Updates from Japan
Hey ya'll,
Between school, Kyudo, and visiting the elderly homes I have been staying busy most days of the week. I have gotten to do a few social things in the past few weeks though. A couple weeks ago I went to Kawanaka-san's house, she works at Hanasaka-sou, to cook Indian food for the staff, and to learn how to make maki zushi, which are sushi rolls with a variety of stuffings. We also made a dessert called mochi, which is rice that has been soaked for a few days, and mixed into a glutinous paste. Then it is formed around azuki been paste, to make small not so sweet patties. I say not so sweet because Japanese people are not especially fond of overly sweet dessert. The mochi is a famous food around Japan even though I had never heard of it before coming here. It is normally made at the new year, but since I will not be here at that time they made it for me to experience. It was a fun night of eating new foods for everyone, as none of the other folks had tried saag paneer or chapathis.
Then last weekend Kobayashi-san invited me to go to a Kaiseki ryouri restuarant. Kaiseki ryouri is traditional gormet food from Kyoto. It was a ten course meal, and definately the best food I have had throughout the whole time in Japan. There were unidentifiable salads, soup made from the leftover grain of sake and the reproductive organs of a fish, sashimi, tempura, roasted fish and flavored mochi, delicately cooked vegetables, miso soup and plum ice cream. The most interesting part though was a woman who ate with us. She was 87 years old and an old Geisha, or Geiko as they are called in Kansai. She was a riot, and a true hostess. She did not let up for a second to fill people's glasses, and even sang a couple traditional Geiko songs. After the dinner, she decided that we should all go out for a snack. I was thinking that we had just eaten a ten course meal, probably did not need to eat any more. It turned out to be a small private bar with a young geiko providing special attention to our group. The old woman is a geiko mother to the young one, so we got special treatment. I have a few pictures from the time, but for some reason the files are not downloadable on my computer.
Between school, Kyudo, and visiting the elderly homes I have been staying busy most days of the week. I have gotten to do a few social things in the past few weeks though. A couple weeks ago I went to Kawanaka-san's house, she works at Hanasaka-sou, to cook Indian food for the staff, and to learn how to make maki zushi, which are sushi rolls with a variety of stuffings. We also made a dessert called mochi, which is rice that has been soaked for a few days, and mixed into a glutinous paste. Then it is formed around azuki been paste, to make small not so sweet patties. I say not so sweet because Japanese people are not especially fond of overly sweet dessert. The mochi is a famous food around Japan even though I had never heard of it before coming here. It is normally made at the new year, but since I will not be here at that time they made it for me to experience. It was a fun night of eating new foods for everyone, as none of the other folks had tried saag paneer or chapathis.
Then last weekend Kobayashi-san invited me to go to a Kaiseki ryouri restuarant. Kaiseki ryouri is traditional gormet food from Kyoto. It was a ten course meal, and definately the best food I have had throughout the whole time in Japan. There were unidentifiable salads, soup made from the leftover grain of sake and the reproductive organs of a fish, sashimi, tempura, roasted fish and flavored mochi, delicately cooked vegetables, miso soup and plum ice cream. The most interesting part though was a woman who ate with us. She was 87 years old and an old Geisha, or Geiko as they are called in Kansai. She was a riot, and a true hostess. She did not let up for a second to fill people's glasses, and even sang a couple traditional Geiko songs. After the dinner, she decided that we should all go out for a snack. I was thinking that we had just eaten a ten course meal, probably did not need to eat any more. It turned out to be a small private bar with a young geiko providing special attention to our group. The old woman is a geiko mother to the young one, so we got special treatment. I have a few pictures from the time, but for some reason the files are not downloadable on my computer.
posted by Kyle Weaner at 1:03 AM
1 Comments:
Mochi :D
Thats the traditional dishes (?! ryouri) of japanese. I have not eaten mochi yet, but guess it's so so (like banh day of Vietnamese, i guess)
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