Another Cooking Lesson With Hiroko

Its an early morning wake up by many rays of sun streaming in the window.
The sun is up so early, but one can't complain as it makes me get up early to enjoy the ever changing view over Mount Fuji, it  is so beautiful early in the morning. The band of fog in the valley and at the base of the mountain and Fuji's peak pushing through to get the first touches of sunlight. I grab a coffee and sit in the lounge and marvel at her beauty, as we are heading back to Yohahama the day after tomorrow.

Today after another great breakfast it is some traditional cooking lesson with Hiroko. to start it was beautiful fruit and some special white peaches that Hiroko's son in-law had sent up for us to have from his family farm in another province, they were the size of a small rockmelon and so sweet and juicy. Following that was the typical smorgasbord of delectable food delights. Red Onion is often eaten it is so soft in flavour that you can easily eat it at breakfast.

We cooked some " Eggplant Oysters " which are made without oysters !!! But they look like oysters !!! and also made some Pot Stickers a real BIG Yumo....
So for the Eggplant Oysters get your your long style eggplant and cut into thick sections on a 30deg cut say about 20mm thick
Then cut this into 1/2 along the length but stoping say 10mm in from the other end so you now have 2 flaps of eggplant and a hinge so like a Oyster Shell !!!
So now for the filling a mix of minced pork and beef with fine onion, salt and pepper Stuff, roll in beaten egg and sake mix then in breadcrumbs. Fry in oil till golden at 180 deg. Hiroko had a great cook top that you can preset the temp you want your pan to be heated to and maintain the same temp during the cooking process very clever.
Before you fill your " Oyster " coat the inside and outside with flour so that the filling sticks and stays in the middle.
Now off to the local village shops and yet another fascinating food experience.  Venders selling eel off the BBQ coated in sweet soy sauce sent an aroma through the car park that made you just have to try one. This is festival foods and now eel is getting very expensive they are trying to mimic the flavour and texture with such things as tofu and eggplant. But the real deal was amazing. The door opened and there was oysters as big as the palm of your hands, 100s of different raw fish choose from, octopus, monster scallops and prawns in every size. What really strikes you is there you are in a huge fish supermarket and there is NO fish smell it is just so fresh and beautifully clean. Japan is an amazing Asian country like no other.

Now with shopping done we head past the local bakery to buy sandwiches Japanese style for lunch the bread bun was pipped with different flavoured fillings prior to baking the result was full of flavour and the softest bread we have ever eaten. They were all individually wrapped and decorated. In all our trios to Japan this is the first time we have tried this style of food but we will be looking for it next time. Luckily for me we had them many times during our stay.

Out to dinner and to Kens favourite restaurant further up in the hills it is an Italian restaurant that serves German beer and you eat with Japanese chopsticks. Hmm and we though we were multicultural!
After a huge day back to our country house to drink some local Japanese scotch night caps for tomorrow we head back to Yokohama.