Travelsty: Kyoto Day 3 - Haru cooking class

Emma had decided that we should do a Japanese cooking class that she read about online.

In addition to teaching about Japanese cooking, for one class per week, Taro also takes a group for a tour of Nishiki market, which we signed up for.

We met him at Tenmangu shrine, at the east end of the market.
It's technically in the shopping arcade next door, which has three
shrines in it, for the record.

Not pictured: The Nishiki market. Ironically, I think I've been here each time I've come to Japan, and I haven't taken a single decent photo of it.

Taro then took us to his house, where he teaches the class.

We started off sitting in the living room as he explained a bit
of the theory of Japanese cooking. His wife assisted with a few
background tasks and his youngest daughter made a cute
nuisance of herself. His older daughter whom the class is named
for, got home from school partway through.

Ingredients and work space.

Taro prepares Dashi

Philips (a dutch guy) assists with dissolve miso in the Dashi

I'm not sure this woman should be allowed knives,
but I'm not going to argue... she has a knife.

The class involved learning to make Dashi, Miso soup, Tamago omelette, stir fried root vegetables, boiled other vegetables, and Kobe beef.

Emma stirs eggs

Susan (Philips' wife) makes Tamago.

Tamago is fairly forgiving if difficult to make without breaking. If you want to watch a man spend 4 and a half minutes destroying an omelette then Emma kindly videotaped the proceedings.

Of note if you watch the video:
Taro had a neat little combination oil bottle/brush for spreading oil on the pan. Emma wondered at one point where she could get one. You can hear him tell a story about inventing the bottle himself in the video. I thought because of the way he was laughing as he said it, that he was joking, but at the end of the class he dissapeared upstairs and came back down with an oil bottle/brush for everyone.

I also found the story about not showing how to make Tamago at first, interesting.