Joyous Japanese cuisine!

I'm finally going to be able to make something other than ramen, udon, and rice! Recently, my fellow Nova colleague Heather and I went to a cooking class in Saidera (Osaka suburb in the northern hills, really cool place!)

After spending 35 minutes on the train, 1 hour waiting for a bus to show up, and 15 minutes riding the bus, we still were not there. We then had to walk 10 minutes through a neighborhood until we got to the place. It was all worth it though.

At the class there were some other students (all women except for me), all coming from different parts of the world. They all spoke English, except for the cooks who were native to Japan. They are learning the language though, so it makes a good exchange for me since I'm and honing my chef boyardee skillz. The first day we made pork rolls, using marinated pork and fresh vegetables such as daikon (Japanese radish--very tasty). Kinoki gohan (rice dish with 4 different types of mushrooms) was also on the menu, as was a soup of which I can't remember the name. Heather took the recipe and was apparently too busy reading her book about valley girls to make me a copy. But I will get it soon, and then will probably try to make one of those dishes. I checked out prices at Super Tamade (24 HOUR SUPA CENTA, and the sponsor of this blog) and the ingredients seemed to be reasonable and inexpensive.

Anyway, even though we only had an hour there since we were late, it was still an enjoyable morning. The discussion we had was great, and I even got to practice my Japanese a little too. I look forward to the next class, on Oct. 14th. Here's a picture of the finished product!