Cooking With Dog :: Learn How to Cook Japanese Food

Awhile back, I decided to learn how to make gyoza, Chinese fried dumplings that are very popular in Japan. My freezer has never been without a bag of frozen Trader Joe's (err..Trader Ming's) gyoza since they're quick to reheat and make for a satisfying snack or meal.

Making gyoza is really easy, up until the part where you have to fold the dumplings shut. This takes practice. That's all I can really say. I owe YouTube channel Cooking With Dog a big thank you for teaching me how to fold a proper gyoza. I've never subscribed to a YouTube channel before...I didn't even know there were YouTube Channels, but Cooking With Dog and its host Francis is great. Each video is about 4 minutes long and shows you all the steps in making traditional Japanese dishes such as gyoza, sushi, mochi, dorayaki and tonkatsu...which is neat, because you rarely get to see how these things are made. It is set to lovely classical music and is narrated in English by Francis. 

Francis by the way is a dog. His English is pretty good for both a dog and a Japanese person. Watching Cooking with Dog makes me miss my dogs back home (shout out to Bronco and Chase...RIP FOXBOT) So much so that yesterday, I went to the bookstore and looked at Corgi magazines for an hour then stopped by pet shop called Wan's Style in Roppongi to stalk the sedated puppies. "Wan" by the way is the noise Japanese people hear when dogs bark - it is their "woof woof". I have a dream of one day owning a dog and naming him Wan. I hope this dream comes true one day...but somebody is standing in my way. 

Bistro SMAP

I've been watching a lot of Japanese TV to help acclimate my brain to the Japanese language and a few things I've noticed so far are that they love watching people eat and that the same TV personalities and celebrities are seen in commercials. I'd say that 80% of the what is on TV involved food in some way and that is A-OK with me. SMAP is a Japanese boy band that has been popular for decades. They're like the Japanese Menudo except they don't replace any of the members and they are still popular. They're well into their 30's now but they're EVERYWHERE. They have a variety show on TV called SMAPxSMAP and one of the segments is called BISTRO SMAP. From what I can tell, members of the band cook a meal for a celebrity guest in teams of two, then the guest chooses a winner. Most of the time, I have no idea what is going on, but it's fun to see these guys cooking. Take that J-Timberlake!

The clip above is a BISTRO SMAP segment from a few years ago with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. It's kind of boring but I thought I'd post it because I just watched Lost in Translation and was reminded of Anna Faris' character Kelly and how Sofia Coppola based her off of Cameron Diaz. The similarities are striking.

Lastly, here is the coolest commercial I've ever seen featuring SMAP. I am particularly fond of the guy second from the right with the longish hair. His name is KimuTaku and if things don't work out with my roommate, I'm going to marry him and live in the house where this commercial was taped. Watch the entire clip to understand why.