An 80-Year-Old Japanese Grandma Taught Us How To Cook | Tokyo
We were taught how to make traditional Japanese food by an 80-year-old Japanese Grandma! Adam's first day in Tokyo was spent treating Alun to (one of) the best birthday presents he's ever received. If you're a fan of Japanese cuisine and you've wondered how to make onigiri, or whether Alun can make onigiri better than Adam can, the answers lie within... Oishi!
Speaking of delicious, Adam also shares a story from the famous farm involving an old sheep, dog food, and some sweet, sweet revenge. And if he had the chance, he would do it again! Support the show and access the Lost & Found section, as we discuss what it's like eating out in Tokyo.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tripologypodcast
Submit your travel stories here: https://www.tripologypodcast.com/talesofatrip
Gran-Musubi cooking class: https://www.instagram.com/gran_musubi
Need travel insurance? We recommend SafetyWing! Click here to get started: https://safetywing.com/?referenceID=26035801&utm_source=26035801&utm_medium=Ambassador
Require an onward flight? Please use this fantastic flight rental service: https://onwardticket.com/tripologypodcast
Discord: https://discord.gg/yccRBh8fX
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tripologypodcast/
X: https://x.com/tripologypod
Thank you, as always, for your continued support. It means the world.
Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:00] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology Podcasts. It's a backpacking show where two best friends get together and talk about all the travel that they've been doing. I'm Alan and I'm here with the ever generous Adam.
Adam:
[0:14] I think you said Tripology Podcasts by mistake. Podcasts. But we're going to roll with it.
Alun:
[0:18] We roll with that sort of thing because if we were doing a feline-based rehabilitation podcast for the cat community, what would we call it.
Adam:
[0:28] We'd call it tripology
Alun:
[0:29] Podcast exactly.
Adam:
[0:30] You a dog person or a cat
Alun:
[0:32] Person i prefer canines from a pet perspective but i have been known to work in wildlife rehabilitation particularly focused on the feline community i had a baby ocelot in the amazon jungle a lot of listeners don't know that about me and i briefly a lot of.
Adam:
[0:46] Listeners might not know what an ocelot is
Alun:
[0:48] An ocelot is a type of very sleek very wonderful jungle cat when i had my baby ocelot he was about the size of half of a 30-centimeter ruler. And I also worked with a margai.
Adam:
[1:06] I've never heard of that.
Alun:
[1:07] A margai is another type of jungle cat. And I also, very briefly, had an encounter with a rehabilitating jaguar.
Adam:
[1:17] But I didn't- What was the jaguar rehabilitating?
Alun:
[1:22] A human my boss.
Adam:
[1:25] Who used to be
Alun:
[1:26] Scratched up like high heaven because living.
Adam:
[1:29] In the jungle for too long.
Alun:
[1:30] Yeah no no i couldn't work with the jaguar because he used to mess people up.
Adam:
[1:34] Oh really yeah how big was the
Alun:
[1:36] Jaguar as big as a jaguar almost.
Adam:
[1:38] That's like a medium-sized dog
Alun:
[1:40] No bigger much bigger much bigger his head was the size of a pit bull's head, okay but the body also medium-sized three Alsatians he was big the Jaguar mate.
Adam:
[1:52] Uh that is
Alun:
[1:53] Scary yeah yeah he was scary um his name was Benny which is not a scary name no it's quite cute but it was spelt with an i b-e-n-i which is undeniably more scary than Benny with a y, yeah probably probably I think we can all agree.
Adam:
[2:10] But I'm I don't really like that question are you a dog person are you a cat person because I like both, actually. If you put a gun to my head.
Alun:
[2:19] Yeah, I came to Japan thinking that the Japanese were probably cat people.
Adam:
[2:23] Right.
Alun:
[2:24] And I've since realized that they're actually small dog people.
Adam:
[2:27] Yeah, they like specifically small dogs.
Alun:
[2:29] Really small dogs.
Adam:
[2:30] Yeah, it's all we've seen, actually. And they're pushing them around in pushchairs, in prams.
Alun:
[2:34] That happens sometimes, yeah. And you think, wow, what an ugly baby. Oh, no, wait, it's a dog.
Adam:
[2:42] I don't do you think that'll exist in the is that an Asian thing sort of East thing versus West are we ever going to see the streets of London or any European city You know, let's leave the US out of this pushing their pet dogs around in a pram
Alun:
[2:56] I think it definitely happens in the US already. I know what I think actually my honest answer is we live in such a global multicultural melting pot. There's not even any such things an Asian thing anymore. Everything belongs to the global world and, I don't know if I believe that, but what I do believe is that every little aspect of culture has been done in all cultures by someone at some point. That's what I think. There was a time where people would see a firework and think that's a Chinese thing. No one thinks that anymore. There's a time where people see people pushing small dogs in prams. I think that's a Japanese thing. Not going to be the case anymore. So it's just the way it is, mate. Backwards baseball caps. That's an American thing. I just saw the other day someone from the Middle East doing it. Can you believe it?
Adam:
[3:40] I can't and I don't. I'm still here in Japan. I'm wearing red. This is kind of a soft exit from my Arsenal shirt from a couple of episodes ago. It's still red. It's still showing support for my team. It's still showing... Actually, I've created what looks like the Japanese flag if you weren't in the shop.
Alun:
[3:56] Yeah, well, I look like a stain on the Japanese flag, don't I, from that perspective?
Adam:
[4:01] That's what that person down the shop said.
Alun:
[4:02] Yeah. Well, there you go. You win some, and then sometimes in the same breath, you lose some.
Adam:
[4:08] You would have understood if you spoke Japanese. But anyway...
Alun:
[4:11] I called you generous.
Adam:
[4:12] You did. You did call me generous. Why? Because it was your birthday recently. Yes. And I don't know if getting you a birthday gift on your birthday is generous.
Alun:
[4:21] No, it's quite generous, because I didn't get you a birthday gift, for example, on your last birthday.
Adam:
[4:26] But I also wasn't in the same country.
Alun:
[4:28] And I texted you and said...
Adam:
[4:30] You said, I'm sorry, Adam, I know it's your birthday.
Alun:
[4:32] But...
Adam:
[4:33] But I didn't get you anything this year Because you're very difficult to buy for
Alun:
[4:38] I think that's nice To receive a text Because a lot of people didn't even text me on my birthday this year Didn't they? Some people who I like a lot I didn't hear from them.
Adam:
[4:47] Do you think that's because of your age?
Alun:
[4:49] I think it's because I'm unpopular There were some people who were my best friends, There are people in the category of best friend for whom I didn't receive a message.
Adam:
[4:58] But I don't hold that against people. If people don't wish me a happy birthday, I mean, the numbers have gone down since I'm now 36.
Alun:
[5:05] That is the case, isn't it?
Adam:
[5:06] Yeah, I think so.
Alun:
[5:06] The number of people go down.
Adam:
[5:08] Ten years ago, I think I counted one year, 240 messages, something like that.
Alun:
[5:12] Yeah, back when Facebook would really advertise that shit.
Adam:
[5:15] If it wasn't for Facebook, you would never know. No. But it was someone's birthday. And it only takes 10 seconds to write a quick happy birthday.
Alun:
[5:21] It does. HB, someone once said to me, i would rather you didn't bother.
Adam:
[5:26] Hb ad and kiss
Alun:
[5:28] If someone if someone messaged you on your birthday hb at that point honestly please don't message me.
Adam:
[5:36] Don't take the time yeah please channel that one second yeah but um no i i did think it was important for us to do something and we did say on a previous episode a couple of episodes ago that when i'm in japan we may well do a cooking class together so you are quite a good cook actually i do believe that i think you know how to cook what you like to cook very well
Alun:
[5:59] And possessive i'm very.
Adam:
[6:01] Practical yeah
Alun:
[6:02] Very practical and i think that is cooking is nothing if not the marrying of, art with practicality in the culinary.
Adam:
[6:11] Realm you do the maximum output from the least amount of moves that's true you're very efficient around the kitchen oh yeah and before you know it everything's back on the shelf totally dry.
Alun:
[6:20] Yeah, I don't want to leave a mess. No. And my mum taught me that.
Adam:
[6:24] LAUGHTER But I'd only been in the country for, it wasn't even 24 hours, was it? Because I arrived in the evening.
Alun:
[6:34] It was the first thing you did. You said, I've got a surprise for you. Come with me.
Adam:
[6:37] Yeah, so what Alan didn't know, we are sometimes arranging things without the other person knowing. But what's difficult with that is when there's a birthday on the horizon and we've just seen each other for the first time in a year, there is a chance that I'm arranging something for him and he's arranging something for me at the very same time. You had a shift at 7-Eleven that morning.
Alun:
[6:56] Where I work.
Adam:
[6:57] Yeah, which could have caused confusion. You said, look, I've got this thing I need to do. I've been called into work for just one hour. It's a tutorial at 7- Eleven, and I'll be free about midday. And I said, that's great, because I've booked us something as a surprise for you in the afternoon, all the way over in Ginza. I think you're going to really enjoy it.
Alun:
[7:18] Yes exactly now it was you so by that fact alone i assumed it was something to do with either alcohol or food.
Adam:
[7:31] I hate that there'll be people listening to this who go probably say alcohol at the same time as
Alun:
[7:35] You yeah i think you know what though sometimes one of the greatest gifts a man can give someone else is the benefit of their knowledge right and i one of the things i love about you being here. Because some people will know this experience. Sometimes when a friend comes to stay for a long time, you're obviously overjoyed to see them. But it's also... it's like it's a disruption of your daily routine of course because like now suddenly the whole life's different because your friends like with you all the time, but and i welcome that disruption and i also think one of the loveliest things about it is i now have someone in close proximity to my life who knows an awful lot about food so that aspect of decision making is completely elided, gone from my day. I just go, Adam's in charge of the food. We're at the supermarket, Adam picks the ingredients. We're walking along the street, Adam picks the restaurant. We look at a menu, Adam does that. And I do everything else. And that's nice.
Adam:
[8:40] I knew there was no way this was only going to be, you know, positive. Yeah.
Alun:
[8:43] But no, it is good though. I like that aspect of our friendship.
Adam:
[8:48] It's a good dynamic. And I'm sure if you're listening to this now, you've got a friend in mind, or maybe it's even you, that is the person who chooses the food. I did say on a voice note recently to someone that I don't understand people who travel extensively, probably in a similar capacity to the way we travel. And they're not interested in food. for me travel and food are and food culture are one in the same
Alun:
[9:13] Some of my favorite people are people who are really interested in food the very first person that i traveled with by my travel mentor in many ways he was similar to you very interested in food, i love food but i'm not an expert in it and i find it some maybe a little bit, intimidating in some ways to to like i don't like to throw my weight around feeling like I know a lot about food. So I love traveling with people who are massively interested because I can just get to try all the foods without having to go on the Wikipedia articles.
Adam:
[9:45] Yeah, I think that you're more knowledgeable than most people and you're probably more adventurous than most people.
Alun:
[9:50] Definitely more adventurous than most, yeah. There's almost nothing I won't eat except for that brief stint in India as a vegetarian.
Adam:
[9:58] Yeah but then it's about you know path of least resistance yeah conforming to society yeah
Alun:
[10:03] I was just conforming.
Adam:
[10:04] Wasn't i but it's an easy place to be a vegetarian
Alun:
[10:07] The easiest maybe.
Adam:
[10:08] Yeah and ethics do come into it etc etc etc but i do think if you are traveling and you're in a place that has a very strong cuisine in terms of its identity with lots of interesting flavors and textures and ingredients and all that sort of stuff get out your own way because even if you are a vegetarian or a vegan you might not be forever and then it's a missed opportunity it's
Alun:
[10:27] True how many vegetarians have you spoken to who have just let their principles erode over time and after a while they decide they don't care that much about the animals.
Adam:
[10:38] Yeah it happens it happens just the other night actually we went out for a little barbecue it's not going to be what the show's about but we went out for a little um yakini we went out for a little um you know we
Alun:
[10:48] Were you can say that.
Adam:
[10:52] Uh anyway the the restaurant setup is basically the same as a korean barbecue you've got a grill in the middle of the table you buy a load of meat you grill them yourself uh and the kitchen are just sitting there twiddling their thumbs but one of the one of the um meat choices that we went for was tongue
Alun:
[11:08] Yeah literally the organ used for speech yeah and we ate it.
Adam:
[11:14] And alan ate it and you liked it you actually said at one point in the meal you think it's your favorite
Alun:
[11:18] I think it was most interesting. I think one factor by which food can be judged is the level of interestingness that it has compared with the things you might eat day to day. It is a barometer that you can use.
Adam:
[11:31] Yeah, it was so tasty that it sort of makes you think, well, why don't people in the West eat tongue?
Alun:
[11:38] I feel that way about a lot of things that people don't eat in the West. I think organ meats should be much more readily consumed. The fact that people in the West just eat chicken breast, cow breast, turkey breast, and bacon, blows my mind.
Adam:
[11:53] Well, it's so far, A, it's not even the tastiest meat from the animal. And it's so far removed. from you know the process of killing the animal or anything i just don't think that people in the west want to think that it was once an animal because it will probably harm sales
Alun:
[12:08] I think that's why it's the most preferential i think the reason chicken breast is the most popular bit of the chicken is because it's the most divorced from the chicken itself.
Adam:
[12:17] Yeah yeah it's often the least flavorful it's the most dry if you don't cook it properly which i imagine a lot of people aren't as soon
Alun:
[12:23] As you deal in legs and wings and stuff like that you're dealing in bone and then it's harder to.
Adam:
[12:28] Extrapolate yeah and people don't like to chew things we also had another animal that is uh eaten in france actually oh yeah it was yeah you're right yeah good knowledge thanks mate um horse yeah we went to an izakaya a really busy little bar it was very very fun and the reason why we chose that restaurant and by we i mean me i chose the restaurant is because i saw a little cartoon drawing of a horse on the uh the board outside and that usually means that they sell what is called a basashi yeah which is uh horse which is
Alun:
[13:01] French for horse there was a um a famous scandal that happened in the uk a long while ago where basically it turned out that tesco's mints was horse meat.
Adam:
[13:10] Yeah, and I think the problem was with that, with the consumers, was not that they were eating horse. It's that they were eating horse when they were sold it as cow.
Alun:
[13:19] That is annoying, isn't it?
Adam:
[13:21] I wouldn't care.
Alun:
[13:22] Well, would you care if, for example, who was that hairdresser that started making pies out of people's flesh?
Adam:
[13:31] What?
Alun:
[13:32] Sweeney?
Adam:
[13:33] Sweeney Todd? Sweeney Todd?
Alun:
[13:34] He similar to tesco's was selling one product that was disguised as a much more commonly devoured product yeah he was selling meat pies but they were actually homo sapien pies.
Adam:
[13:49] I don't know if they're exactly the same
Alun:
[13:52] I would say that they similar business models in essence yeah would you have been upset consuming a sweeney todd pie probably there you go.
Adam:
[14:02] I would have said yeah
Alun:
[14:03] That's important that's.
Adam:
[14:04] My threshold yeah that's my
Alun:
[14:06] Limit for me too um.
Adam:
[14:07] But now that i know that you're open to eating horse there are some very interesting meats some rare meats that you can try and different animal body parts and animals and that sort of
Alun:
[14:17] Stuff i do have a line though as someone who works animal rehabilitation i wouldn't i don't think i would eat any animal that i've looked after in a professional capacity.
Adam:
[14:25] The same one or the same
Alun:
[14:26] Species same species.
Adam:
[14:28] Okay well that does rule out quite a few yeah I'll bear that in mind
Alun:
[14:33] I'd be a bit upset if you ate one of them in front of me okay because I've had such an emotional bond with a lot of animals yeah I think it'd be impossible to divorce the idea of that animal from the animal that I have loved.
Adam:
[14:48] Well, let me challenge you on that, because you've looked after sheep and you've helped delivered land.
Alun:
[14:54] Yeah, but I think we can all agree those sheep were fucking annoying. I wouldn't say we loved those sheep.
Adam:
[15:01] I loved a couple of them.
Alun:
[15:02] I don't. You should never do that.
Adam:
[15:07] I've got the same hair they have. I think that my experience in Canada with sheep, both on the farm that we met on and then also after that, I worked at a winery that had three lovely sheep as well that I bonded with. I used to describe them as sheep that had been, they were humans that had been transformed into sheep. They had very childlike personalities.
Alun:
[15:27] Everyone thought it was weird when you described them like that, incessantly.
Adam:
[15:31] But they were really, really funny and amazing, but it didn't stop. Actually, the family that I was working for, they stopped eating mutton and lamb as a result.
Alun:
[15:40] Did they?
Adam:
[15:40] Yeah, because they just couldn't, they were their own pets, in the same way that you wouldn't eat dog if you've got a pet dog.
Alun:
[15:45] I remember when there was that ram that you disliked on the farm.
Adam:
[15:49] My God, we're going to lose some listeners.
Alun:
[15:51] Yeah, well, this is a fact about Adam. It's one of the things you said that made me laugh early on. It made me realize that I liked you and thought you were funny. But there was a ram on the farm that you really disliked, and he went for you every time. He hated you, didn't he?
Adam:
[16:01] Yeah, well, I was delivering him his food, and he was in a pen with two ewes who were also aging. They were all about 12. Not me's who were aging. No, no. Female sheep who were sort of 12 to 14 years old. his name he was the ram he was the dominant he was the alpha male his name was pepperoni
Alun:
[16:19] Yeah which is a good name for an italian.
Adam:
[16:21] Yeah and um every time when i first arrived alan wasn't on the farm yet but i was very new to it i just wanted to do my job well every time i went to feed this sheep i jumped over the fence with his food and he would headbutt me to the floor
Alun:
[16:33] Right and then what.
Adam:
[16:34] Happened he goes flying when
Alun:
[16:35] He was eventually sent to slaughter.
Adam:
[16:39] Yeah, so we do a sort of long run-up here to give you a bit of context. The farm that we were working on, they raise lamb for meat.
Alun:
[16:48] And everything else was rescue.
Adam:
[16:49] Pretty much.
Alun:
[16:50] Basically, rescue donkeys, rescue horses, rescue dogs and bred dogs. But most of the animals were rescued, but the sheep, they were fair game.
Adam:
[16:58] That was the main business as well as breeding dogs. So it came to the time of year, it was roughly like nine, ten months in Canada when you send the lambs to slaughter. And because these sheep, the two ewes and the ram, were getting old, it was time for them to go as well. And they were going to be turned
into, processed with the lambs by the same abattoir, into dog meat. what to feed the dogs
Alun:
[17:21] Oh dog food dog food some people call it dog food some people call it dog meat.
Adam:
[17:26] Yeah meat for dogs yeah
Alun:
[17:27] And sell it in a pie ala sweeney todd.
Adam:
[17:30] So um they've got they had sort of eight or nine dogs at this point so they need a lot of food if you're going to process some sheep anyway you're getting rid of a couple from the farm you got to look at it for slightly different lens you know let's let's process the ones that are getting old anyway put them out their misery as it were the meat came back and the owner of the farm Japanese Jim from the previous episode yeah he was frying up some of the sheep meat the ram meat the ram meat for the dogs yeah and I happened to enter the kitchen just as he was frying the tongue funnily enough really yeah and uh some of the other some of the other meat the the eight or nine dogs were all sort of barking you know looking expectantly up at the up at the uh the counter waiting for this lovely sizzling mutton and i said oh what are you frying there he said oh it's funny enough it's summer pepperoni and i went hello yeah this is a good i had
Alun:
[18:23] A rumor that you've vengefully snatched that tongue from the pan.
Adam:
[18:28] Sweet sweet revenge yeah it is i can tell you it's a dish better served hot revenge served hot nice and fried get it in the pan with a bit of butter some salt and uh pepper i had the last laugh put it that way
Alun:
[18:41] Yeah you told me that story early on in our friendship and it made me realize what sort of a man you are and that's a man that's willing to do something that benefits no one for comedy effect and i thought i want to do a podcast with him, there isn't no one who's getting anything out of that interaction other than you getting the comedic satisfaction that a, If there was a consciousness after life, that ram would be thinking, drat.
Adam:
[19:13] Yeah, and maybe, you know, five, six years down the line, I've told it as a story on my podcast. There you go. And it will change people's opinion. But it was a little win for me. And it was tasty. It's tasty, guys. If you don't like mutton, eat it more.
Alun:
[19:26] All that to say, Adam took me to a cooking class for my birthday.
Adam:
[19:30] Yes. And we should go into a little bit of detail because it was really good fun. You had absolutely no idea. until we arrived at the address and we saw the sign of the board out the
Alun:
[19:38] Front which made navigating there hard because i've been our chief navigator here in tokyo because i live there yeah adam said it's near this coffee shop i had to navigate to the coffee shop we got there eventually saw the board and it dawned on me, that we were attending a cooking class a little bit of anxiety early on, so i sort of geared myself up just i thought you maybe you're taking me for a nice meal, and then suddenly i realized it was actually going to be a cooking class and i want to excel in situations like that rightly so and I feel sometimes like cooking maybe it was a vulnerable thing so I felt a little bit nervous yeah, Took a deep breath.
Adam:
[20:13] We entered the building.
Alun:
[20:14] Yeah, we ended the building.
Adam:
[20:15] And the first thing we saw actually was the table that had been set only for two people.
Alun:
[20:21] That's a good sign for me.
Adam:
[20:22] And there was two of us. So maybe some of the anxiety and the hesitation was actually because you thought you'd be cooking in front of a big group. Yeah. But when we realized the group was so small, it was just a private class.
Alun:
[20:32] That was nice.
Adam:
[20:32] I didn't organize that. No. That was just...
Alun:
[20:35] You didn't pay extra. You didn't buy everyone else out.
Adam:
[20:36] No.
Alun:
[20:37] There are 10 places available. You went, all right.
Adam:
[20:39] All the people outside were going to go in. I told them the sheep story. We don't fucking know. We're not cooking with him. And it was great, wasn't it? It was lovely. It was specifically like an onigiri musubi type cooking class. So these are little balls of rice wrapped in seaweed and then with various fillings.
Alun:
[20:56] Yeah, onigiri. Well, the opposite of a ball in many ways.
Adam:
[20:59] Yours were?
Alun:
[20:59] A triangle is the shape. So essentially, it's fluffy, fluffy rice with a filling in the middle. the rice encapsulates the filling is made into a triangle shape finished off with a wrapping of seaweed and then served lukewarm or even cold, and it's very very delicious i have them a lot um because i get them free from work, um and they're really good i have them often for lunch so, an aged but sweet woman taught us how to make them.
Adam:
[21:30] Yeah she's 80 years old it was funny wasn't Because the board outside, and also when you book this thing online, it does say something along the lines of traditional Japanese cooking class with 80-year-old grandma.
Alun:
[21:42] I got the impression, much like you... people think that she's younger than she is and she's used to people being surprised when she reveals that she's 80 yeah she did the whole thing of like oh can you guess how well you do it a lot as
well can you guess how old i am expecting a lower answer and you went she's 80 i saw it on the board and she was like oh i am ac it.
Adam:
[22:04] Says that does it all
Alun:
[22:05] Right well okay i'll change that oh.
Adam:
[22:07] Yeah but there's certain technique we were given uh to start off with all of the fillings which we were told to
Alun:
[22:12] Taste. There was spicy cod roe, salmon, there was kelp, there was beef, there was a pickled plum.
Adam:
[22:22] And I think the last one was the baby sardines.
Alun:
[22:25] Little baby sardines.
Adam:
[22:27] Yeah, it was great. So we tried each one individually. We decided what we wanted the fillings to be and then we also had a big bowl of steaming rice. You needed a refill.
Alun:
[22:36] Yeah, I used too much of that rice.
Adam:
[22:38] Well, it depends. Subjective.
Alun:
[22:39] Well, that is it because my onigiri. There's a moment in the onigiri making process where once you've encapsulated the filling deep within the rice, you then have to shape it. The way she shaped it was so meticulous. It reminded me very much of my own grandma making Polish pierogi. Very mechanical with the hands, very, specific in the motion and a triangle shape emerged from her manipulation of the rice the moment i saw her do it i knew that i was going to be good at it and indeed with my own onagiri a perfect triangle emerged.
Adam:
[23:19] Yeah it was as if you'd been doing it for years thank you i think you were making onagiri or musubi in a previous life
Alun:
[23:25] I looked at her as it was as i became confident that it was doing it well i looked to her like come on.
Adam:
[23:32] She could They both couldn't believe it. Yeah. They saw your first attempt. So they showed us, well, the grandma showed us how to do it. And, you know, it looked effortless for her.
Alun:
[23:41] It was beautiful to watch her do it.
Adam:
[23:42] She's made thousands. You kind of flip it round, press it, flip it round, press it. Only a couple of times.
Alun:
[23:46] She did it in a bit of a flourish, didn't she?
Adam:
[23:48] But you mimicked exactly what she did. And I would argue you got a better result.
Alun:
[23:52] Thank you.
Adam:
[23:53] She said, Majide?
Alun:
[23:55] Yeah. She couldn't believe it. Which means, holy fuck, in Japanese.
Adam:
[24:00] Who is this on a Geary Ninja? but I was really proud of you actually thanks man because you'd already said you don't really like doing things that you're not good at immediately no
Alun:
[24:10] I like to practice.
Adam:
[24:11] You were great immediately you were churning out unbelievable results
Alun:
[24:15] I started making, she offered me a job she said do you want to work here I said don't speak Japanese, she said we'll figure it out don't worry about that.
Adam:
[24:24] And then so we sat down, we'd finished, I was embarrassed of what I was doing no
Alun:
[24:29] Yours was good, this is the problem She said, don't compress the rice too much, you know, keep it fluffy. In order to achieve a perfect result, I did compress. You tried not to compress, and as a result, They were a little less finished.
Adam:
[24:44] Yeah. I mean, my onigiri, they looked, they maybe looked like as you would expect, as if someone's never done it before.
Alun:
[24:52] Maybe. They're less uniform.
Adam:
[24:54] Yeah. They were all the same size. They were. And yours?
Alun:
[24:59] One of mine looked like I'd just been greedy.
Adam:
[25:03] I think that we could tell that you were hungry. I used a lot of rice. Yeah. They needed to go back to the kitchen. And I think it was actually the next group. it was their rice that we had to take in order to you know make sure you had enough to make your second
Alun:
[25:14] Onigiri well there's a picture of the onigiri on the screen now yeah and you can make your own mind up as to who's who's, using the information that we provided. I mean, maybe it's clearly obvious.
Adam:
[25:29] We did know that we were going to make three with the rice. I think you went in there forgetting that detail, as if you were only going to make one monster.
Alun:
[25:35] Did you do all three with one session of rice? No, she topped you up a little bit, didn't she? No. That is a shame.
Adam:
[25:42] But I'm quite good like that. I'm a Virgo, so I'm quite good at looking at something and rationing.
Alun:
[25:46] Whereas I'm a Gemini, so I'm a horrendous, manipulative, two-faced.
Adam:
[25:53] So that was fantastic We put that to one side I saw that
Alun:
[25:55] Onigiri class as a free rice farming opportunity.
Adam:
[25:59] We were We were really proud and having a great time It was a great interaction between us and the woman Who was translating She's lovely by the way, I put the link in the description for their cooking class You should absolutely do it And then we were told That that wasn't the only thing we were going to eat And that they had actually made us lunch
Alun:
[26:16] Oh yeah By the way, the onigiri we made would have sufficed.
Adam:
[26:20] Yeah but the course probably would have been a fraction of the cost right about:blank 26/47
6/14/26, 3:17 PM TRIPOLOGY FINAL MIX WIDE
yeah i think a lot of the budget goes towards the amazing meal that then ensued she brought
Alun:
[26:30] It out on a tray.
Adam:
[26:31] A couple of trays tempura multiple pieces miso soup miso soup was there a couple of other dishes little regional classics it was wonderful
Alun:
[26:40] It was a lot of.
Adam:
[26:41] Food it was too much food for me me and
Alun:
[26:43] You saw it very much as an.
Adam:
[26:45] Obligation potato salad in there as well one of your
Alun:
[26:47] Favorite things we saw it as an obligation we've both been raised to finish our plates haven't we.
Adam:
[26:53] Yeah yeah i have i have certainly although my grandma another 80 year old yeah she said to me you should always leave the table feeling like you could have eaten more
Alun:
[27:05] That's good advice my grandma said if you leave the table feeling like you.
Adam:
[27:09] You won't see tomorrow you're a grateful little prick yeah
Alun:
[27:13] In poland they say that a problem child is the one that doesn't finish their dinner.
Adam:
[27:18] Well we heard on a few episodes ago when i gave you the old um japanese tripping point there was a section at the end where we spoke about some japanese proverbs do you
Alun:
[27:26] Remember the word for someone who doesn't eat their home dinner.
Adam:
[27:29] No do you no well we'll find it we'll find it off air we'll have to leave that a mystery but it's clearly something that comes from okinawa in the south of japan people that are healthy probably have that mindset the
Alun:
[27:40] Idea is that you should always finish eating 80 full.
Adam:
[27:44] Yes yeah there should always be a little bit more room and therefore maybe you'll stay healthier and slimmer and that sort of stuff but with us i don't know if we were trying to get our money's worth i don't know if it's because we didn't eat anything in the morning i don't know if it was because we had the arsenal match and an evening of drinking and sightseeing um you know shortly after yeah but we finished every single thing
Alun:
[28:05] And at some point we started to get anxious we asked her we said is it common for people to eat everything and she went no fear in her eyes as if we were sort of demonic creatures sent to ruin her business.
Adam:
[28:20] You'll be two of the first yeah actually it's
Alun:
[28:22] Never happened before.
Adam:
[28:23] Um i didn't feel like there was a competitiveness between us two
Alun:
[28:27] No no no we were.
Adam:
[28:28] Comrades what i did notice though little observation oh about me about us both we ate things in a different order
Alun:
[28:36] It's an interesting give me the give me more data.
Adam:
[28:39] So i went for what was hot first
Alun:
[28:42] So did i you did.
Adam:
[28:44] In terms of the soup but i think the things that you left was actually the tempura i think those were the last things you ate
Alun:
[28:49] They weren't hot were they to start with.
Adam:
[28:51] Yeah yeah they would have been were they yeah well they would have been lukewarm maybe like
Alun:
[28:55] I think she fried yours after mine so mine had already gone cold weather time they brought out.
Adam:
[28:59] We made the mistake of leaving the onagiri until about halfway through the meal when we were probably satisfied in terms of our hunger
Alun:
[29:06] Just thinking about that now i thought we sort of did as well as each other to finish all that food but my onigiri were three or four times the size of yours.
Adam:
[29:15] Yeah we've both got very good appetites i
Alun:
[29:17] Think i would say so yeah it's one of another thing i like about you you take three times as long to eat the same amount of food but we you do eat the same amount of food.
Adam:
[29:24] Yeah well three times as long for anything that's quite quite consistent across every aspect of my life yeah i'll tell you take a long time to do literally everything yeah um what's that
Alun:
[29:34] Well just there's some things that you want to take a long time to do and some things not.
Adam:
[29:39] Um i'm patient but uh but it was wonderful and i did feel like um it was a good birthday present
Alun:
[29:46] Oh mate i was actually want to say this is one of my favorite birthday presents that anyone's ever gotten me oh i actually had such a blast oh that's so good yeah i think it was so generous and beautiful and kind and lovely and one of those birthday presents which is like, the perfect thing for you to have gotten me yes you know it like lined up exactly because if someone else had gotten me that, i would have wanted to take you right i mean it was like that is a perfect thing that i wanted to do with you yeah and you got it for me understanding that it would be something i enjoyed yeah it was perfect it was like absolutely ideal.
Adam:
[30:20] No i'm very
Alun:
[30:21] Glad no i really appreciate.
Adam:
[30:22] It was like when someone buys you tickets to go and see an artist that they like themselves in the hope that
Alun:
[30:28] They take you. But I would like that if... i because because i enjoy doing things with people that they enjoy yeah for me there's like a part of my potential unenjoyment of an activity is being with someone that's not enjoying it as much
as i am, i wouldn't have a good time going if someone bought me a ticket to see an artist that i liked and they didn't but they were going to come with me that would ruin my enjoyment of the thing to some extent.
Adam:
[30:55] No i think probably a lot of people would be with you on
Alun:
[30:56] That yeah so i enjoyed it it was just like a beautiful beautiful day.
Adam:
[31:00] All right well on that note
Alun:
[31:02] Let's go to a little sexy little time that we call patreon because we do a show after the show on there don't we we.
Adam:
[31:08] Do it's a continuation the gloves are off
Alun:
[31:10] Frankly to you guys adam's taking the time to put a link in the description of this show, and it takes you straight to our patreon section so even if you have no intention of going there and spending just a small amount of money for what is undeniably a great product go and click on the link just to say thank you to
adam for taking the time to put it in there.
Adam:
[31:28] Yeah, and for hygiene reasons, we were wearing gloves when we were making these on Aguirre. We didn't think they were necessary because we have very clean hands and we want to feel in touch with the food. We've been to India. We've eaten with our hands. We know the technique. Yeah. But the gloves are off in the Patreon section. The lost and found. It all gets a little bit wide.
Alun:
[31:41] I was hoping you'd tie it back to that. We'll see you over there.
Adam:
[31:44] Cheers, guys. Bye-bye. Bye.
