A Day in Paris

Monday, November 22, 2004

Comme Des Poissons

Today I had another cooking class. This time it was a class in sushi preparation. I have never eaten so much raw fish (or cooked fish for that matter) in my whole life -- and I've been to Japan! The owner and chef of the restaurant Comme Des Poissons, 24 rue de la Tour, 75116, held a special cooking class today. He teaches cooking classes in Japanese and one of his regulars is a friend. She translated everything from Japanese to English for a bunch of us. It was great fun.
We started by watching him make miso soup. I've loved miso soup since I was a kid and my family would eat at Gasho for special occasions. The miso soup today was delicious and really, not that difficult to make. I took all the left over soup home with me. Thanks everybody!
We also watched as the chef made a cucumber salad with seaweed. Really good as well. We then started to eat the soup and salad while he made some California rolls. Then it was our turn. There was a lot of laughing as people tried to make their own California rolls. It's not as easy as it looks. Here is a picture of the rolls I made versus the professional rolls. Can you guess which is which?

Before we ate the sashimi: tuna, salmon, eel, mackerel, sole, shrimp and all the California rolls he gave us a little lesson on how to eat the foods the correct way. The wasabi (horseradish sauce) should be dabbed on the fish or roll -- NEVER --put the wasabi into the soy sauce. He says that's what Americans do and they use far too much sauce (he took my sauce away and poured most of it out, but I've always considered myself a condiment girl). When eating sashimi, you dip on the fish side, not the rice side (too much soy sauce is absorbed and you can't taste the flavor of the fish). After you are done, always lay your chop sticks parallel in front of you with points pointing left. The best part of the day is that we got lots of left over California rolls so I don't need to make dinner. Well, except for my children ...

-- said Auntie M in Paris
3:50 PM

6 comments

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Comments:

Does that mean hubby went hungry? Or does the fish loather now eat fish and raw fish at that.

the brother-in-law

# posted by Anonymous : 8:19 PM

Good point. Well, I foolishly thought that he would eat the California rolls. He ate 4 or so. He didn't touch the miso soup or cucumber and seaweed salad. I saw breadcrumbs on his plate. I think he took the baguette from the kids.

# posted by Auntie M in Paris : 8:38 PM

I ate more than 4 thank you very much. Granted I didn't make it to the cucumber and seaweed salad yet, but geez come on ... And the crumbs were from the little pretty one eating cake over my plate. A baguette from the kids ... sheesh. Cheap shots.

The hubby

# posted by Anonymous : 10:12 PM

while eating fish may have adapted by the hubby, i will stead fastly refuse to eat raw tomatoes...

the brother-in-law

# posted by Anonymous : 3:25 PM

that's strange that you shouldn't mix your wasabi with the soy sauce - even japanese do it!

# posted by zoe : 10:46 AM

Zoe,
I've always mixed by wasabi and soy sauce, but I wasn't going to argue with the guy. I'll have to ask my friend if she agrees. The Chef has lived in France for 25 years. Maybe he's out of touch with what people do now.

# posted by Auntie M in Paris : 10:55 AM