Shortly after marrying my husband, we made dinner with his mom. She did not speak English and always talked to me like I knew what she was saying. She did this in the kitchen, as well. My husband, busy with his own task, was not translating. But he quickly noticed that I was doing everything she asked me to do. With a surprised look on his face, he said "how do you know what she is saying? You are doing everything she is asking!" I calmly replied "because I am a woman." It was my way of saying I know my way around a kitchen and she wasn't asking me to do anything out of the ordinary. There is cabbage that needs to be cut. When she told me to cut the cabbage, she pointed to it. I can easily figure out that was what she wanted me to do.
Attending a cooking class, for me, does not intimidate me. The class was going to make a cake and some muffins. I wasn't worried about being a burden or not understanding what was going on.
I rode my bike to the class that was held at a community center. It was a fairly old building and the teaching kitchen was in the basement. I entered the room to find about 20 students getting ready for the class. Everyone brought their own aprons and head scarfs to wear while cooking. After paying (just ¥100/$1!!!) and washing my hands, I sat down at the front of the class where the instructor went over the recipes we were going to make.
She made some tofu panna cotta that was then poured into individual containers and put into the fridge to chill. Next, she showed us how to make a flourless chocolate ganache cake. It was also made with tofu. After her demonstration, we broke up into smaller groups at the kitchen islands and made the cake. I have baked many cakes in my day and this one followed the natural order of cake baking. Everyone pitched in to do different jobs to prepare the cake. Once they were in the ovens, and the dishes were washed, we headed back to the front of the class for another walk through.
This time, we were making banana muffins. The recipe was very similar to recipes I have made at home time and time again. I didn't think it was anything special until one of my friends mentioned that she had never made muffins before, so she was really excited to make them. Muffins are practically a staple for me. It is such a great thing to make with kids because they are pretty forgiving and it is easy to add fruit and vegetables inside without much hassle. But then I realized since she doesn't own an oven, how would she have made them? They were a new and exciting thing for her to make. As we made the muffins, she asked if I had made them before. When I said I had as well as many other kinds, she wanted to know more. Soon we were discussing all the different kinds of muffins I used to make on a regular basis. When I brought up zucchini muffins, everyone was very interested. They had never heard of such a thing.
We finished getting our muffins into the mini tins and into the oven despite all our chatting. After cleaning the kitchens once again, we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Everything turned out so nicely. In true Japanese style, nothing was extremely sweet. It was all well balanced, slightly sweet, but very flavorful.
I am so glad I didn't let a potential language barrier hold me back from enjoying this fun class. It was a nice time hanging out with other moms, doing something we all enjoy. I was even able to bring some treats home for my boys - which they enjoyed as much as I did.
Now I have a mission to make some muffins for my friends. Especially zucchini muffins!
No comments:
Post a Comment