Yoshiko's cooking class was wonderful. She began the class with a lesson on the different elements of Japanese cooking and the staples you need in your kitchen like mirin, dashi and ponzu sauce. We then had hands-on lessons in creating a Japanese rolled omelet, stuffing gyoza, baking tofu gratin and chopping marinated tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. Yoshiko gave us detailed recipes and instructions so we can cook these back in the States. This class is so special because it takes place in her home and we all ate together around her dining table. What fun!!!

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Cooking Experience

Great personable experience! We learned a lot about Japanese culture while cooking three separate dishes and miso soup. Samurai Max is the perfect host. He contacted us ahead of time for preferences and made sure we had no allergy issues. By explaining the seasonings and sauces we will be able to replicated what we learned. We had teens that he engaged throughout the process, making it fun for them. His cooking studio is close to other major activities and we did a photo shoot with another vendor after to complete the evening. He went the extra mile to make sure my son got what he wanted at nearby market too!

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Cooking Experience

Market Tour

Cooking with Yoko was an amazing experience! She met us right at the Minami-Morimachi station and wore a Japanese kimono as this is what traditional Japanese wear for teaching classes and tea ceremonies. Yoko walked us to her apartment through some of the local shopping streets and gave us a small tour of her area. She was very welcoming and was a great tour guide explaining everything we saw and telling us stories. Yoko is well known in her area as many people greeted her as we walked by on the way to her apartment. She made us feel right at home and greeted us with a cute welcome sign on her door. She had hangers out for us for our jackets and charming aprons to wear. The cooking portion of the experience was very hands on and extremely informational. She taught us so much about traditional Japanese cooking techniques such as how to cut cucumbers into a snake (accordion) design, which looked way better than just a cut up cucumber. She also gave us lots of cooking tips as well including to always mix the miso into a small portion of broth before adding into the soup as it would lose all its flavor, it is easier to cut tofu in your hand (very carefully) since it is so soft, always crack an egg on a flat surface and so much more. One of the highlights of the cooking portion was making the Japanese omelet - one of the best omelets we have ever had! She was so accommodating and even purchased and used gluten free soy sauce as I had an allergy. We had such great conversations over our meal with her about Japan and life that we felt like we were just having a meal with an old friend. At the end of the experience she even walked us about 10 minutes to a local park and pointed us in the direction of the Osaka Castle which is where we were headed to after. She even gave us lots of tips on other places in Japan we would enjoy and wrote them all down for us. We left the entire experience with our bellies full, lots of new Japanese cooking techniques and feeling like we made a new friend. It was an amazing experience altogether!

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Cooking Experience