18 December 2015

Fishmarket Tsukiji - Japan #3

One of my absolute highlights in Japan was attending a cooking class.
I booked online with Tsukiji cooking class online with peatix before I left.  Link here. It was worth every penny.
It was absolutely amazing !!! I was met at the metro station by these three lovely ladies. Who all spoke very well English and just had the answer to ALL of my zillion questions. Not only regarding food and fish but we even went to the shrine for waves and they showed me how to pray as a proper Japanese Buddhist. We spent what felt like hours at the Tsukiji Fishmarked which is crazy loud, hectic, wet and so interesting. For example it doens't smell at all. Because the stall owners keep pouring buckets of salt sea water to prevent the smell. This marked will probably be gone in a few years because it is misfit in Tokyo's city planning. Which is a shame because it is fascinating.

They had so much different fish I had never seen in my life - and I love fish and everything from the sea so it was breathtaking. We shopped all the different groceries we needed for our meal later on. Everything from tuna jaw, scallops, tuna, salmon, silk tofu, and bonito flakes for our dashi.

After a few hours - where I all alone with these lovely Japanese ladies had been walking around the fishmarket we met up with another American guy and our Japanese chef to cook in the kitchen they have close to the market. The American was suppose to have met with us and joined us at the marked but had missed the meeting point - well this happens in this city because finding your way is so hard - but I felt so bad because he really missed out.

During this cooking class we started out with cooking Dashi - for our Miso soup. I learned about fresh Silk Tofu - never in my life have I had such amazing tofu !!! Which we deep fried - it was amazing !!! And sushi rolls and the small round ones called temari sushi. We also tried the Tuna Jaw - which had brizzled in the pan and we got Japanese Pears, which were in season at that time. It was amazing - all in all we had a really nice meal.

When I hung out at the airport - the day I left again for Denmark. I came across this book: Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know about Cooking. Written by a English foodie: Michael Booth.
It was so interesting to read about Japanese food culture and rediscover and understand heaps of the things I had tested. Of course I felt like going back right away but suddenly so much of it was put into a context. Do read if you feel fascinated by Japanese food and culture.