BENGALURU: Whether you like eating a steaming bowl of ramen on a cold day or just enjoy looking at beautifully designed and constructed sushi from your favourite Japanese anime, food is definitely one of the most wholesome experiences in Japanese culture. The Japan Food Fest 2023 organised by the Consulate General of Japan in Bengaluru is coming back to the city on November 26, 2023, at Shangri-La Hotel to celebrate the rich flavours of Japanese cuisine.
Around 20 well-known restaurants in the city will be putting up stalls, and serving various delicacies. They will also have restaurants from other places like Puducherry and New Delhi. The fest will also feature a sashimi-cutting demonstration wherein a Japanese chef will showcase how sashimi is cut and made into rolls. “In order to deepen Japan-India relations, it is important to know, recognise, and respect each other’s culture. I believe that food is the basis of culture, and making Indian people taste Japanese food is a shortcut to learning about the Japanese culture at large,” says Nakane Tsutomu, Consul-General of Japan in Bengaluru.
The last edition saw around 1,900 people participating in the fest and this year, an upward of 2,000 people are expected. Tsutomu says, “I was surprised at the turnout at last year’s fest, it was unfortunate that I was not able to taste the food at the stalls due to the many friends and acquaintances who came to the event. The Sushi Exhibition held at Chitrakala Parishath in August this year attracted 5,500 visitors in two weeks. We are pleased to see the growing popularity of Japanese food in Bengaluru.”
Speaking about the city’s cultural inclusivity, Tsutomu says, “Bengaluru, with its favourable climate, has always attracted a diverse range of people from all over India. Therefore, I understand that Japanese culture, especially Japanese food culture, can be tried without prerequisites or barriers, and accepted as each person feels. Japanese food is said to be eaten with all five senses, and we hope that everyone in Bengaluru will enjoy it.” He further adds that technique and precision are very important to the cuisine.
“Some of the most important aspects of Japanese cooking are the five methods (cutting, boiling, grilling, steaming, and frying), five tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami), relished with five senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste), and five colours (red, yellow, green, white, and black) which is very pleasing to the eye.”