Submitted on: 08-04-2010, Visits:119

Experiencing a destination’s cuisine can be as easy as strolling through markets or hopping from one restaurant to another.

Add a regional cooking class to the mix, and you get to revisit your trip every time you recreate the dishes in your own kitchen.

Rachel Belle Krampfner investigates hands-on lessons in Japan’s culinary capitals.

When I travel, I like to see the world through my taste buds. The pulsing neon lights of Osaka’s Dotombori district dim when I’m toting a plate of hot-off-the-grill takoyaki, the city’s signature octopus dumplings served street side by competing vendors.

The city of Yokohama is a symphony of slurping as ramen lovers hang their heads over steaming bowls of slippery noodles.

In Tokyo, the freshest raw fish is expertly sliced and served for breakfast at the bustling Tsukiji Market.

But after you’ve tasted a city and strolled its colorful markets, the next logical step for a true food lover is to roll up your sleeves and get into the kitchen. In Tokyo and Kyoto there are a variety of English-language cooking classes, where travelers can spend an evening chopping and simmering with a seasoned home cook or a day in a professional kitchen learning the art of from-scratch soba noodles.

Mariko’s Kitchen - Kyoto
4,000 yen per person (about $44)

After spending several nights in a cramped hostel dorm room, Mariko’s warm, spacious home kitchen was a welcoming sight. Her focus is on fresh, seasonal ingredients and Kyoto homestyle cuisine and her small classes create a friendly and personal atmosphere.

We prepared homemade dashi, a fish and seaweed stock, which was transformed into a simmering soup, an addictive rice dish studded with chicken, local tofu and vegetables, a broiled fish course and a spinach sesame salad. As we crushed sesame seeds with a traditional Japanese style mortal and pestle, the sweet and soft-spoken Mariko answered our never-ending questions about Japanese cuisine and culture and sent us off with the recipes and a list of recommended bars and restaurants in the area. That is, after a dessert of slick persimmon slices and hot tea around her family’s kitchen table.

For more information, visit www.marikokitchen.blogspot.com or email marikokitchen @ gmail.com.