[MUSIC PLAYING]
SONOKO SAKAI: Thank you.
I'm Sonoko Sakai.
Thank you.
I call you guys Googlers.
Without you, my life
would be very different.
So thank you, first of all, for
making things so accessible.
Including the ingredients
that I'm presenting here,
because some of them come
from far away from Japan.
And because of Google, I could
just find these ingredients
when I want to.
I also source them locally.
But today, what we're
going to be focused on
is on the Japanese
pantry, namely dashi.
But if I speak of
dashi, I also have
to talk about the
fermented seasonings,
because it's together
you know, combined,
that we make the base
of our seasonings.
But dashi is very,
very important.
Does anybody know
what dashi means?
OK, if you--
So in Italian cooking, what
would be the most important
ingredient that you
would name if you
were going to start cooking?
Olive oil, right?
So our culture is about stock.
We don't start with oil,
even though I brought
a bottle of sesame oil--
see?
That's kind of left
on the right side.
We basically cook with water.
And we make a stock.
And that stock becomes
the base of all the foods
that we cook with.
And-- and the reason why we like
the stock, because it's gentle.
It's kind of like the
supporting actor in a movie.
You know, it's kind
of not the superstar,
like the big fish or
the big piece of meat.
But it's supporting it.
It's enhancing the flavor
without standing out.
So the word that we like to
use for this flavor is umami.
And there's several ingredients
that bring out umami.
You probably already
know them, but I'm going
to go through them right now.
And with these five
ingredients, I'm
going to show you a couple
different ways to make dashi
And then we're going
to make a miso soup.
But the dashi I'm going
to let you taste plain.
I'm going to let you
taste the vegan dashi.
And I'm going to
let you taste one
that's made with bonito
flakes and kombu.
So these are-- so the two
popular ones that we have.
And then I'll season it
with some homemade miso.
And then we'll make
a inari sushi also
using kombu as the
base of the stalk.
And then you'll get to
taste it with a pickle that
was also seasoned in stock--
kombu stock.
So stock is everywhere.
And I could just keep going.
First, let me talk about kombu.
Have it has anybody
cooked with kombu?
OK.
So kombu is my favorite
dashi ingredient.
This kombu is very special.
I don't know if you've seen
a really long one like this?
This can be as tall as you,
one tall American, like,
six feet tall.
And this is-- this
is [? Rausu ?]
kombu from the peninsula
of Rausu and Hokkaido.
Most of the really
premium kombus
come from Hokkaido
because that's
where the cold waters in
Siberia, the different currents
meet.
It makes it very habitable, a
pleasant habitat for the kombu.
And so this one is
particularly good.
It was cured three years.
So it's not like you could
just go out to the beach
and pick a kombu and think
you got something for stock.
The Japanese people--
the kombu artisans
will carefully go
through and cure them.
And also, see these?
Like, this is a Rishiri
from the Rishiri peninsula.
Compared to this one,
these are much skinnier.
So just among the
kombu varieties,
you're going to have
hundreds of which
what we probably use
about 10 different kinds.
So in our Japanese diet, kombu
appears almost every day.
And without kombu, it's like,
for me, not having salt around.
It's so essential.
And what I did--
what you do is you just--
you could just do a cold
brew and just throw in water.
And leave it for a few
hours or overnight,
and you already have a dashi
stock, a kombu stock that's
vegan, right?
You could-- so there's kombu.
And by the way, see
these white spots here?
That's the [INAUDIBLE]
atolls sugar.
This is the natural MSG.
You do not want
to wipe this off.
This is not mold.
OK?
So maybe if it's harvested
here, some of them are sandy.
You might want to
wipe it clearly.
But any rinsing
you do with water
actually doesn't make
kombu that happy.
So once it gets cooked,
it's basically it.
But keep it in a dry place.
It will last you for years
as long as you keep it
in a cool pantry.
And something like this
would cost you like $40.
So it's not cheap.
But what you do is you
could cook it and use it
a couple times.
And even use the
spent one for pickles.
So I'm just starting
this one just with kombu.
And I'm going to finish with
the other primary ingredient
for dashi, which is bonito.
So bonito flakes-- have you
ever shaved bonito flakes?
This is what a bonito--
this is one fourth
of the fillet of a--
like, a five to
seven kilo bonito,
like a albacore tuna or
yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna.
These bluefin tunas are
just not the ideal source
for making bonito--
for making-- we'd
call it katsobushi,
because they're going extinct.
So we have to be very
careful about how
we source our bonito flakes.
But what I want
you to remember is
in the old days, my grandmother,
my mother would save it.
So this would be a saver.
There's a little drawer.
It's called kezuriki.
And see how it's shaped?
So what you will do--
this piece of fish has been
filleted, cooked, smoked,
and inoculated with a mold.
And it takes about six
months to make one piece.
And it's-- can you
imagine one fourth--
it shrinks to about one
sixth of its original size.
And you only get four
pieces out of it.
And from one block, you only get
about 30 servings of miso soup.
So the labor that
goes into making a--
we call it [INAUDIBLE]--
is intense.
And so they say that in
Kagoshima, Makurazaki
peninsula where all the
artisans are, are disappearing.
Like, my friend who
is in this business,
said that there's
only about 27 people
left that you could
say true artisans.
And the way they fillet
the fish is so beautiful.
They're sculptural,
that you could actually
tell who the artisan is.
And I talk about my
friend in the book.
And I wouldn't recommend anybody
doing it, unless you actually
go to a katsobushi shop and
practice it a few times,
because I'm not good at it.
And when I told my
husband I was coming
to Google with this--
cause [INAUDIBLE] says
don't let anybody try it.
The blade is sticking--
my husband's a sculptor.
So he deals with
blades all the time.
So he's like, too dangerous.
Too dangerous.
So he says, talk about it,
but don't try to do it.
But see the side
where the skin is?
That's the tail end.
And this is the head.
So you basically do it
at a 45 degree angle.
And without shaving
your hand, you--
it's a motion like this.
But you have to really push it
down until you get to the point
where it's like a ruby red.
And you will get shavings
like this, you know?
And the outer part
is kind of moldy,
because they inoculate
it with a mold.
So you try to get to the bottom.
But you could kind
of taste what's fresh
and then what is not fresh.
So. try that.
You could pass it
around to do a pinch.
Now what I'm going to do is--
there's about two
quarts in here.
So it's about one--
20 grams per quart.
So it's about 40 grams.
This is about 100 grams.
You do a lot.
My friend will put the
whole bag of bonito in it.
And it-- basically, once
the water has already
come to a boil, you could
either take the kombu out,
because some people don't
want to mix the dashi
with the bonito flakes.
They say it has a
chemical reaction that
makes an inferior dashi.
But I don't bother, because
I'm more of a noodle maker--
I'm more of a
street food person.
But once you put the bonito in,
you just let it steep like tea.
See, I turned it off?
And you just let it
wait for two minutes.
And then we're
going to strain it.
OK.
So that is your katsobushi.
So it's bonito kombu dashi.
And while this is
steeping, I'm going
to talk about the other one.
So the other one is
shojin dashi mushrooms.
Shiitake mushrooms.
Guess-- can anybody
guess what this is?
Nobody?
Oh my god.
Gourd.
So it's called kanpyo.
And if you go to a
sushi restaurant,
you could get a gourd.
It's children's
favorite hand roll.
But the gourd is peeled
this way into a spiral.
And then it's dried.
And it has kind of a
lovely soury chewy flavor.
And I use it to tie
rolls, like cabbage rolls.
And it's totally edible.
And it makes a very nice dashi.
Soybeans-- wonderful.
Don't use GMO.
I use Laura soybeans.
And I toast it.
And so you lightly toast
it in a frying pan.
And then you let it soak
like this overnight.
I also believe put here
a piece of kombu, see?
And the shiitake mushrooms.
Did you like that taste?
It's nice, right?
The shavings are kind of short.
You should get
really longer curls.
But this one needs
to be trained.
So I haven't quite
gotten it there, but--
so what you do is I
soak this overnight.
And you just cook it
for about an hour--
20 minutes to an hour.
And you have beautiful dashi.
So what I'm going to let you do
is I'm going to let taste it,
OK?
So this is going to be cooking.
So I have two
kinds of dashi here
that you're going to taste.
Let me, just temporarily--
so we're going to start
with the vegan dashi.
The only seasoning I put is
a little bit of sea salt.
And I always like to put sake.
Sake goes into everything.
So have you heard of
suimono is that clear soup.
So when you go to like,
a kaiseki restaurant,
like, I'm sure all of you went
to-- had been to n/naka, right?
No?
No?
I thought maybe, because it's
right here in Culver City.
It's a really nice
restaurant that has kaiseki--
two ladies that are chefs.
Anyway, they would probably
serve a suimono, not
a miso soup in the beginning.
And they may never
serve any miso soup.
Because in a kaiseki
restaurant, you
want to taste the level, the
quality of dashi of this soup.
And that will basically
determine that [INAUDIBLE],,
which is the skill of the chef.
So don't be too critical today.
[LAUGHS]
I'm not like a
Michelin three star.
I'm a home cook.
So anyway, this is
really a simple dashi.
You could have maybe put--
I may have-- I could have put
maybe one more shiitake in it.
But it's so simple.
It's so simple on its own, that
I want you to just taste it
as a broth.
OK?
But just imagine they're
just vegetables, right?
And you know what I do with
these spent vegetables?
See these?
These are the spent kombu.
See all these?
I don't throw it away.
I toss it in my salad.
It's really nice.
And I cook it with a
little soy and miri
and make a little
pickle out of it.
And you eat with rice
and it's wonderful.
OK, so now we have this
dashi that's already done.
So we're just going to
put it through the filter.
So that's number one dashi, OK?
And you could use this one more
time to make a secondary dashi.
But this is the
number one dashi.
So I'm going to season this one.
And you're going to
taste this one too.
So first, you do the vegetarian,
the vegan, and the next one,
we'll do one with fish.
Just so you get an
idea of what you like.
And for the miso soup, we
made it with the bonito flake.
I added some shiitake mushrooms.
So you could blend.
You can mix and
match, if you like.
And with the bonito flake,
kombu, and shiitake.
So let me season it.
I love my bonito flakes.
See, that's why I
could never be a vegan.
But if you go to a Japanese
temple or a nunnery,
they serve the vegan dashi.
All their cooking
is based on that.
The stews, the
pickles, everything.
So it might be bland if you're--
you eat meat.
But, OK.
So the next one is going to
be the one with the fish.
So this particular one
comes from a single fish--
a single fish.
And the upper part-- it says
the upper part of the fish.
The white-- mostly white--
white meat.
So you could go to a Japanese
artisan bonito flakes store.
It's called [INAUDIBLE].
But they sell bonito flakes,
they sell the dried mushroom.
All these things you will find
in this specialized store.
My friend has one
called [INAUDIBLE]..
And she's featured in the book.
But they will tell
you this part,
it says comes from Kagoshima.
So it's single origin.
It was cut on a line.
I mean, Japanese get really,
really anal about these things.
And we're into single
origin chocolates
right now, right, and coffee.
And we'll get to our
bonito flakes soon, right?
So when you make a suimono,
which is the clear soup,
you put a little bit of the
light colored soy sauce.
This is a beautiful
artisan soy sauce
that I recently discovered.
So I use that.
So it's still very
light, because I
want you to taste the dashi.
Good about the dashi?
You understand the dashi?
The two different kinds?
The cold brew
versus this one that
is a vegan one that needs
to be cooked 20 minutes.
It's just amazing how
many varieties of dashi
you could do.
Also, chicken is also--
a chicken bone broth is dashi.
Pork bones are dashi.
So if you go to a tonkotsu
ramen place, that's dashi.
And if you go to any
restaurant, the Japanese person
will always look for
the flavor of the dashi.
I said that dashi
is what determines
the skill level of a chef?
And so we-- even
just people like me
would go into a restaurant and
taste the food, and go ooh.
I taste the dashi.
It's a phrase called
dashi [INAUDIBLE]..
And we use that all the time.
So that's how we're obsessed
with the flavor of dashi.
OK.
So the next thing I'm going
to do is make miso soup.
You like miso soup?
Does anybody make
miso soup at home?
Nobody?
Oh.
Sometimes?
Who has a bonito dashi
in their hands already?
Which do you prefer?
AUDIENCE: The second one.
SONOKO SAKAI: The
second one, right?
The second one is
like, deeper, right?
Yeah.
So, but you know, dashi
is just a foundation.
It's going to start bland.
You're going to start
adding flavor to it.
That's why I put the five
basic seasonings here,
because Japanese
cuisine is often
described as a bland cuisine.
Actually, some
famous food writers
said that our
cuisine is too bland.
Well, sure we don't
use garlic that much.
And we don't mask our
dishes with a lot of sauces.
You know, cream sauces.
It's just about enhancing the
natural flavor of the food.
So over-- and we're not really--
we don't have a tradition of
like, sauteing everything.
We tend to boil things.
Because-- and most people in
Japan don't even have an oven.
So we tend to boil a lot of
things, simmer things, stews.
So now what we're doing is
we're making a miso soup.
Miso soup is a breakfast soup.
And when I say breakfast soup,
it could be different things.
It could be with tofu.
I have different
kinds of vegetables.
I added some squash and onions.
So what I did is I sauteed
some onions with a little bit
of sesame oil, just to give it a
little bit of umami and flavor.
And then we're going to
finish it with some scallions.
So the Japanese are all
about garnishes too.
And you don't ever want
to overwhelm your dish
with too much garnish.
But it always brightens up the--
especially the soup.
So you always have some kind
of a garnish at the end.
So this is my homemade miso.
This is about nine months old.
I teach a miso class every year.
And it's still young.
But I think it has enough
umami that I'm going
to serve it for the first time.
Once you get used to
making your own miso,
so you don't want to use
industrial miso anymore.
So what you do is you put about
a tablespoon for each cup.
But every miso has different
levels of saltiness.
Miso is also a key ingredient--
one of the five key ingredients
in Japanese cooking.
Miso, the next one is
rice vinegar, mirin.
Saki is also mirin.
These two are sakes.
And then soy sauce, light
color and dark color.
And then we have salt and sugar.
But I consider sake, mirin,
and sugar are all sweeteners.
The soy sauce gives you
saltiness, and it's umami.
The rice vinegar gives you
a brightness, the sourness.
So oil doesn't really
get into the picture.
It's interesting, you know.
But if you have--
but oil has become
part of our culture.
So I use a lot of sesame
oil, untoasted sesame oil,
for the most part.
What do you think is a
common ingredient in rice
vinegar, sake, and soy sauce?
Can anybody guess?
Rice, yeah.
It's fermented rice.
It's koji.
Koji is the mold that is
used to inoculate the rice
to create rice vinegar,
sake, mirin, and soy sauce.
And we also eat rice as a--
it's the centerpiece
of our diet.
So basically, anything that
enhances the flavor of rice
is going to come to the table.
And these ingredients
complement the rice.
OK?
So, OK.
So this miso soup
is ready, I think.
And so let's serve
this miso soup made
with American non-GMO soybeans.
And fermented for about--
we started in August.
So usually, August is not a
really good time to make miso,
because it's a little bit warm.
And when it's too warm, it
tends to invite other molds
into the base.
So it's-- right
now, if it's colder,
it's a better time to make miso.
So right now, this is a time
when I'm teaching miso classes.
So now that I've added
the miso to that dashi,
you will see that suddenly the
flavor will get better, right?
It needed that.
And what you could
do with all the dashi
is keep it in the fridge
or you can freeze it.
So I will take this
home and I will use it.
My husband likes to have
miso soup for breakfast
every single day.
And if it's not
there, he's unhappy.
So today he got the pumpkin
like everybody else,
because I was making
it for you guys.
But you could go into the
fridge and use kale or potatoes,
sweet potatoes, zucchini.
Vegetables work
really well with miso.
And you know, if you-- the thing
to remember about miso is you
don't want to raise the
temperature too high.
It's probiotic.
These are not pasteurized.
The ones that you buy in the
store are usually pasteurized.
So it's already dead.
But if you want alive
miso, don't boil it.
Never boil.
So it's the last thing I
added to my dashi, right?
Once you know that your
vegetables are cooked,
turn off the heat and
then add the miso, OK?
Is it good?
You like it?
Good.
OK.
You feel like you're in Japan?
Yeah, this is comfort food.
Yeah.
The tofu, by the way,
is from Meiji Tofu.
Do you know Mejii Tofu?
Wonderful artisan
tofu in Torrance.
And you could get it at that--
I think, MarVista--
MarVista farmer's market.
So here, we have
another secondary dashi.
You never throw this away, OK?
It's just too
good, too precious.
So that could freeze
this, or I just
go ahead and make another batch
and I keep it in my fridge.
So I always have something
like this ready to go.
The next thing I'm going to
do is to make inari sushi.
Have you heard of inari?
There are actually fried
tofu that look like this.
And what you do is--
they're pouches.
So when you cook it,
you cook it with dashi.
So I'm using a vegan dashi.
And I'm going to add soy sauce,
a little bit of brown sugar
from Okinawa.
And you could also add
a little cane sugar.
And what you do is in this
dashi, seasoned dashi,
you cook that tofu.
And you season it.
And you cook it in this broth
until almost all the liquid
is gone.
And then you have
a seasoned tofu.
So what you're going
to do is you're just
going to put this in here.
You could blanch this
too, if you don't--
if you have time, to
do a little blanch.
And then we're just going
to cook this down, you see?
You could put more
dashi, if you like.
So as you can see, I'm
always pouring dashi.
You know, dashi is always
in my fridge, in a pitcher.
I'm adding it to
enhance flavors.
So it's a really nice--
it's basically a
seasoning is what it is.
And this is going to be
turned down to a simmer.
So this is cooking.
While this is cooking,
what you will do
is you'll flip it
once in a while.
So then we go into
making the inari sushi.
A sushi, OK?
So sushi is made
with seasoned rice.
And the dashi is actually added
while the rice is cooking.
So here we go.
Do you see the kombu in there?
So that means that it
becomes a dashi, right?
And that's how I
season my sushi.
I was going to make this in a
beautiful donabe rice cooker.
But I realized that we only
had an induction oven here.
So I decided not to turn it on.
But has anybody
cooked with a donabe.
Oh, I'll show you the clay pot.
It's really pretty.
For cooking rice, it's just
one of the best things.
OK, so let me just
scoop this rice out.
Who owns a rice cooker?
Oh, a lot of people.
Wow.
So you eat a lot of rice?
You all eat?
Ooh, it's hot.
OK, so the kombu comes out.
You eat it.
It's so good.
OK.
So I'm just going
to spread it out.
So here, we have rice vinegar--
this beautiful one from Kyoto--
some cane sugar,
and sea salt. You
have to turn this
once in a while.
So then you mix it.
If we had a fan, we
would be fanning it.
When you make sushi
rice, do not mash it.
And you cut it.
And you cut it by
using an angle.
Some people would just
kind of spread it out.
And we usually have
a fan, so that we
could cool it down fast.
This is called a handai.
It's nice, because it's wide.
And the American
bowls are like this.
You're trying to cool--
cool the rice as
quickly as possible.
So if you're going
to make sushi,
I recommend you
get one of these.
So the umami in the rice
and the umami in the tofu
are going to add the flavor.
So we use dashi in two places.
The last thing we're going to
do is now add sesame seeds.
We love sesame seeds.
And shiso.
Have you ever seen a shiso leaf?
So this is like our basil.
And we just love
it on everything.
It grows like weeds here.
So simple.
It's just a vegan sushi, but
it's also colorful, right?
Just two ingredients, sesame
seeds and shiso, and then
the tofu.
So what we're going to do
is we're going to stuff it.
And then we're going to have
it with a little pickle.
Oh, I know.
Forgot this one, ginger.
I knew something was missing.
[LAUGHS]
Just chopped in ginger.
So actually, just
four ingredients.
OK.
All right.
So let's come here.
So what you do is you just--
you need to wet your hands.
So get a bottle of water.
Do you like spicy too?
OK.
So this is a shichimi pepper.
So we'll do--
So what you're going
to do is take one.
And you just make a ball.
OK?
Like, oblong ball.
And then you put it
in here like that.
OK?
There's this and
the black sesame.
Maybe a little bit of
both would be nice.
We're thinking about
presentation too here.
So just give him some pickles.
That's what makes it pretty.
Just one more thing.
The last one-- this
is also in my book.
But the amuzu pickle is
just blanched vegetables.
I found broccolini
and what is it?
Cauliflower with vinegar,
dashi, chili pepper, sugar,
and rice vinegar mixed together,
boiled, and poured over.
And see the kombu in here?
That's the dashi.
So you could see
that dashi plays--
is everywhere.
And I hope that this book will
inspire you to try something
with these ingredients.
So let's take some
questions now.
AUDIENCE: Thanks for the
food and the presentation.
I always had a
question about miso.
So when you go to the store,
there's all kinds of miso.
So there's white
miso, dark color miso.
Which one is the best
for the miso soup?
SONOKO SAKAI: Depending
on the region--
like, if you go to Kyoto, you
might find a sweeter white miso
called Saikyo.
And it's more rice,
more koji than soybeans.
And if you go to
Nagoya, mid regions,
there's a hacho miso,
which is very dark and made
with pure soybeans.
There's also barley miso.
These tend to be darker misos.
If you go to Sendai, to
the northern part of Japan,
you have Sendai miso, which also
tends to be a little saltier.
And fermentation
could also be longer.
The white miso are fermented
less, six months sometimes.
Like, my miso is
about eight months.
And I'm going to let it
go for several more years.
But my students keep eating it.
So they never last that long.
So, yeah.
You can mix and match.
And the way you
do it is blend it.
You play with it, yeah.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: Does dashi keep well?
How long will it last in
a fridge or a freezer?
SONOKO SAKAI: Um, I keep it in
the fridge for about a week.
And you could also
keep it in the freezer.
You could put it in ice cube
trays and just pop it in.
That's a really good one.
If you're like making
miso soup for one person,
just have that in
these ice cube trays.
You know, those silicone tube?
That would work.
But when I was doing a
stage with a noodle maker,
a soba noodle maker--
I'm really into actually,
soba, by the way.
If you ever want to learn
how to make soba by hand--
he made the dashi
every single day.
It was never frozen,
never in the fridge.
Every morning, that was a
ritual that began in the morning
making kombu before we
even made the noodles.
So the fresher, the better.
AUDIENCE: Well, is it
pungent in the miso soup?
SONOKO SAKAI: Yes.
[INAUDIBLE]?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
So I've been dealing
with those pumpkin.
I think they're really tasty.
But I wonder how did
you cut those pumpkins?
SONOKO SAKAI: How did
I cut the pumpkin?
Isn't it horrible?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
AUDIENCE: Yeah,
it's really hard.
I always thought I was going
to lose a finger or two.
SONOKO SAKAI: Oh, yeah.
So if you look at the--
there's a pumpkin instruction in
my book, how to cut a pumpkin.
AUDIENCE: Oh, that's great.
SONOKO SAKAI: Yeah.
Because some people say oh, just
throw it into the oven and let
it roast.
No, no, no, no.
I want to cut it, you know?
Because I want to
have clean cuts.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
SONOKO SAKAI: So what you
do is you have the pumpkin.
You know, the stem usually
is taken off already
when you buy it.
So you puncture four
holes with your chopsticks
right on the top
around the stem.
And you cut a square.
And when you cut a
square, you could do it
with a-- if you're
scared to use your knife,
you could do it with one
of those Halloween pumpkin
carving knives
that has the zigs.
And you cut a square on
the top and the bottom.
And you push it, take it out.
You just pry it out.
And you'll see that
it's all whole.
So the meat is about this much.
So you take the cap off.
The little-- the stem
part and the little--
and then so now you have
a square on the top,
and a square hole on the bottom.
And then I take the knife.
I just rest my knife against
one corner of that square hole
and guide my knife down.
So you'll see it in--
somewhere, if my index is good.
And you look under
how to cut a kabocha.
Because that's how I overcame
my fear of cutting kabochas.
Because I wouldn't buy kabocha
just because I didn't want
to cut it.
But it's one of my
favorite vegetables.
So see?
I'm even wearing
a kabocha today.
Any other tricks you
might want to know?
AUDIENCE: For a
regular home cook,
how often do you
sharpen your tools?
SONOKO SAKAI: How often?
Well, I have a husband
who's a sculptor, right?
So he's like, oh god.
I can't believe how you
take care of your tools.
And I would say, because I
teach classes, every week.
Every week.
And mine are all carbon steel.
I bought a stainless steel one.
But they're Japanese--
old Japanese knives.
So I do have to take care
of them to keep them sharp.
But too sharp is
not good, right?
Because the blunt is not good.
I think it's--
sharpening is important.
But also taking care of it every
day, wiping it after each use.
Because I notice
that a lot of time
when people come to my cooking
classes, they'll cut something
and they just leave it there.
And it's-- one of the things you
do is you have a towel, right?
A wet towel and a dry towel.
And you wipe it
with a wet towel.
And you finish it
with a dry towel.
AUDIENCE: I wanted to
point out that a lot
of cuisine-specific books have
maybe 10, 20 pages dedicated
to like, here's the pantry,
here's the ingredients.
But your book very
much talked-- so it
has an entire maybe third
of the book I think,
is completely dedicated to
just the Japanese pantry.
SONOKO SAKAI: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Why-- why
is there so much
more focus on the
pantry for your book?
SONOKO SAKAI: Because I think
for most cooks in America,
I always felt like the
pantry was a mystery.
And you go to a Japanese
market and you already
feel like you're lost,
because you can't
understand the ingredients.
You'll see miso-- like,
you asked about the miso.
There's so many misos.
What is a white miso?
What is a red miso?
And I thought, well,
you know, I'm not--
I don't want to write
an encyclopedia.
But I do want to guide
my students to the pantry
so that you have
some background and--
yeah.
I mean, same with like, Italian
cuisine or Persian cuisine.
You always want to
understand the pantry
of those distinct cuisines,
because without understanding
it, you just don't know how much
to use or how to store them.
Like a lot of times, my
students take the bonito.
They open it and they
leave it in their pantry.
No.
Once you open it,
it's going to oxidize.
You have to put it in that
fridge or freezer, otherwise,
it will go brow--
it would just rot, basically.
It would just absorb
the oxygen. And it
won't be flaky like that.
Same with nori.
You open the package, you've
got to close it right away.
So these are little--
you know, little
instructions that I--
pointers that I give
to you so that you
know what to do when you come
across these ingredients,
because storage is
very important too.
And I basically
learned by watching
my mother and my grandma.
You know, they just
do it without even--
I just say oh, that's
what they're doing.
And I just remember from memory.
And it was very important
for me to share that part
of my kitchen experience.
AUDIENCE: Well, give a
great round of applause
for Sonoko Sakai for
coming out tonight.
SONOKO SAKAI: Thank
you very much.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
