I could KICK myself!!

Seriously, where did my brain go?  I could have had a very fun blog post for you today.  But nooooo, someone (me) didn't think to take any damn pictures!


The reason for the pictures?  I taught my first cooking class today.  I had three lovely Japanese ladies over and we cooked chicken piccatta and fettucine alfredo, made a salad and also strawberry shortcake for dessert.  I could have had some great pictures!! Darn darn darn.  Next time right?  Hopefully they will take me up on another lesson in the near future.


One of my regular students, a sweet lady who looks like she is in her late forties but I suspect she is probably 10 years older than that (Japanese women do not age at all)- Yoko, told her friends that I offer cooking classes.  So our last meeting she tells me she is bringing two friends for a cooking lesson.  Of course that stumped me.  I mean- I WANTED to teach cooking, and even put that on my business card, but I hadn't actually TAUGHT a class yet!  Of course I did not tell her that, though it would have been hard to make her understand anyway.


Easy enough, we decided on chicken- which she was going to provide as I can't find any good fresh chicken breasts around here.  Today she brought me fresh chicken she picked up this morning.  She asked the meat department to remove the skin since I told her skinless, boneless.  They wrapped it up with several ice packs.  I asked if that was the norm and the ladies told me yes.  Can you imagine the big chain groceries stores in the States doing that?


Oh wait!!  I can show you some pictures!  It won't be of the class, and the cute aprons they brought with them to wear, but the goodies they left behind...

Fruit!

Sweetio bananas.  It sounds like someone making a poor attempt at Spanish.

I love how the orange even gets his own little foamie jacket.

My favorite- pineapple- it's really good here.

What could be in the bag?

C'est le pan! (Did I say that right?  I only took one year of French...)

Le clean up.

What I learned:

a. I need to give myself more time for a thorough scrub down of the kitchen.  I was up until midnight last night giving everything a good shine.

b. I need to be SURE I have used that recipe before.  I have a binder with recipes that I have used before.  I must have accidentally put in a recipe from Food.com for chicken picatta.  I had not actually used THAT particular recipe.  As it turns out, it was a professional chef's recipe that had been scaled down for home cooking.  Hence the 2 cups of flour were NOT needed to coat the 4 chicken breasts.  The ladies gasped audibly when I threw out the left over flour (almost 2 cups worth).  But at that point I can't keep it as it had been in contact with RAW chicken.  Also I did not need all that olive oil- big waste there as well.  The chicken didn't even turn out that great.  The sauce was delicious, but the chicken was dry.  I may have overcooked it a bit though...

c. I need to go through my Japanese etiquette book again.  I think I should have served Yoko before her friends, but where she was seated I kept getting her last.  I am not sure?  I felt like a blundering idiot.

d. Itadekimas!  It is what you say before you eat.  It means- "it's a feast".

e. Teaching cooking is FUN!  Though it doesn't go like the shows because they don't show people sitting around waiting for noodles to boil.  Seriously, it was fun setting everything up.  They loved all my American gadgets (read- my KitchenAid and my Pampered Chef tools.)  And they were fasciniated by my big oven and the fact I have a dish washer.  Man- we Americans are spoiled for the most part eh?

f. I really really really need need need a DSLR.  Think of the beautiful pictures I could have taken (unlike the iPhone pics shown above.)

g. Be prepared for LOTS of dishes afterward.  Brother came home, saw the huge mess, and asked what had I been doing??

h. Left-overs!  It's what I live for.  No cooking tonight baby!

Cheers!

A few of my favorite Japanese things...

The more I explore and the more I discover here in Japan- the more I realize how much I will miss it all.  I still have another 2 years, but already I am thinking how much I will miss all this.

I love my PASMO card.  It is my ticket for riding on the trains, subway and buses.  And- they can be used to buy stuff at the vending machines.  The kids think it is awesome they can flash their card in front of the machines and pick out what they want.  The best thing about the Pasmo card is that I don't have to worry about buying the correct fare.  The charts can be very confusing and not always in English.  I don't even take it out of my wallet, I just flash my wallet over the machine at the gates and it beeps me through.  Ok- I know that this is not really a big "miss" item- as I most likely will go back to commuting only by car when we get back stateside.  I still think my PASMO card is cool.

Sushi-go-rounds.  They are the bomb!  And they don't just have sushi.  They will have salads, vegetables, juices for the kids, and desserts!  If you don't see what you want- they will make it for you right then and there.  If you go during a slow time of the day there will not be much on the conveyer belt as they don't want to waste food- so you'll get everything made for you as you order it.  My favorite is the salmon and young yellowtail.  The tuna and scallops are also very tasty.  They even have little egg omelets (tamago) that are served on a little lump of rice that I find quite tasty.  They are kind of sweet and almost taste like a custard.  I do not care for the "fishier" kind of fish like smelt and some other ones I don't remember the name of.  At first I tried it all.  Now I am a little more picky and can tell usually what to stay away from.  The baby octopus is "interesting"- I would probably enjoy it more if it wasn't so dang chewy.  I also didn't care for the pickled eggplant.  But I do love fresh Japanese eggplant- it is most tasty when fried up tempura style.  Did I mention dessert?  They have the cutest little custard dishes with all kind of nummy fillings.  My favorite is a coffee flavored custard with a dallop of cream on top.  When you're all done you flag down a waiter or push the button at your table.  All the plates are color coded- the waiter or waitress will count the plates and enter it all on their little hand held order pad machine.  They hand you a ticket and you go to the counter to pay.

Oh- when you enter the restaurant the sushi chefs and the wait staff will often greet you enthusiastically in Japanese.  When you leave they will do they same- except say goodbye and thank you.  It's an awesome experience. 

Grocery Stores!  I highly recommend anyone visting Japan to take a little time to stroll through a grocery store.  First of all- they are usually in a multiple floor building where you will find assorted stores and shops.  My favorite store Maruetsu has a sushi-go-round upstairs- perfect for a nice cheap lunch.  A lot of times you'll find dry cleaners, bakeries, clothing stores, drug stores and all sorts of other things all in one building.  It is like the Japanese version of a Super-Walmart- except they are actually separate store/shops- so there isn't one big cashier line.  In Maruetsu they have beautiful- I mean beautiful produce.  When I finally get my DSLR I am headed there to take some photos.  The meat and fish are beautiful too.  I have never seen such fresh salmon- it is practically still moving.  If you want a cheap lunch you can't beat the bento boxes.  They have all kind of stuff from the traditional salted salmon to fried chicken and tempura.  Honestly- Japan isn't all that expensive if you get out of the touristy areas and shop with the general population. 

(From the Maruetsu website- I believe these are sweets made from mochi- a kind of sweetened rice that is pounded down into a kind of paste and then shaped into assorted shapes.  I think it is definitely an "acquired" taste- very different than what we are used to.)

 These are just a few of my favorites- stay tuned as I discover more things I love about Japan!