Day 18

To round off our Kyoto trip we started off today at a ramen making cookery class ! In the basement of a supermarket we were slightly concerned we weren’t in the right place, but sure enough, we were greeted by a pair of ladies in aprons who ushered us in.

There was only a small group of us, and first we were shown a summary video of how to make ramen and then our teacher took us through it step by step. We were making ramen with chicken so the first thing we did was take a chicken thigh and roll it up and then tie it, this would then be cooked in soy sauce ,water and sugar for about 15 minutes. Whilst this was cooking we got started on making the dough for the ramen. This was the hardest part in my mind. After putting all the ingredients in a bowl like you do any other dough and bringing it together you then have to punch it… I’m not kidding, you have to punch the dough about 100 times until it’s no longer crumbly. I would like to make it known how frustrating it is sitting opposite a chef whilst doing this who makes it look like light work and takes half the time!

After this you roll it out with a rolling pin and then put it through a thing that cuts the noodles into thin slices. Combining this with a yummy broth and the chicken and some well picked toppings we dug in and I have to say it was pretty good! If you want to try judge who made the better ramen in the pictures mine has the darker brown broth compared to Jacobs.

After this we wondered around the Kyoto imperial palace before heading up for the last thing on our Kyoto list - Kinkaku-ji or also known as the gold temple. the temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death. It is a sight to be seen with the brillaint gold leaf reflecting across the lake it looks like something out of a childs book. It’s incredibly extravagant and well worth the slightly out of the way route to get there!

And there you have it- the end of our time in kyoto!Read more