Japanese Bouken-ya: Shizuoka Fair @ MEIDI-YA

Shizuoka Fair

The post I have long delayed is finally here! The fair featuring Shizuoka Prefecture (2nd February 2009 - 11th February 2009) held in MEIDI-YA had on-sale goods that Shizuoka is famous for; mainly green tea and wasabi (Japanese Horseradish). Besides the fair, also available was a Tea Seminar (seminar on how to prepare green tea drinks), Japanese Food Seminar using ingredients from Shizuoka Prefecture (seminar teaching 4 different dishes), and a Maguro Cutting Show (a show on how they cut tuna). To make it even better, there was a 25% discount all fair items for the first three days.

Fresh wasabi ( tomato in background)

The variety of green tea sold ranged from about $4.90 - $60, depending on the quality of the tea. They had not only green tea bags, powder, but also limited edition Green Tea Ramune (green tea lemonade) and Wasabi Ramune (I didn't dare buy this). Imagine carbonated green tea in the famous ramune glass bottle! As for the wasabi, a huge range of salad dressings (miso-wasabi, wasabi Japanese mayonnaise) and fresh wasabi and paste (not very cheap) were available, including a unique wasabi flavoured soft-cream (ice-cream) that is well-known in Shizuoka. From the samples, the miso-wasabi salad dressings was absolutely beautiful. And I would definitely recommend trying the ice-cream if you ever come across it.

Green Tea Ramune and Wasabi Ramune (and other drinks)

Wasabi mayonnaise and salad dressings

The events held with the fair were really interesting and worth going. The Tea Seminar was really insightful as they taught how to make cold and hot green tea (using the products sold at the fair), and green tea-banana milkshake (awesome taste). They even had a special green tea layer cake made which tasted heavenly for those who love green tea. As for the Japanese Food Seminar, dishes taught were green tea dorayaki, Fujinomiya yakisoba, Shizuoka ochazuke (rice in green tea served with horse mackerel), tuna and wasabizuke sandwich (tuna mixed with wasabi spread on bread), and fried hanpen (fish cake). The Maguro Cutting Show was one of the more unique and unforgettable images I have seen. The tuna they brought in from Japan apparent cost a bomb, and it was HUGE.

Tea and Japanese Food Seminar

All in all, I do not in the slightest bit regret having visited the fair (roughly 4 days of it), or the goods I bought. It was a wonderful experience, and my friends and I from my club in school (Temasek Polytechnic Japanese Cultural Group; TPJCG) even made friends with the promoter (Japanese from Shizuoka) and got to brush up our Japanese because we had to speak to him in Japanese! Pictures please!