Tsukiji Cooking School
Experience by Marika
We (Mel, Dave and I)
arrived at the Tsukiji Fish Markets with plenty of time for me to find the
class. Finding the location was a wee
bit tricky, but thanks to Mel and her GPS, we found the street (right next to
the markets) and thanks to some helpful store holders (and using lots of
non-verbal communication) I was directed to a building with a large fish design
on the side. I entered a very empty
stairwell and walked up and up and up and up until there were no more levels
and I was still no closer to finding a place that resembled a cooking
school. Finally I walked back down
stairs to the level I thought the school was supposed to be on. As I neared the level I came across a couple
from Jordan who were also looking for the class. Emboldened by numbers, I opened a door and
fortunately found our classroom. We were
all half an hour early and the ladies at the school were still preparing. Happy that I knew how to find the school, I
left and promised to come back at 11:30am, when the class was supposed to
start.
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| From Left to Right: Our translator, teacher and kitchen assistant |
I took my place at the
table that was set up neatly with knives, chopping boards and an arrangement of
meats and vegetables. We didn’t sit for long
before we were asked to come up and watch a demonstration of our first
dish: 1) Miso soup (see picture below). We started with dashi stock (a homemade stock
made from Bonito flakes) and then mixed in a salty miso paste. A new fact I learnt was that there is more
than one type of miso paste. The miso we
used was a fermented soybean and rice paste.
The paste was very salty when we tasted it alone, but delicious in the
stock.
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| Dashi stock simmering on the hotplate |
The second dish we
watched being prepared was Spinach Gomaae Salad made by combining a dressing of
ground sesames and other tasty sauces/seasonings mixed with blanched spinach (see
picture below) (other vegetables such as beans, can also be used in place of
the spinach).
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| Spinach Gomae Salad |
Our third dish was
gyoza. First we watched our teacher and
then we got to have a go ourselves preparing the meat and vegetables for the
dumplings and filling gyoza wrappers. I
will admit that my first attempt at making the gyoza dumpling, did not look
that pretty. But with detailed
instructions and another practical demonstration of how to pleat the edges,
from our very apt teacher, I was quite impressed with subsequent gyozas that I
made :) Our
teachers was also very encouraging, so secretly I thought my next career move
could be as an expert gyoza maker ;P
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| Homemade gyoza about to be grilled and steamed |
While we had the
gyoza’s frying/steaming, we watched our teacher make chicken teriyaki…which is
a combination of two words: ‘teri’ meaning glossy and ‘yaki’ meaning grilled or
broiled (another interesting fact I learnt at the course). And indeed the chicken did turn out to be very
glossy and smelled so good.
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| Teriyaki chicken (“Glossy grilled”) |
By this stage it was
close to 1pm and my stomach was telling me it was time to eat. Our teachers served us our meals on black
trays (see picture below). I have to
say, the presentation was simple but extremely well done-I was very
impressed. I hungrily finished my whole
meal and I chatted with the other students.
There were also plenty of leftovers so I got a doggy bag of gyozas for
Mel and Dave.
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| The fruit of the cooking class’ labour |
At 1:30pm we were
ready to leave on time. Our teachers
were very friendly, I had expanded my
cooking repertoire, got to meet some interesting people and ate a very tasty
meal-what more could you want from a cooking class. I would recommend this class if you are in
the Tokyo area and want to learn how to cook home style Japanese food. As for the difficulty finding the location,
give yourself plenty of time……..and perhaps check your emails a day or so
beforehand…….hmm hmmmm..when I got home, I realised I was sent detailed
instructions on how to find the cooking school….arh, but it added to the
adventure :)
