Mix:
Six gaikokujin:
- Maher: Egypt
- Grace: America
- Chiori: China
- Daniel: Australia
- Khunpo and 2 friends: Indonesia
- Ian: Canada
Everyone met at 8:30 am, when we were introduced to the students and chosen by our student teams. They were from various middle schools around Imabari. I was also introduced to my very able assistant, Ito-san, who would help translate, facilitate and make everything work. She did a great job!
Menu
Beef Kabob, toast and middle eastern tomato salad
Siu Gyoza (!) and a very strange Chinese desert
Grilled baby snapper in a sauce, fried potatoes
Baked Salmon marinaded in Ginger shoyu
Fried rice with vegetables and egg
Tourtiere (meat pie) and Poutine
Beef Kabob, toast and middle eastern tomato salad
Siu Gyoza (!) and a very strange Chinese desert
Grilled baby snapper in a sauce, fried potatoes
Baked Salmon marinaded in Ginger shoyu
Fried rice with vegetables and egg
Tourtiere (meat pie) and Poutine
After visiting Marunaka for supplies, we headed into the kitchen and cooked up a storm until 11:30. The girls were very organized, and no one cut themselves.
Due to a miscalculation on my part, however, our team was 10 minutes late, but no one seemed to mind.
Maher's team kababs, my fave:
Grace and her team's salmon and Khunpos' teams' fried rice, which had a Japanese name, but I didn't catch it. It was nice and slightly spicy, the chicken was really nice, too
Some very presentable baby Snapper...
And what's Tourtiere without Poutine? For those who may not yet have had the opportunity, Poutine is a heart stopping combination of french fries, cheese (supposed to be curd, but, well...) and beef gravy. The recipe claimed 2100 calories for four servings. Cholestoral overload.
Siu Gyoza and the mysterious Chinese wet mochi with fruit, anko and strange dried things, which was sweet and very mild tasting.
Just to make sure, Nihon ryori!
Team Canadian:
After generous noshing and lots of compliments and so on, winners were announced and prizes given out. Such is the lamentable state of my Japanese, however, that I didn’t even realize we had won first prize til I was told later (!).Many thanks to the Kurushima Lions Club, to ICIEA, to the cooking leaders who gave of their time, and most of all to the students who made it so much fun!
