AUTHENTIC JAPANESE COOKING CLASS AT HOME
IN KAMAKURA
Class in English with Mariko
”Washoku” traditional Japanese cuisine has been added to UNESCO insensible cultural heritage list on 2013.
You can visit a local home to experience and enjoy a real Japanese meal with
professional Japanese a cook Mariko.
梅
locally Grown Ingredient
Good food is always comes from depends on ingredients.
I like to introduce about all my ingredients come from and produced by a local which the best.
Kamakura Vegetable
The Kamakura Farmer’s Market:
Kamakura-shi Nogyo Rensoku-baijo in Japanese, or ren-bai for short. Established in 1928 upon the advice of a foreign clergyman, this was Japan’s very first European style market. The vegetables on sale here are harvested either that very morning or the previous day. Divided into four groups, the farmers sell produce on a 4-day rotational basis, with about seven farmers doing a shift each day. You will find the producer’s names displayed above the stalls, so you can also find your favorite producer quite easily.
The market has a full selection of western vegetables and herbs such as zucchini and arugula. It is popular among local people from long time ago. Afterward it came up popular among Kamakura chefs and also chefs from Yokohama and Tokyo who are after vegetables that can only be found here, or who are impressed by the freshness, the quality, or the surprisingly diverse variety, which extends from traditional Japanese vegetables to French and Italian vegetables. After chefs such as these started shopping at this market, the vegetables on sale here came to be branded “Kamakura Yasai” (Kamakura Vegetables) and started to appear as such on the menus of high-end restaurants.
It is a well-known fact that Kei Kojima, executive chef at Beige Alain Ducasse Tokyo, visits the market each morning, and that Alain Ducasse himself visited in 2007.
The secret behind the great flavor of Kamakura Yasai is first and foremost that no agricultural chemicals are used in their production. For fertilizer, fishmeal, seaweed and powdered oyster shells from Hiroshima are used. The Kamakura Yasai brand is not sold in the Tokyo metropolitan area, so these vegetables star as select ingredients used in the menus of Tokyo restaurants.
I was still living in Tokyo when I first found out about Kamakura Yasai. As you would expect, my first encounter happened during a meal in a marvelous restaurant. I recall that the vegetables in the dish featuring Kamakura Yasai were the most mouthwatering that I had ever tasted. As there are not so many restaurants using these vegetables, I was unfortunately unable to enjoy quite so many “casual encounters” with them.
And while I understood that these vegetables were particularly good tasting, the power of this brand name remained a mystery to me. It was not until after I moved to Kamakura and started to go shopping at the Farmer’s Market, that I came to understand some of the reasons for this: the amount of labor that goes into the production of Kamakura Yasai and the limited production quantities.
These days, I am lucky enough to be able to buy Kamakura Yasai on a daily basis. And in fact, I cannot find a reason to justify buying any other kinds of vegetables. The local farmers have taught me two things—the importance of nature, and how we can stay healthy by eating vegetables that ripen in each particular season: summer vegetables to cool the body down during the summer heat, winter vegetables to warm the body during the cold months of winter.
My habitual fishimonger
Kotsubo Fishing port:
The fishing port that I most like to visit is Kotsubo Gyoko (Kotsubo Fishing Port). There is a fishmonger right at the port, but the shop has no sign and it’s difficult to find. The place functions somewhat like a hideaway that is known only to insiders, and is much loved by locals. Customers line up waiting for the shop to open at 10:30, especially on the weekends.
Kotsubo Fishing Port is in Kotsubo/Kotsubo Harbor, which lies between the Zushi coast and the Zaimokuza coast. During the Kamakura period (1185–1333) it was already active as a fishing port, supplying seafood to the town of Kamakura.
Fishing is carried out in the traditional style known as mizuki, using fishing boats that weigh a bit less than 5 ton. Wearing a mask that covers most of their face and hangs into the water, Kamakura fishermen (or women) hang their bodies over the side of the boat and peer through the mask into the water. Using a harpoon, they catch turban shells and abalone. All this is done while controlling the vessel with their feet.
You will find all the in-season fish, fresh from the morning’s catch, to wonderfully delicious. Bonito, yellowtail and sardines are some of the tastiest, but shirasu (whitebait) is my favorite. The nearby island of Enoshima is renowned for its shirasu. As these fish belong to the Japanese pilchard family, they bruise very easily when they are fresh. They are impossible to eat as sashimi in the cities. For this reason, many people come from Tokyo and other distant places to enjoy shirasu here.
I like to prepare shirasu by boiling the fish lightly in a style of cooking known as kama-age shirasu. The light and fluffy texture, which can only be enjoyed while the fish are fresh, makes them especially tasty when eaten this way.
Everyday people such as myself appreciate smaller fishing ports like Kotsubo Gyoko much more than large fishing ports. Large fishing ports give priority to professional buyers, so customers from the general public do not get immediate access to the catch. Small-scale ports such as Kotsubo Gyoko, however, sell to local restaurants and local people. Even though the size of the catch may be limited, it is made available for sale relatively quickly. The catch sells out each day, which means that we are always able buy seafood that is caught fresh that morning.
"Maguro" arives in Misaki fishing port at the very first
When people think of maguro (tuna) these days, they generally think of Tsukiji Fish Market. However, the first place that tuna is unloaded is actually at Misaki Port. From there, parts of the catch are transferred to Tsukiji or are sold directly to restaurants and bars.
Misaki maguro refers to the tuna that are unloaded at Misaki Port, which lies at the end of Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture. Misaki maguro is as well known as the Oma maguro from Aomori Prefecture. The Misaki maguro unloaded at Misaki Port include tuna caught all over the world and of many different species, including Pacific bluefin tuna and southern bluefin tuna.
Just like Oma maguro, the best time of year for Misaki maguro is from fall through December. Lots of excitement builds around Misaki maguro during these months. The season is just around the corner, which is something to look forward to.
Misaki-machi (Misaki Port), which lies at the southern tip of Miura Peninsula, is famous as Japan’s foremost tuna port. In terms of its history, the area developed as a navy base from Kamakura period (1185–1333) onward. This was due to its topographical features. Later, during the Edo period (1603–1868), Misaki became the first place in Japan to hold auctions. Present-day Misaki Port is busy not only with its maguro catch, but is bustling every day of the week with people who have come to do fishing or sightseeing. Misaki is a town where Japan’s historical heritage coexists with the energy of the people who live there.
At Misaki Port, trading is between professionals. Each Sunday, however, members of the public can enjoy the morning market but people are from locals since it runs from 5 a.m. until 8 a.m. While I can’t help but feel sleepy at that time of day, the flavor of the tuna at Misaki Port is simply incomparable with the tuna that I’ve eaten in Tokyo, and so these days, I eat nothing but Misaki maguro. This level of freshness makes it an entirely different class to the tuna that you get in Tokyo.