While spending a few weeks in a city on the countryside where I lived a few years ago, I looked for a very particular experience in Japan: I asked a friend to help me find a sushi restaurant who would put a foreigner to work for a few days. My friend, M. Ekida, introduce me to the Uchida family, who owns a famous sushi restaurant in Masuda. So early in September, I started working at Sushi Mai, which means the dancing sushi.
The very heart-warming grand mother Keiko, her 2 sons, Hiro and Teruo as well as Chibo, the uncle, take care of the business. To this add two cute waitresses Haruka and Kaai, plus a kind lady Sazae to complete the team. My contract was simple enough: for a week, I would help in the kitchen in exchange for a few meals and some cooking tips. The restaurant is very traditional, a few closed rooms with low tables and no chairs, plus a counter with a sushi bar, with delivery also available. You probably have guessed that my Japanese would be put to it’s limit as no one there speak a word of French or English. I wanted to learn the secrets to Japanese cooking as well as practice my Japanese. I was well served.
Monday morning, 8am, Teruo and I are on our way to the restaurant. The little truck contains a few fish bought much earlier, before I had even woken up at the city’s fish market. Once arrived, I am impressed by how clean the kitchen is, well equipped, everything in order, exactly how I would wish every restaurant to be. The first few days, Hiro, the youngest son, gave me a rough indication of how they prepare, soups, bases, tempuras and tamagoyakis. I felt guilty that he spent so much time with me, so I tried to compensate by washing more dishes. Teruo had to stay in bed, he caught the influenza flu. My next lesson was to make Nigiri.
For those unfamiliar with sushi, nigiri is a slice of raw fish with a bit of wasabi on top of a bun of rice. It seems like an easy task, but of the 80 I prepared all week, I am not sure I made more then two or three correctly. I became much pickier after eating my own creation, realizing how much better the master pieces of Chibo are. This is just about making the rice shape, cutting the fish is another story.
Kenji, the father, who sometimes came to the restaurant, invited me to a fishing night. I left the restaurant earlier one night and went with him and a few of his friends to catch some Ayu, a small fish that I ate for lunch that same day. At dusk they used long net and light to catch almost a hundred fish in a small river not very far form the restaurant. It was interesting to see and finished late at night with some sushi I made and a few drinks which dramatically improved my Japanese.
Thursday, Teruo was back on his feet and accepted that I join him at the fish auction in the early morning. With a special red hat, I was granted the entrance straight into this great show. As I walked between the box full of fish, urchins, shrimps, octopus and even a hammerhead shark bidders were paying close attention to a man who was almost singing a song while telling the price for a box of fresh early morning catch. Teruo was quite happy with his purchase, I was amazed by the price he paid for a box of around 30 fish; 200 yens which is roughly the price of two cans of coke. I understood later that I would practice my slicing on these poor fish. It maybe useless to mention that I had smaller and not really straight filet. I will never forget this day because I had quite a feast: for lunch, sashimi (raw slices of fish or squid), octopus, urchin, sushi of course, big snails and for dinner, raw horse meat, which is considered a rare and delicious meat here. It was excellent, but my stomach had another point of view with all this raw food.
That same day, a journalist came to ask a few questions to the new employee. I did my best to answer but still failed to make the first page of the gastronomy section, a little article in the Friday edition did manage to drag a few curious customers in for dinner. Again, I tried my best with service and answering questions. What a day!!
The week already over, I sadly hand back my suit. At first I was looking for a simple experience to learn a bit more about Japanese cooking, trading a few hours of cleaning dishes for recipes seemed fine with me, But I discovered much more, a family passionate about what they do. Kind people I could not have imagined, I had so much great food but also good times chatting with all the people there, taking pictures, laughing, talking with customers. I almost forgot that I went there to work. This experience will remain a precious memory and I cannot give it justice here. I do need to thank my friend Ekida who helped me discover this place and also to the Uchida family for their time and kindness. I invite you to visit them, I am sure Keiko will welcome you with all her kindness.
