japanese cooking class in meguro

im the first to admit im not a genius in the kitchen!

and im always game to give new cuisine a go! ever since we've moved to japan, i've been inspired by japanese cuisine, more specifically home-style cooking. there is a certain charm in the simplicity of their dishes. they are mostly healthy, delicious and very cost-effective. but a little difficult to navigate yourself in the japanese supermarket with no language skills.

so i signed up for a basic japanese cooking session with mifa international, an association organzed by the meguro ward to promote friendship between people of different cultures and countries! for 800 yen, this class was a real gem!

dish of the day - inari sushi!

held in a little community building in yutenji, the little classroom was the cutest thing! it had pots and pans of different size and the teachers were these little japanese ladies pottering around in their multi coloured aprons. just adorable!

they explained the ingredients, shared shopping tips and taught everyone how to chop and mix and cook up a storm. most of them spoke english and were really keen to practice.

you can buy pre-made packs of inari but for the purpose of this class, we learnt how to season and marinate our own! as they were trying to keep the cost of the class inexpensive, they shared how they keep their housekeeping tab to the minimum while pulling off 3 hot meals in a day!

pretty ball in clear soup base which we ate over cherry blossom flavoured soba! the colours were amazing! and so easy to whisk in the kitchen

seasoned chrysanthemum leaves as a side dish, this was very yummy and sesame-y!

there was also a piping hot pot of taro and chicken wing stew! we all sat down and had a hearty lunch with everyone and went around the room introducing ourselves, what brought us to japan and a little something funny! there was so much to eat, we even had leftovers to dogggie bag! also, we had some house-husbands in the classroom (yayy to them!) BUT they were so good in the kitchen, they put me to shame! daniel was very jealous because its his life-long dream to be a house-husband and attend cooking classes in the day. so i sent him a picture from my phone and saved a little inari for him!

i can't wait till we go back in feb again! :)