May 18 2014 - Tokyo 1st Ward

Today I was given the opportunity to go to church in Tokyo 1^st ward. This was an English ward with a lot of Americans. I believe most of them had family working at the embassy in Tokyo. I definitely was not expecting this. During sacrament meeting one of the kids who spoke told about all the places he had lived. It amazed me that he was okay to live in Japan. I’m sure he has picked up on a little bit of the language, but the culture shock would be incredible.

Church was excellent. The spirit I felt was incredible. The people all just show how blessed they are and the gratitude they have for the church. To see them all living somewhere far from their families for such long periods of time would be so difficult. Also, to raise their children in Japan or even just abroad would be so very different. This church was a far ride away from where we are staying and I can’t imagine leaving an hour early to go to church each Sunday.  After church a Charlie, Markie, Lacie and I al went to get crepes. They were delicious! Again the proportions are smaller here than in the states, but the quality of the food is amazing!

So far my favorite part of this trip was tonight at the cooking class with Mari. Mari is the cute little Asian girl that was born and raised in Japan. She lived in California for 6 months. She is married and living in a very nice home. She taught us all about Japanese cooking. I don’t understand how they cook with very few seasonings. She said they only use about 5 different flavorings. One thing they don’t use as much here are herbs and salt like we do. I love using seasonings because they bring so much flavor and they can either make or break the dish. Japanese people cook with very mind flavors.

One of there favorite things to use as seasoning is seaweed. She taught us the different varieties of seaweed and told us that the bold variety of flavors come from different location along the shore. It also depends on how long they have been fermenting. The same with the Amasaki paste. Amasaki is a sweet flavoring that has also been fermented. It is where they get the majority of their flavoring. We made a few different things with her.

The first thing we made was Gyoza. This is just like a pot sticker. They were probably the best kind of pot sticker I have ever eaten. Each thing was very thinly chopped and hand mixed together. I learned how to fan the dumpling when sealing it and when cooking them cook the bottom with a very small amount of oil and spread then after browning it add a little bit of water and cover with a lid until it becomes a see through dough. She told us to absolutely not flip. Then we made Tempera. Tempura is just any vegetable or meat you want dipped in the chunky not mixed very well, batter. Then dipped in oil. To know if the oil is hot enough, but not too hot put a wooden utensil in. If bubbles rise it is 180 degrees Celsius and hot enough. Let it cook in the oil for a few minutes to cook it. The last thing we made was miso soup. I have only liked a couple of miso soup that I tried but this was actually pretty good. It was interesting to see how they made it. The broth is boiled seaweed. The seaweed is cut with slits to allow the flavoring to seep out. After boiling the seaweed for a few minutes you remove it and boil in fish flakes for about 1 minute and pull them out. Then you add vegetable to it. Depending on the vegetables you want cooked or crunchy depends on when you add them. Texture in foods is vital to the. I noticed they care very much about taste texture and presentation all the same. I love this because presentation of food is also very important to me. When I cook and it doesn't look pretty I won’t serve it. One reason is because it is extremely embarrassing.

I feel like I learned so much more about Japanese culture by cooking with Mari. She was an excellent teacher. We were also able to see how she and her husband interact. Even when they were just talking you could see the love they had for each other. I would love to come back to Japan just to cook with her and learn more about their cooking styles.