Washoku Lovers Kitchen has been so successful with sell out classes that this time we decided to double it. Yep, for the first time, we held two cooking classes on one day! I can tell you from a staff perspective, it was quite a whirlwind, but seeing twice as many happy faces and hearing everyone go silent during eating time twice is a highlight of Sunday’s Washoku Lovers Kitchen!
This month we made Obento, the Japanese lunchbox. Thanks to Muji Australia, we were even able to provide obento boxes for everyone who came! First up everyone was greeted with hot green tea mixed with Choya Umeshu. The heat of the tea brings out the sweetness of the umeshu for a delicious cocktail that was perfect for how cold and rainy it was outside.
Once everyone was inside and warmed up, and after unwrapping their Muji gifts, our Washoku Lovers Kitchen Chef Kana got everyone into the kitchen. As always, she starts with the basics, teaching everyone how to properly wash rice. Considering she spent the first three years of her sushi apprenticeship washing rice, I’d listen to her advice! Once the rice was on, the Yuzu Jelly was prepared so it had time to set in the fridge.
The obento was split into three sections: mains and hot food, salad, and dessert. The salad was Japanese potato salad and fresh, ripe cherry tomatoes. But the mains and hot food was where the action was at.
Everyone got a turn at making their own tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), nikumaki (meat wrapped vegetables cooked in a teriyaki sauce), and onigiri (rice balls) decorated with seaweed. To fill up gaps in the obento, broccoli gomaae (sesame dressing) was pushed into all the holes so everything was squished up nice and tight – meaning it won’t move around during transit.
The flipping of the Japanese omelette was something that everyone is interested in, so here’s a video of Chef Kana showing you how it’s done!
Here’s another video, this time showing you how quick Chef Kana is at making onigiri… If only I could be that fast!
Thank you to everyone who came to this month’s class, we hope you all enjoyed it! We are taking suggestions for future classes so leave a comment with what you’d like to learn!
All ingredients can be found at Tokyo Mart, and for the next month, Izakaya Yebisu is having a special nikumaki menu item to celebrate this month’s class!
If you’d like to attend our next class, sign up to our newsletter as that is where we release all the details!
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