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Saturday evening, Stephanie, Adam, and I went to a cooking class. We found it on Lonely Planet, then did some research via Emi's (our teacher) blog. All the food looked great, so we were all pretty excited, despite being exhausted from our whirlwind bike tour.
Emi lives in a nice house in the northwestern part of Kyoto. I was surprised at how large it was, but the design and decor were just like I'd imagined. Her kitchen was very cooking friendly. You could just tell she'd cooked many lessons here!
Emi started teaching cooking to international students at one of the Universities, and when Lonely Planet found out about her, they wrote her up in the guide book. Since then, she's had a huge increase of travelers looking for a first-hand experience of Japanese cuising and cooking.
We made four dishes during our 3 hour class. First, we made a Japanese seasoned Spanish mackrel. The most interesting part of this dish were the small green peppers. They were the size of peas, but when you ate them, your mouth bursted with a refreshing mint flavor. We would later grill the fish.
The second dish was a strange concoction. Imagine jello and vegetables and crab together. At first, I thought it would be alright, but once we tasted the finished product, nobody was impressed. The okra, crab, cucumber, and jello just didn't do it for me.
One of the best dishes was a sesame dressed asparagus and pea pod salad. We had to toast the sesame seeds over low heat, and then Adam and Keith ground them with a mortar and pestle. We added some vinegar, seafood broth, soy sauce, and sugar. It was very simple and tasted so peanuty- yum!
Our last dish was fried tempura- eel, eggplant, and Japanese peppers. The batter was so light, just flour, egg, and water. We dipped that in a combination of green tea powder and salt. Delicious!
This was so much fun. It was a great experience and we made such delicious food (except for the jelly!). If you're ever looking for a cooking class in Kyoto, I'd recommend this one!
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