Travel in December, 2017
A cooking class that has enriched the taste of Japan and experience of travel through home cooking
From long ago in Korea, Japanese home meal is in fashion. The food is healthy and well-balanced. And the shape of dishes in the bowl is also neat. I have also been interested in Japanese home meal before, but It was much easier for me to eat than to cook for myself. To be honest, I wanted to learn about the home meal of cities in each country. Home meal is not glamorous a. However, the food is simple and contains its culture. A home meal formula that includes the culture of a country, the culture of a city, and the culture of a family. Anyone can enjoy home meal with lots of sincerity and nutrition. There were Experieat Osaka Flavors, a Japanese home cooking class that scored a total of five points on the tripadvisor. The cooking class that people from all over the world had already participated in, I knocked on the door full of curiosity and excitement.
A lucky day when I had a 1:1 cooking class.
The teacher who runs the Experieat Osaka Flavors is Yucco. She and I decided to meet at the nearest subway station near her studio. My suitcase was RED! I thought it would be a good hint, and I guessed right. It was Yucco who first found me wandering around complicated Umeda subway station. Fortunately, I could attend cooking class by 1:1 on that day(Is it because it is weekday?) Moreover, I had a great conversation with Yucco. We found out that we love to talke about dogs, so it was the cooking class where the story were in full.
When I arrived at Yucco's studio, I had my apron, a name tag, and a little manual ready. I chose Ichiju Sansai Course. It was one main dish and three side dishes.
When I booked for this cooking class, Yucco asked me some questions. Probably because there are occasions in the world when food needs to be properly restricted or reflect individual tastes for various reasons. Later, I asked Yucco if some could have cooking class with Halal materials as religious beliefs. Of course, getting Halal food in Japan is rather difficult than getting regular ingredients, but she said it is possible.
▶ Ichiju Sansai Course : The cooking class is conducted with one soup and three dishes. It begins at 10 a.m. or 6 p.m. It takes about 3 hours and up to 6 people per group can participate.
Start of Japanese home cooking class is understanding the spices.
Before cooking class started, I heard a explanation of the spices use in Japanese cooking. Like us, there were various kinds of soy sauce in Japan and various kinds of soybean paste called miso. However, there were some brightly colored soybean paste (like ground garlic) that was not as thick as original soybean paste, which we can easily think of, and surprisingly there were many different kinds of white miso in Japan.
Actually, I was planning to stop by the mart that evening after the cooking class and buy the white miso used in the cooking class. The white miso that caught my eye as soon as I entered the mart. I tried to buy it without worrying about it. but I took a picture and sent it to Yucco, and I found out that That was not what I used. "Oh, no That is not the same!! That is called “Shiromiso” , taste little sweet, not the regular miso."
wow. It was lucky to ask Yucco before buying miso paste.
How to make the broth a savory taste!
Why are the foods of luxury Japanese restaurants ... expensive?! I could answer the question through the process of making a tasty stock. A dried bonito, the representative of the savory taste. I love it. I made delicious stock with a dried bonito. Depending on how the stock was cooked, it could make very soft and too bland. Yuko told me to compare the taste. She put a small ladle in a small dish and made me taste it twice. As I tasteed it, There was a big diffenceas as heaven and earth. After tasting, I said AH!
I learned cooking happily. Being in the same area of the East (Korea and Japan are also very geographically close), I had a lot more material familiarity with it. However, the way it was handled was also very different.
Yucco made only two and I made the other two ...... By all appearances I can tell which one I have made. I've tried to do like Yucco's way but.... why did it happen? At first I was confused, but the more I looked at the mushrooms I made, the more I laughed.
I chose Chikuzeni and tofu Tenkaku.
There were two main dishes(I can choose) available in Ichiju Sansai Course. I chose Chikuzenni. And I chose tofu denkaku as a side dish. I. did not know exactly what it was, but I only knew that chickens were in the ingredient of Chikuzeni. That's why I chose it. The shape of Tenkaku was similar to what I saw in Kyoto. It was like using rice cake in Kyoto. I was surprised to see that they used soybean paste sauce on top of rice cake. Later I found out. What I saw in Kyoto is not rice cake.
I and Yucco almost finished cooking. The stock made of a dried bonito was used evenly throughout the whole cooking area. If you want to use dried mushrooms in Japanese way, you should soak them in water. The water was also used as the base of stock or sauce. So, the savory flavors of a dried bonita and water from mushroom were well combined.
I finished!
I boiled the miso soup as Yuko taught, and I boiled Chikuzeni (chicken and vegetables were roasted with soy sauce with stock and seasoning) One by one, when the dish was finished, the studio space began to fill with delicious food smell.
You can use a variety of white miso.
It was interesting enough for me to make sauce for the cooked tofu. The reason was simple. This is because it was not just the soybean paste used. I adjusted the proportion of pre-made stock to be placed in this sauce. And it is made by adding spices. Well, one more thing was added to it. Ground sesame and chopped citron peels. When I mixed these two things with soybean paste, they became a really good sauce. Aromatic sauce, fresh sauce. It would be good not only as tofu, but also meat, and I thought it would go well with rice cake.
I decided to make this sauce in Korea. However I could not buy soybean paste in Japan. When I went to supermarket to buy soybean paste, I left my purse at my place. I had to buy it the next day, but I got pressed for time, so I could not.
I did it! I finished Japanese home cooking.
She showed me various shapes dishes and let me choose the dish I wanted.. I chose the dish, and I said that I finished it thnaks to Yuko. Although I cut a hole in the mushroom.
The sunlight was coming in through the window to celebrate my cooking. Thanks for the sunshine, Hey, sunshine! I did it! My cooking class started at 10 a.m. in the morning, which was 3 hours on average, but it took about 2 hours because I had 1:1 class. Of course, cooking and chatting together during that time.
Acutally I don't like liquor. But Chuhai is excluded. acurally I said that I have a beer that I like even though it is made in Japan, and I said that it is Horoyoi. But Yucco told me in detail that it was not beer. this is Chuhai, not beer. Chuhai is a Japanese drink with a little soda and juice in it. But, I don't care. I love this! Actually, many people, including myself, in Korea think of Horoyoi as a beer. And We drank Horoyoi because there was it in the refrigerator in Yucco's studio! ^ 0 ^ I had various talks about when I start to learn Japanese language, the fact that Yucco's friends appear in the Japanese drama that I enjoy watching a lot, etc with Yucco while eating.
I enjoyed cooking class a lot. The way I cook with other cultures was fresh. I also recommend this cooking class to my friends. If you are planning to travel to Osaka, why don't you take the time to attend a cooking class?
▶ If you want to know more about Osaka Local tour products? Click here!
-------------------- INFO of Experieat Osaka Flavors Osaka Japanese home cooking class --------------------
Recognizing the joy of eating while traveling, Yucco recalled that home-cooked meals focus on the happiness and health of family. And she runs cooking classes in Osaka, Japan. She said the most joyful souvenir is probably her ability to make food for the country.
Experieat is a combination of words that means " experience " and " eat " of Japanese home cooking. Many tourists are satisfied with her cooking class, which enriches the experience of traveling to Japan through Japanese home cooking and offers an exciting Osaka flavor. You can check out what kinds of Japanese home cooking lessons for tourists on her official website
Official Website: Experieat