Japanese Cooking Experience

After the shopping experience in Nishiki Food Market, the participants moved to the Japanese cooking experience venue. The cooking class takes place either in the kitchen of WAK Japan’s machiya, built 100 years ago, or in the kitchen of a renovated machiya annex. This time it took place in the annex, with Ms. Machiko Kimura, who can teach cooking in English, serving as the instructor.
　　There were four people taking part in the cooking class. Ms. Kimberley Camera and her daughter Kristin were on a 10-day visit to Japan from New York. The mother, Kimberley, had visited Japan before. Kristin, who said that she had seen all of the Ghibli animation films, was visiting for the first time. In Tokyo they had been to the Ghibli Museum, which Kristin described as terrific. Her excitement had clearly not yet died down. The other couple was Mr. Rob Millard and his wife Alice, who were on a two-week honeymoon from London. Before coming to Kyoto they had climbed Mount Fuji. Sleeping in a hut at the eighth station packed with other climbers had been rough, but more than anything else, they said, seeing the sunrise from the top of Mount Fuji was a wonderful memory to take home.
　　The cooking class, which consisted mainly of making rolled sushi, began with an explanation of dried bonito. The participants took turns to make dried bonito shavings, a task that even Japanese no longer spend time on. This process made them aware, for example, that dried bonito is as hard as wood and the shavings have a fishy fragrance. The instructor explained the flavor components contained in dried bonito and kelp. After the participants had confirmed the taste of the dried bonito shavings they themselves had produced, the instructor pointed to a bag of dried bonito shavings and said, “Making all the shavings we need would take a lot of time, so for our cooking class we will use the dried bonito shavings that you just bought at Nishiki Food Market.” The participants smiled in agreement.
　　Next they made vinegared rice for the rolled sushi, tasted the dashi stock made with their dried bonito shavings, and then had a go at the most difficult task of all—making tamagoyaki (Japanese-style rolled omelet). This involved pouring some beaten eggs mixed with the dashi stock into a special frying pan for tamagoyaki, cooking them, moving the omelet to the side of the pan, wiping more oil on the pan, pouring in more beaten egg mix, cooking it, and then rolling it on top of the already cooked omelet. Looking very serious, the participants took turns to cook the omelet and beamed with delight when they succeeded in rolling it well. I asked Alice and Rob Millard, who said that they ate Japanese food in London about once a week, what Japanese food they had enjoyed eating in Japan. In London, they said, they ate mainly sushi, so in Japan they had become great fans of yakitori (grilled chicken). The food that they liked making most in the cooking class was tamagoyaki. “It was difficult to make,” said Alice with a smile, “but I enjoyed it a lot.”
　　When the cooked tamagoyaki, cucumber, crab sticks, and other ingredients were ready, it was time to make the rolled sushi. Sheets of toasted nori (dried laver seaweed used for wrapping the sushi) were placed on bamboo sushi mats with appropriate quantities of vinegared rice heaped on top of them. Following the instructions of the teacher, the participants dipped their fingers into a bowl of water and vinegar before spreading the rice over the nori, adding the other ingredients, and then rolling. At the moment when the rolling began, the teacher explained the techniques that were necessary, such as how to hold the bamboo mat, how to use your fingers, and how to apply strength. Everyone then commenced rolling, and all four of the participants did a very good job. The Cameras from New York remarked that making the rolled sushi had been very enjoyable. They had not known anything about dashi stock, so it seems to have been a good learning experience for them. The two of them had been fans of Japanese food before, but Kristin said emphatically that the food they had eaten in Japan was “much, much more delicious” than the food they ate in New York. She had also been impressed by the comment of the guide during the shopping expedition to Nishiki Food Market that “We eat everything that can be eaten [in vegetables, fish, and so on] and don’t waste a thing!”
　　The Cameras and Millards had all done a lot of traveling to European countries and the United States. When I asked them which country they liked most, they all replied without hesitation: “Japan!” They added that Japan was so fascinating because its culture was entirely different to that of the West and that experiencing the different culture had been the highlight of their trip to Japan.