Japanese cooking

One of my projects this summer is to learn how to cook. So last night for dinner, I helped with the cooking. I say "helped" because my dad, who is the usual cook for the family, did a great deal to help out and made the judgment calls on when things were done and the like.

How did I help? Well, I read the cookbook, first of all. It was kind of a Japanese cookbook that I bought in Japan before I returned to the U.S., and I'm the only one in my family that has a hope of understanding it, especially at the last minute like that. (That is, I didn't translate the recipe ahead of time.)

Admittedly, we did kinda diverge from the recipe ever so slightly, which originally called for yellowtail with a teriyaki kind of flavor to it. The recipe did say that we could substitute chicken, but I don't think they anticipated us serving it over rice, which we did.

It was good, all told. Solid F on the presentation (one of the reasons why I'm not providing pictures), but at least it tasted pretty good. And, you know, chicken served over proper (sticky) rice with proper (unsweetened) green tea, all eaten with chopsticks... the next best thing to being back in Japan, really.

In short: I'm starting to like cooking.