Youth Group Night - Japanese Food!

On your mark. Get set. Go! 15 youth divided into pairs of 2 or 3 with a recipe or two in a kitchen that has few supplies. I told the youth group that I was two too tired to cook, so they were going to cook for me. Improvisation is the key word of the night - a cup for a bowl, a glass for a rolling pin. Several of the youth had not cooked before and many of these foods were considered "exotic". My name was called throughout the evening and food preparation techniques were given. Everyone had a choice - they could cook or be on sole cleanup duty. Everyone made the wise choice to cook.

It took a long time to prepare - much longer than I had anticipated. So between the long wait and the eagerness to try the dishes that we prepared, we were more than ready to sit down together. In the spirit of the Japanese who thank the earth for the food, we thanked God for the food, the friendship and the time that we had together to learn new things.

Then - for the first time in a few hours - there was complete silence followed by a chorus of "mmmmm"s.

Here are pictures from the evening's menu:

Spicy Edamames

Beef and Pepper DIsh

This salad was prepared by one young man who adamently proclaimed that he could not cook. So I gave him the salad that only required slicing tofu, tomatoes and avocadoes. I learned afterwards that I had successfully given him a dish to prepare with every ingredient he did not like! Poor guy didn't get to enjoy the fruits of his labour!




Tofu Salad



Daikon Salad



Bean Dish



Avocado Dip



Teryaki Chicken

Well done youth for a delicious meal.

More Japanese

A tofu salad with avocado and tomatoes with a very yummy wasabi dressing!

Did you know that avocados are the world's most nutritious food?

Journey to Japan

Tonight my friend L. and I made a very yummy meal! I tried Japanese food for the first time! SOOOOOOOOO good! It is Unami! (Delicious)

We made Spicy Edamame. Edamames are rich in protein, minerals, calcium and vitamin B1. The chili peppers made it quite spicy, but the soy sauce dressing helped to tone down the spice a bit.

The highlight of the meal was Asian Gazpacho with cilantro pesto. Wow. Whoever thought that vegetables could taste this amazing? I've been reading about Japanese and was delighted to discover their philosophy of food.... one of the things that they value is to try to bring out the natural flavours of the food. So there were no spices added to this chilled raw soup, just vegetables. The cilantro pesto was to die for. I think I will have to make this over and over and over again

We discovered Daikon which is a very large radish. Very good too with a bit of a kick! this salad was made with Daikon, Watercress and walnuts and really complimented the meal.

The main course was chicken presoaked in Saki and then steamed with bok choi, then served with a bit of lime. This was also very good and again, the flavours of the food come through very nicely.

I'm really fascinated now by Japanese food philosophy..... I think about how much I love Moroccan food and how so many spices are used that you can't distinguish any one particular flavour. And that is lovely. But Japanese food is different, it uses combinations that naturally highlight each flavour!

Oh I'm excited that I've branched out to a new region!