[Niigata / Tokamachi] Tokamachi's Ka-chansho and freshly picked gottsu

[Summary] Learn how to make traditional Tokamachi cuisine from local mothers. Enjoy a feast made with a variety of ingredients! [Schedule] Meet at a designated location in Tokamachi City at 10:00 AM. Cook the food under the guidance of the instructor's mother. The menu will basically consist of three side dishes, rice, and miso soup. As seasonal ingredients will be used, the menu will be a surprise until the day itself. Once the food is ready, enjoy it while chatting with the instructor's mother! You may discover new flavors. The tour will end around 1:00 PM with a drop-off location. *Only Japanese and English are available.

"Gottsuo" means "feast" in the Tokamachi dialect. In this experience, you will cook a home-cooked meal using the most delicious seasonal ingredients together with energetic mothers (ka-chansho) who know the local area inside and out. The menu changes with the seasons: wild vegetables in spring, local vegetables in summer, mushrooms in autumn, and traditional preserved foods in winter. This is not the tourist-grade food you find in guidebooks, but rather "authentic country cooking" that continues to be loved on local dining tables. This is a hands-on cooking experience where you can watch the mothers at work and make "real country cooking" together, as it is loved by locals.

Tokamachi is a region with heavy snowfall, and a unique food culture has taken root in the area, where people spend nearly half the year surrounded by snow. This is the wisdom of "preserved foods" and "fermented foods," which preserve the bounty of spring and autumn by salting or drying them, and use them as a valuable source of nutrition during the winter. Through cooking, you will not only be able to prepare dishes, but also learn about the stories and ingenuity of our ancestors, how they coexisted with nature and overcame the harsh winters. This is a valuable opportunity to learn how to handle ingredients unique to a snowy region, and the secrets of their deep flavors.

Once the food is ready, sit in a circle with the mothers and say "Itadakimasu" (thank you for the meal). The freshly cooked rice, miso soup, and three side dishes you've made yourself taste exceptional. During the meal, you'll enjoy lively conversations with locals about local life, history, child-rearing, and other topics that only locals can share, creating a warm and enjoyable experience that makes you feel as if you're visiting relatives in the countryside. Rather than relying on formal recipes, you'll learn the "taste of mother's cooking" and "warm memories" through conversations with the mothers and the sense of cooking, and these will be the best souvenirs you can take home from your trip.