Look at this wonderful Japanese dinner! (well, not the salad obviously...) - but the simmered veggies with chicken on the left, and egg and fish paste pancake in the center and seaweed rolls with salmon inside.
Amazing! And I made it! Well, actually cooking teacher Akiko made it and Mary, a fellow foreign Oyomesan, and I cooked under her directions. But I had a hand in it all.
And I just served it to Okaasan and she said: "This is delicious isn't it. Did you buy it? You didn't make it, did you? It's hard for you to make. Hmm...delicious...".
Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mary and I went to Akiko's apartment mid-morning, armed with plastic food boxes to carry our food away. Mary even brought an apron - because she's been in Japan longer than me and knows that you should always go fully prepared for doing something in this country.
And we cooked. Akiko was great, showed us how to cut the vegetables just so, how to get the seasoning right, how to roll salmon bits in slippery seaweed....
Great. I may eventually get the hang of it all.
At dinner I told Okaasan a friend had cooked it, and let her tell me that this was good and how hard it was to make. 3 weeks from now? I might just try it!!!
I take it back. This looks much better than the Ueda osechi. Ours involves lots of black beans and octopus and slimy potato, all not favorites of mine. Don't get me wrong, my mil is a great cook, but her osechi...well I do like mochi and mikan, so I don't go hungry.
ReplyDeleteGreat! are you cooking New Year's Japanese Osechi too?
ReplyDelete(i wont cook, will buy :p)