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While exploring the epicureandelights of Kyoto, Priyanka

Pradhan samples the flavoursof home-styled cooKing

t h es u s h iW a y o fl i f e

For someone not too fond ofJapanese food (or cooking, forthat matter), the idea of a day at aculinary workshop in Kyotoseemed daunting. In fact, the ideaof surviving a week in Japanwith only sushi, sashimi andsukiyaki for company was over-whelming. I mightve even made afew furtive trips to McDonalds in

dire times. However, after three hours in a Japanese cu-linaryworkshop, I foundmyselfdeclaring, Ill never saynever again.My classmates were a diverse lot an Americanwho

previously studied in Japanandcamewithhighly skilledchopsticks manoeuvres; an American couple in their60s, whowere backpacking through Japan on bicycles;and a Chinese couple on their honeymoon. Once ourmotley crewwas briefed on the daysmenu, whichwasmainlydashimaki tamago (breakfast egg roll), sushi andtempura, a fewkimono-styledaprons called samuewerehanded out to us.

At best, we felt like a part of an undercover samuraiconvention, posing as excitedMasterChef contestants.

The most important ingredient in Japanese cookingis the dashi or stock, which forms the base for almostevery dish in our cuisine, the instructor, a soft-spokenJapanese woman explained. This first step will deter-

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mine how your meal will shape up, so lets be as precise inour portions and sharp in our judgment as possible.

Dashi can be prepared from scratch by using katsuobushishavings of a typeof driedfish called bonito (which looksand feels like a hard chunkofwood) kombu, which is driedseaweed(orkelp)andshiitakemushrooms.Once theconcoc-tion is boiled with water and strained, the first clear stock(the superior Ichiban dashi) is ready to use. The same batchof ingredients can be used to strain the stock again for aninferior,butequallyuseful secondstock (nibandashi). Itmaybe difficult to source bonito outside Japan, but one can lookfor instantdashipelletsorgeneric seastock insupermarketsto prepare the dashi.

First up in the days menu was the dashimaki tamago,which looked very simple, but turned out to be an expertlyprepared egg roll. Infact, in Japan, it is saidthat one judges thequality of a restaurantby sampling the dashi-maki tamago madethere.

Afterwhiskingtheeggand pouring it into apan, thefriedegg isneat-ly rolled up on one sideof the pan, while anoth-er layer of the egg mix-ture is poured into thesame pan. To stack thetwo rolls together over alive stove, using giantcooking chopsticks isnothing less than a featbut after a few misad-ventures, we just aboutmanaged to pull it off.Lets just say ifwe reallywere TV show contes-tants,wewouldvebeenyelled at a lot.

By the time we got tothe all-important sushiroll, excitementwasrife,

Wheretofind it:Cooking Sun JapaneseCooking SchoolFunayo-cho 679,Shimogyo-ku,Kyoto, JAPAN

Bookings via Beans TravelJapan

email: info@beans-kyoto.jp

Website:www.beans-kyoto.jp

Phone: +81-75-253-1001

Stay inKyoto:Mitsui Garden Hotel KyotoShijowww.gardenhotels.co.jp/eng/kyoto-shijo

SoAKinG in theCoLoUr:(clockwise fromtop right)AparkinKyoto; awomanbuys ingredientsfroma fresh foodmarket; inside aBuddhist templein Kyoto; localswearing thetraditionalkimono pose for apicture; thefushimi inarishrine in Kyoto; aglimpse of aJapanese bridge

Travel JAPAN

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Japaneseeats:(clockwise fromleft)tempura,

oneof theeasiestJapanesedishestocookathome;

perfectlyservedsushi;

thecompletedbentobox

tasteofKyoto:threenewJapanesedishestotryoKonomiyaKi:

The name of the dish is derivedfrom the Japanese wordmeaning whatever youwantand yaki, whichmeans grilled.The dish comes under theteppenyaki style of cookingand is served sizzling, on ahotplate.Okonomiyaki is oftenreferred to as Japanese pizzaor as Osaka soul food.

theKaiseKimeal:A traditional Japanesemulticoursemeal, which drawsfromancient Japanese cuisinedating as far back as the 9thcentury. The kaisekimealincludes only fresh and seasonalingredients andmay compriseof up to five courses and 15dishes, served in small portions.A typical kaisekimeal isexpensive and can start from10,000Yen per person(Dh300) to upwards of 40,000Yen per person (Dh1,200).

wagashiwithmatchatea:Wagashi is a collective namefor traditional Japanese confec-tionery, typically made fromplant ingredients such as anko,which is azuki bean paste andmochi (rice cake). Differenttypes ofwagashi are usuallyservedwith tea, especiallymat-cha, which originated in Chinaandwas planted in Kyoto by aZenmonk.

emotions were running highand time was running out.Everyone wanted to get thisone right, to impress friendsand family back home.

As it turned out, sushi isquite complicated to make.Starting off with mixing theprecise amount of dashi intothe ricewhile simultaneouslyletting the mixture cool, itmade for quite a procession.Our chopsticks ninja class-mate stirred the ricewhile thehoneymooners hovered overhim frantically, using giantfans tocool themixture.Thenthe chopping began mush-rooms, cucumber, rolled eggand crab sticks made for acolourful ensemble for ourgrand sushi rolls.

A sheet of seaweed wasthen placed on a maiku orbamboo rolling mat and thedashi-soakedricewas thinlyspreadontop.Thechopped ingredients were horizontally placedon exactly one-third of the sheet and the bam-boomatwasused to grip and roll the sushi intoa tight cylinder. Themaikuwas then carefullyremoved and a wet knife was used to cut theroll neatly. Well, almost neatly.

Andfinally itwastimeforthe tempura, which wasmuch simpler than sushi.Shrimp, chopped pumpkinand maitake mushroomsweresimplycoveredinflourbatteranddippedintoheat-ed (180C) deep-frying oil.

Ah, like regular Ameri-can chicken nuggets! saidone of my classmates.

Oh, like the Indian bha-jias! I chimed in.

After very many Insta-gram posts, we had finallyprepared our own bentoboxes! Fruits of labour arealways sweet, and I foundours to be savoury yet de-lectable all the same, evenfor someonewhowas nev-er a fan of Japanese food.

On my flight back toDubai, even as the in-flightmenu offered a variety of

dishes to choose from, I opted for my tradi-tional Japanese Kaiseki tray. Clearly, myMcDonalds days were far behind me. Afterall, the one thing I took away from this experi-ence is to, never say never when it comesto food!

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howtoget there:emirates flies daily anddirect from Dubai-Osaka.

Business class return farestarts AED 14,765

economyclass return farestarts AED 4,725www.emirates.com

Kyoto is 1.5 hours fromKansai InternationalAirport, Osaka, bylimousine bus or 45minutes by train(Hankyu Railway).