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A Japanese Street in Mumbai

Just back home after spending an exciting day with Harini. While I'm gonna let Harini tell you about the rest of the day, I thought we should talk about a certain Japanese food festival. Presented by the students of Institute of Hotel Management (or Dadar Catering College as its called by popular choice), the 4-day event was meant to recreate a Japanese street fair. So how would they do that? There was Japanese food, of course. And there was a lot more.

But first, the food. We were given five coupons each with our passes to spend on the food stalls. Between the two of us, we managed to sample everything on the rather elaborate spread:

Okonomiyaki : Savory pancakes made with cabbage and tons of other vegetables. They were nice and crisp but the overly tangy sauce on top destroyed the effect.

Vegetarian Appetizers : The best stall there was! In our vegetarian platter, we got yakitori skewered vegetables, a potato cutlet (who can dislike fried potato) and deep fried tofu in a crispy coating. The last one came topped with delicious wasabi mayonnaise, obviously courtesy Maido India, the sponsors of the event.

Sushi : A complete let down. The two maki rolls had under-seasoned rice and no fillings worth noticing. The nigiri roll came topped with tomato (gasp!). And the inari was filled with over-vinegared rice and nothing else. To top it all, the pickled ginger wasn't even pink.

Tempura : Crisp batter fried vegetables - do you think I'd have noticed even if it was horrible?

Curry : We went for tofu katsu curry. It was unmemorable except for the rice - the real sticky rice, instead of long grained variety every restaurant in Mumbai sends your way.

Soba Noodles : Soupy noodles in a vegetable stock. Nice, comfort food.

I didn't taste the miso soup, but Harini took one sip and declared it a failure. I did try two of the three desserts though. The green tea tiramisu started out fine, and the vanilla icecream with orange glaze was a nice enough end to the meal.

Now that we have covered everything on the food front, let's look at the rest of the street. There was an Ikebana stall, where both of us created our novice level "masterpieces". The origami stall was way too crowded, so didn't make it to that one. There was also a make-believe Japanese garden complete with cherry blossoms where you could get your picture in a kimono. And there was traditional tea ceremony - fun to watch even though I wasn't one of the volunteers to have tea.

All in all, a fun evening to end a fun sunday!

Comments

notyet100 said…
looks like you both had a nice time,.:-)
Siri said…
Yeh, sounds like a fun day Simran. :)

Siri
Missed it...looks like u gals had a blast!!!
Sush said…
need to contact simran..how? cant find a link to contact her through her blog..can someone help.
Sunshinemom said…
I was looking for the rye buns and found this:). Linking up to the upcoming post.
Myvegfare said…
Hey!, you too made me smile at 12:45 in the night, you people are so lucky! I wish I could meet all the three of you!
wonderful write up too

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