We had junior high school students stay at our house yesterday and today. They are from a city and they wanted to experience life in the countryside.
We cooked together, worked in the garden, and did mochi pounding.
Working in the garden and mochi pounding sound like Satoyama experience, but why cooking?
Yes, it is surprising, isn’t it? Cooking is cooking whether you live in a city or the countryside, and yet a lot of young people don’t learn how to cook at home and they don’t eat a lot of Japanese dishes in many households these days, especially in cities. Therefore learning how to cook Japanese dishes can be a Satoyama experience now.
We made a tofu dish seasoned with dashi, mirin, soy sauce, and brown sugar, which is a local cuisine in Shiga, side dishes of boiled seasoned vegetables, burdock and carrot seasoned with mirin, brown sugar, and soy sauce, and natto wrapped in fried tofu.
These are nattos in fried tofu.