2016.10.19

It was fine and hot.

After work I went to Nihombashi (日本橋) to attend a seminar by my ex-colleague who is a Vegetable sommelier. Today's theme is chestnut. Chestnut is kuri (栗) in Japanese.
Its season is from August to October.
Last year around this time she brought cooked chestnut with inner skin called Shibukawani (渋皮煮) to the office, and it was very tasty. Last month I happened to see Shibukawani cooking program on TV which reminded me of her. When I wrote her last, I mentioned about it and asked her to invite me when she has a lesson about chestnut and compares different chestnuts.  She was about to have it, and I joined tonight.

This was the first time for me to attend her class. It cost yen 3,100 for two hours with chestnut tasting and a bag of chestnut. There were four (two males and two females) participants including me. All of them were her ex-colleagues at different companies.

First there was a lecture about chestnut such as ingredient or characteristic, and the ways of cooking.  They contain zinc. If you lack zinc, you will have a problem of tasting.

Next we thought of the menu to take zinc.

Then we cooked kurikinton (栗きんとん) which is a sweets made of chestnuts with sugar.

Finally we ate five different dishes (boiled chestnuts, steamed chestnuts with rice, cooked chestnuts with vegetables in seasoned broth, Shibukawani, and Kurikinton) of four kinds of chestnuts, namely Farmer Kato's original, Tsukuba (筑波), Arima(有馬), and Banseiguri(晩生栗).
Original chestnuts were three to four times bigger than the smallest Arima.
I liked Shibukawani best.

It was an interesting experience!