Okaasan Cooking

Last Friday I went to a cooking class with one of my JTEs. She invited me earlier in the week. “Would you like to go to a Korean cooking class on Friday with all my older women friends? They’re a lively bunch and like to drink beer.”

Older women and beer is a very entertaining concoction.

I met T-sensei in the Kinokuniya in Sapporo and we rushed-walked to a building I think may have been a library. We walking into a classroom that had a full kitchen with a giant mirror suspended above that reflected the countertop to rows of desks. There were about 12 mama-san ladies listening to the sensei.

T-sensei brought an extra apron for me. “Here,” she said, “wear this one.” She handed me a Miffy apron because “it matched my shirt.” This got a lot of laughs from the gals. Then we all gathered around the counter to watch sensei as she prepared a homestyle Korean meal.

I tried my best to follow along between the chopping techniques and ingredients that looked familiar but I didn’t know their names. The ladies were having a blast. Joking with each other, cheering each other on when they could flip the vegetable pancake with a flick of their wrist. All of this with the stomach grumbling smell of roasting sesame oil and simmering chicken soup.

The ending meal was a chicken and egg-drop soup served over rice and chicken with sides of spicy cucumber salad and the vegetable pancake. Amazingly tasty. It was so much fun spending outside school time with T-sensei, she’s a very cool and fun person.

Afterwards about ten of us went out for some beers and appetizers. One of the ladies insisted that I try sanma, an in-season fish that’s a Hokkaido specialty. The fish arrived on its side, eye staring up. I dug in with my chopsticks and she wasn’t kidding. It was delicious. I joked about how the face of the fish bothered me, looking up at me while I ate its body. The lady next to me, playing along, wrapped a piece of lettuce around the face of the fish and held it down with a potato. Perfect!

Boy, could these ladies drink. Everytime the server came over and asked if we wanted more drinks, all their hands rose and a giggly chorus of “Hai”s went with them. T-sensei and I talked about teaching and education. She’s very impassioned with what she does and desires so much to give these kids the best.

It was a great night. I had so much fun. Many of these ladies reminded me of my mother and her friends. They joked around in the same way, had fun in the same way.

Looking back I feel like I understood what everyone was saying though, in actuality, I didn’t. There’s something more than verbal language when you’re cutting loose with a group of people.