The Day we met a famous cook?!

just to make your mouth water
Jay McCarthy

Our group for the day

Monday June 21 (day 19)

Today we woke up to have the last breakfast with my father before his departure. Gladly we were able to fully enjoy breakfast because we didn’t have to say our permanent goodbyes until at the office. After getting a little life pep talk from my dad, he left for the airport and in no time we were off for the event of the day. We had the pleasure of going to a cooking event today! The famous chef, Jay McCarthy was to give a cooking class (of course using American beef) to several bloggers. Traveling in the taxi with Jay, we soon found out that he had been gone for 5 weeks traveling in Asia and has had the pleasure of traveling all over the world doing what he loves. In addition, he knew and cooked with Julia Child and many famous famous cooks and critics. Way COOL!! So, naturally I tried to talk to him as much as possible and befriend him…including getting his email so I could “email him photos of the event.” The 2 dishes to be cooked were a Surf n Turf Maki roll with crab/asparagus wrapped in sirloin with wasabi mayonnaise, and a Slider with sirloin, onions, mushrooms, red peppers, cheese, and a chipotle mayonnaise! Wow, I really hoped we would get to eat these dishes. The bloggers, all women, took thousands of photos and I bought into the fad quickly. Overall the cooking class was so much fun to watch, even though we were unable to participate. He taught techniques and cooked while the women took fast notes and laughed at his corny jokes. Then, the women all got to cook the dishes. Finally, it was time to eat, or at least we got to watch them eat first, and have an ending discussion. OH and of course we got to try the dishes too :D. When the event ended they said we didn’t need to go back to the office since work ended in one hour, so we gladly made our way to the subway towards Roppongi. As soon as we got to our hotel we changed into RUNNING clothes...finally. We ran throughout the streets of Roppongi and our work area for a long time and then stopped in the area we ate dinner at on Friday. In Akasaka Mitsuke there is a discount grocery store there and we soon excitedly realized that the drinks were half the normal price. Our college kid mindset went into a frenzy of happy thoughts. Leaving with full bags in hand we stopped at Hotel Okura to pick up Bean’s binder she left and headed back. When we got to our hotel we further worked out ...lifting full water bottles, calf raises on the bathroom doorway, pushups by the front door, and sit ups wherever (whatever we could do!). With the A+ quality workout under our belts, our stomachs began growlingBefore . Soon our mind had been made up...it would be Indian tonight. With Nan on our brain we walked about 1 minute to the Indian restaurant by our hotel and ate one of the most delicious Indian meals we had ever consumed. Chicken curry, rice, Samosas and cheese Nan were shared between the two of us. Successful day and the rest of the night is history...felt like a fairytale!