. This type of rice is popular among Japanese ladies lately as it is rich in fiber, vitamin B, minerals, etc. In short, good for your health & beauty!
As we enjoyed our lunch, we talked about various social & cultural topics in Japan as well as Australia. A very relaxing moment with yummy food after a few hard-working hours in the kitchen!
I hope my guest ladies from Australia enjoyed their time at my place as much as I did.
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Lots of seafood for a US athlete couple

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This was a 2 main dish course request from an American couple. We cooked Salmon Nanbanzuke marinade and Okonomiyaki pancake as our main dishes, plus a few side dishes with vegetables and seasonal fruits.
My guest couple was both very fit as regular climbers and bouldering experts, so salmon was a good choice for their muscles. We also chopped some squid and put it in our Okonomiyaki, as well as pork, cabbage, leek, and Naga Imo potato, which is exactly how I make it for my family.

When I asked him if there is any favorite Japanese ingredients, he replied
” Unagi and Uni (eel and sea urchin)!! ”,
so I knew he is quite familiar with our diet, then it turned out his Mum is Japanese!

Obviously he has been eating yummy Japanese homemade dishes all his life, and I  do hope that he & his girlfriend liked what we prepared together in my kitchen.
Many thanks for coming!

Gyoza party with happy American foodie girls!

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The requested main dish was Gyoza dumplings. I suggested to my guests if they don’t mind putting shrimp as well as pork in the fillings, which they also liked very much and it turned out as a great success!

One of my guests lived in Japan when she was a little girl. She said her memory from those days wasn’t very clear, but she certainly remembered the taste of our traditional Dashi soup stock.
Her friend also tried Katsuobushi (Smoked Bonito) grating and both found it full of flavors, almost like bacon from the ocean!
We made Miso soup from the Dashi soup stock of Bonito, adding some thinly sliced pork, potato, lotus roots, and onion. With a small piece of left-over lotus root, we fried lotus chips, too. This is my favorite appetizer and is nice if you are welcoming vegetarian guests or almost anybody.

Several days after the class, I heard from one of my guest girls that she was doing a Gyoza party with her friends back in the US! What happy news!!!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko

Pork ramen class with guests from Hamburg & Pescara

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My guests for this pork ramen & gyoza class were couples from Pescara,  Italy, and Hamburg, Germany. It was a terrible morning as the huge typhoon was passing Japan the night before and our notorious rush-hour trains were packed and crowded as ever!  Still, they all managed to arrive at my place & I was very very grateful.

One of their favorites was  ‘Char Siu, grilled pork slices on top of Ramen. They showed me a few photos of Menya Musashi bowls and my goodness, their pork slice is so thick!  For sure, Ramen is evolving in various directions….

It was also very interesting to hear about various types of ramen in Europe today. I love exchanging foodie information!
Many thanks for coming!
Akiko