Lebanese Cooking Class

One of the really cool things that CHIC offers here is cooking classes. Each semester there are always several classes to take, from Japanese to Chinese to Thai to Indian. Usually there are a few other cooking classes being offered that have to take just to see what they are all about, like Lebanese, Persian and Dominican.

Today I went to a Lebanese cooking class. The food was fantastic and the recipes were ones that I actually could make at home. Our teacher was this cute little lady from Lebanon, who has lived with her family in Japan for 20 years.
We learned how to make several Lebanese dishes.

Fattouch - Lebanese Salad made with lettuce, tomato, peppers, radishes, purple onion, mint leaves, parsley, cress and pita bread croutons. The dressing lemony balsamic. Very easy and delicious.


We then made homemade hummus and baba ghanoush. I have never had homemade hummus but it was very simple and so delicious. Baba ghanoush is a creamed eggplant dish. Surprisingly, I really liked it.

The main dish was Riz Be Djaj. This is a chicken rice dish, with ground beef added. I was surprised that the main spice in this dish was cinnamon. On top was slivered almonds and pine nuts. It wasn't as easy to make as the rest of the dishes, but I think I may be able to do it on my own.

We also learned how to make a cucumber yogurt sauce, similar to what you would get with a gyro. I already have plans to make this sauce over the weekend.

For dessert we had a Lebanese Semolina Cake. I would describe it as a sweet cornbread, with walnuts. Different, yet good.
Here was our lunch.

Next week I have signed up for a Chinese cooking class. I can't wait.

Holy Big Sandwich

Serving sizes in Japan tend to be way smaller that what we are used to in the United States. If you order pasta it is usually what us American's would consider a "side dish". If you order a sandwich, you are lucky if it has two small slivers of meat, usually of the ham nature.

Today I met up with some people for lunch at Mother Moon Cafe down in Sannomiya. It is this cute little cafe that serves pastas, pizzas, salads, soups and sandwiches and has a broken English menu of sorts. Gaijins really like this place. Imagine our surprise when we were handed a brand new menu that had different items than what we have seen before. Change isn't easily welcomed when we find a system that works for us non-Japanese speakers/readers.

I have never seen a roast beef sandwich offered here so I decided to throw caution to the wind and see what this sandwich was all about. Needless to say I was excited beyond words when I received a tiny bowl of soup, fried potatoes (Japanese version of french fries), and two halves that looked like this:

I know most of you are looking at this and thinking "Umm, okay. What is the big deal?" But you see, not only is this REAL roast beef, but it is layers upon layers of HUGE pieces of meat on ciabatta bread. The sandwich was literally so big my mouth couldn't bite the whole thing.

I couldn't eat both pieces, and there was no way I was letting this little gem go. See, doggie bags aren't exactly known here. So what was a girl to do? Wrap it in paper, stick it in her purse, and haul it around town of course. It arrived home a little smashed, and my purse has a faint smell of dead cow, but you would have done the same thing.

I guess sometimes change is good.