China Picture of the Day: 2 February 2011 ~ Kyoto Cooking Class

As I write this, it is the day after a 9.0 earthquake rocked Japan and sent a tsunami over her shores. My heart and prayers go out to all of Japan and her people. Special thoughts are with all the wonderful souls we met during our visit who put a smile on our face and warmed our hearts. I pray that they and their families are safe and warm.

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I was a bit sad to say good-bye to our little temple in Kyoto, but we were moving on to our next destination--Hiroshima. On our way out of town we had a special appointment with a Kyoto native, Emi Hirayama, for a traditional Japanese food cooking lesson.

Before we left, Veronica and I explored the cemetery behind the temple.

This is the way I want to go. Build a sweet little memorial for me and place...

...a jumbo size jar of sake upon my altar once daily, please.

Hmmmm...

Good-bye Shoho-in.

Before leaving I had to make my way down to the little snack shop again for more goodies to go.

Yum, yum, yum!

We hailed a taxi and in we squeezed our luggage and the four of us...no easy task.

Lucky 13

Here we are heading up the street to Emi's house for our cooking lessons. : )

Veronica, Kara, Emi and Megan outside Emi's house.

Quote from Emi Hirayama's web site: "Hello! I'm Emi. I was born in Kyoto and my parents, grandparents, great grandparents...all Kyoto people. I open Kyoto/Japanese cooking classes and tiny pottery gallery/shop at home. My cooking class is held in my kitchen; semi-private, friendly, at-home atmosphere class. I love cooking and Kyoto food. In my class I introduce Kyoto cuisine a lot and Japanese home-style dishes, Japanese healthy sweets, etc. Let's have a cooking session together!" When Veronica saw this on the internet, she knew it was the place for us!

Emi's kitchen

First, Emi served us tea.

Then we got down to the business of today's menu full of traditional Japanese winter dishes: sesame dressed salad of spinach, grilled buri (yellow tail), renkon-mushi (steamed dish), and kakiage tempura with scallops. Yum, yum and more yum!

Four different kinds of rice with Geisha : )

Soon we were each given jobs. Kara's job was to grate the lotus root,

Megan's was to debone the tai (seabream),

and Veronica's was to devein the shrimp, all for the steamed seafood dish.

Mine was to marinade the yellow tail in sweet rice wine, soy sauce, and sake. I was loving my job!

Marinating yellow tail

Grilling yellow tail

Our first course...ready to eat. Mouthwateringly delectable!

Then we were off to prepare the steamed dish of lotus root, prawns, shiitake mushrooms, and tai (seabrean).

Prawns and tai ready to go...

We placed the raw fish in a small ceramic bowl with the lotus root mixture and shiitake mushrooms.

I personally cut out the carrot garnish. : )

Our four bowls were then set in a large pot to steam.

And this is the delicious dish that appeared 10 minutes later...

Emi teaching us the best way to steam rice...with sake!

I loved Emi's kitchen. It reminded we so much of my Grandma Betty's kitchen. Emi even had the same kitchen chairs as Grandma Betty. : )

Next course: sesame dressed salad of spinach

Emi is placing the sesame seeds into a roaster. I must get myself one of these!

Soon the smell of freshly roasted sesame seeds filled the kitchen.

After roasting, it was Veronica and Megan's job to grind the sesame seeds with mortar and pestle.

Ground ginger

The ground sesame seeds and ginger where then combined with soy sauce, rice vinegar, raw sugar, and yuzu rind and poured on top of steamed spinach to create a delicious spinach salad.

Veronica digging in...

Not sure if I was having more fun learning how to cook or eating the results!

Resting chopsticks on heart : )

I loved Emi's assortment of serving dishes and utensils.

Scrumptious rice

After enjoying the spinach salad, steamed seafood dish, and grilled yellow tail, Emi then set out to teach us how to make kakiage tempura with scallops, mizuna (Japanese greens) and kintoki carrots. This was my personal favorite.

Emi turned the scallops, carrots and greens into a wheat flour and egg mixture.

Megan and Kara utterly enjoying themselves.

Emi then took small clumps of the tempura mixture and dropped them into the oil to deep fry.

Satiated Kimberly and Veronica

This is a mixture of green tea and salt to sprinkled on top of the tempura.

Taaaa-daaaa!!

My taste buds experienced pure heaven with this one.

Emi then brewed another cup of tea for us--a mixture of green tea and soda crackers. Interesting and delicious.

Loving the sweet, adorable tea cup.

Our meal was then topped off by a scrumptious, home-brewed glass of pear wine.

Everything Emi taught us today was passed downed to her by her mother and grandmother and we all felt quite blessed to be part of the lineage. I absolutely loved the experience of walking into this dear woman's home and learning not only to cook traditional Japanese food, but learning about her amazing culture along the way. Emi's hospitality, generosity, and graciousness made us feel like friends coming over for lunch, not just students in a class.

A happy, well-fed, culinarily skilled group of women. : )

There goes Megan having to duck again as we left Emi's house.

Domo arigato, Emi!!

Then it was back to Kyoto Station to hop on the bullet train to Hiroshima!

I loved all the shops in the train station...especially this one. May I have one of each, please...to go!

Shinkansen bound for Shin-osaka and Hakata. Platforms 13 and 14 here we come...

There she is...the streamlined Shinkansen, also known as the Bullet Train. Very sleek!

Hiroshima, here we come.

Zooming through Kyoto...

More beautiful countryside

Another train whizzing past at 180+ miles per hour.

Here we are!

Hiroshima Station

Squeezed in another taxi and before we knew it, we were at our next home away from home: J-Hoppers Hostel, Hiroshima.

Our home for the next two nights

J-Hoppers' Room 201 for Kara and me. : )

We had heard that Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki (a Japanese style pancake), so our first line of business was to find an okonomiyaki restaurant. (You would think that with all the food we had eaten earlier in the day that we wouldn't be hungry, but that was simply not the case!) Thanks to the fact that there are 100's of okonomiyki restaurant within the city limits of Hiroshima, we found one not far from our hostel.

: )

Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want" and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked." The menu held pages and pages of the many different varieties of okonomiyaki. We had to smile at the English translations.

Okonomiyaki is described as a type of savory pancake made with egg, cabbage, soda noodles, and meat, seafood or cheese. It was grilled in layers right there in front of us and slathered liberally with okonomiyaki sauce.