Japan Continued

The Japanese are in love with presentation. Everything is precise there; dishes are beautiful and meticulously plated. During a cooking class at a culinary school in Tokyo, we got a first-hand lesson on how highly they pride accuracy. When making sushi, each individual piece should be very close to the same weight. The sushi rice for each piece is traditionally weighed to 20 grams, but good sushi chefs don’t have to measure that because they can do it by feel. The fish is then sliced a particular way to be laid out over the rice, and each piece of sushi is formed by hand following a step-by-step formula. They make it seem effortless. Of course, doing it yourself is a lot more complicated. One of the chefs did say that my sushi was “very cute,” so I basically felt awesome about it.

Most helpful tip: Keeping your hands moist with a mixture of vinegar and water while rolling sushi helps keep the rice from sticking to your fingers!

During the cooking lesson, we also made some tempura. Not nearly as precise a dish as sushi and something that we, as Americans, can really get behind. (It’s deep fried, ya’ll!) Surprisingly, the authentic thing really doesn’t differ from what we enjoy here. Even the variety of vegetables they recommended were the same (eggplant, zucchini, etc.) However there was one exception: shiso. This Asian herb is like a fennel-y basil and almost completely dissolves on the tongue after it’s been tempura fried. They dipped the batter on one side and let it stay in the hot oil until it turned a golden brown. Best. Snack. Food. Ever. I’ve been told that you can find it in the States at asian markets, so I’m going to keep by eyes open. (Although, I think the deep frying part should be kept at a minimum. Maybe I’ll find another way to cook with it?)

Tags: cooking classes, Japan, sushi, tempura