Tsunami Cooking Class

Last Tuesday, Warren & I attended one of Ben Smith's cooking classes at his restaurant, Tsunami. The menu was an assortment of Hawaiian Pokes--marinated seafood salads--which I love. Pokes don't require any actual cooking, which means I might actually be able to make one on my own!

Not only did we have an evening of great food to look forward to--there was wine too! Tiffany, a wine rep from the Grateful Palate, had a dazzling Australian wine to go with each course.

There were about 16 of us in the class, which was held in the banquet room. Ben was very chatty and went around the room greeting people and even pouring water. I don't know if most of the people there knew each other or were just extremely friendly, but there was a lot of chatter overall in the room. I could tell it was going to be a fun class.

While we sipped a Lengs & Cooter sparkling red shiraz, Ben demonstrated how to prepare a Tako (Octopus) Poke. He regaled us with stories, which was fun. The recipe he was sharing with us was actually from a maintenance man/octopus hunter he worked with in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, Warren told me a few octopus facts. "They're really smart," he said. "They can unscrew jars."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I've done a lot of reading about octopi," he said a little insulted.

We also learned about Healthy Boy brand soy sauce. It's flavored with mushrooms and won the Tsunami staff's soy sauce tasting contest when the restaurant first opened.



I don't normally like octopus too much due to its chewiness, but Ben assured us that chewiness can be embraced like any other texture. Plus once the octopus marinated in sesame oil, soy sauce, red chile flakes, and lemon juice, the taste totally trumped the texture.

We enjoyed the Tako Poke with a glass of 100% chardonnay called Pure Evil. Mmm...pure deliciousness!


Next, was the Ahi Poke. Now that I had a little buzz from the wine, I couldn't help but get worked up when Ben pulled out a huge slab of raw tuna.


He told us all about cutting the tuna properly and which parts to use and so on. I had a hard time focusing, and kept muttering to myself, "Wow, would you look at the size of that tuna!"

The Ahi Poke used the same basic soy sauce, lemon juice, red chile, sesame oil base, but also included diced cucumber. It was excellent. And I totally think I could make it.

We had a Roogle Reisling to go along with it, which was also quite nice. Very fruity--a lychee taste to be exact. Ben had picked up some fresh lychees at Viet Hoa earlier that day and let us all taste them with the wine. Lychees are my all time favorite fruit! I really couldn't see how the class could get any better.

Tiffany poured us a bonus glass of Paringa while Ben prepared the Lomi Lomi Salmon--not technically a Poke, but still in the same category. The salmon was massaged with salt and combined with tomatoes and onions. I wasn't a big fan of the Paringa, and the salmon paled in comparison to the tuna--at least in my mind, Warren was all about the salmon.

Tiffany then poured us a glass of Gibson Old Vine Grenache. Way back at the sparkling red I was thinking ol' Tiffany was being a bit stingy with the wine, but now with my fifth glass, I was feeling way more than just tipsy. And it was after 9:00pm on a school night! I had told my mom--who so graciously offered to watch the monkeys--that I didn't anticipate the class lasting more than a couple of hours and that we'd be home around 8:30pm.

Oops.

Obviously everyone in the room was feeling happy on the inside because the chatter was at an all time high, Ben was making funny faces at the camera, and when asked if they wanted to try another wine or go for dessert, everyone in the room (except me & Warren) raised their hands!


"Man, I really want to see him make the ginger doughnuts!" Warren exclaimed.

Clearly these people did not have small children at home.

Well, Ben did, actually.

I called him over and explained that due to our babysitter turning into a pumpkin at 9:30, sadly we'd have to cut out before dessert.

A few moments later Ben motioned for us to come into the kitchen. He had his assistant make us an early dessert consisting of the most amazing ginger doughnuts ever and some really tasty coconut sorbet.

Dude. As if I didn't already think Ben was the coolest! What a great way to end an incredible evening.

"That was really fun, honey," Warren said as we walked to the car. "Thanks for signing us up."

Ben is teaching two more classes later this month. (Both Tuesday evenings--the 8th & the 22nd, I think.) The cost is $55/person, which is really a steal. Call 274-2556 to reserve a spot.