Saturday, saw off my last CSer at 5am as she left to make her journey home to Russia. I then went back to bed for a few more hours sleep before waking up at 9:30 so I could try to get my house clean for my cooking lesson at 11:00.
The cooking lesson has probably been my most genius idea ever (with the possible exception of ‘The Apricot Run’ game that we played while volunteering in Kefalonia – What do you do with an abundance of rotting fruit? Pelt volunteers with them! – although they aren’t quite comparable). Basically, I put a post on the notice board in the International Plaza in town offering my English in exchange for some other skill – dancing, martial arts, etc – and was contacted by a lady who was willing to teach me how to cook some Japanese meals.
When she called out with her friend she gave me two possible recipes to choose from: one for salmon; one for beef. Seeing as I had a salmon fishing trip planned for the evening we went with that, so I’d know what to do with it when I got it back. Hit the supermarket, went splits on ingredients and came back home and I observed while she and her friend got to work in my kitchen.
The recipe was ‘Chan Chan Yaki’ – more or less Grilled Salmon in Chan Chan Sauce. So amazingly good, in fact possibly the best food I’ve had since coming to Japan. And that’s saying a lot.
Later on I drove up to the Northern tip of the country with Norio san, who stuck by his word and brought me fishing with him. The weather looked like it was going to be pretty miserable when we went to sleep in the car for a few hours, and it was still a bit wild when we got up at four. We changed into waders and waterproofs (which he lent me) and waited in his friends tent for it to start getting a bit lighter out. His friends are retired and have set up a very comfortable camp where they are staying for the two months of salmon season.
When we finally went out to catch a few fish I got to see how the operation works. Basically, the banks on either side of the narrow river mouth were lined with about 30-40 fishermen, and salmon were getting pulled out en masse. I managed to bag two modest specimens myself before the sun came up fully and they stopped biting (they only really bite at dusk and dawn). Norio san had a big one right in at the shore before it broke free, and it was looking like he was going to be going home without catching any, but then he caught a nice sized female, which was a relief, because I didn’t want to show him up.
When I got home last night I hacked up both of my catches and have many of the pieces marked down as gifts as I’ll never get through them all myself. Tried the Chan Chan Yaki that I’d been taught the day before, but I think I could have doubled the quantities of sauce as the fillet was a lot bigger than the one we’d been working with. But it was still good. Cooking it again for some friends tonight, so will see how it goes this time!
Think that’s about all from me, must be off
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