What's your Japanese connection?

The Institute of Hotel Management's festival Washoku begins today. The four-day event will feature traditional cuisine, Ikebana Displays, Origami and much more from the Far East

When Uma Thurman uttered the words, "Watashi wa kinpatsu no bushi (I am the blonde warrior)" in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, we swooned over the visual and aural Japanese tidbit and the oriental bond was further strengthened. As if taking that legacy forward, starting today, Dadar Catering College and Maidoindia present Washoku 4, a Japanese street fair.


A traditional tea ceremony will be simulated in a Tatami room at the festival

Each year, students of the final year at the Institute of Hotel Management present a food festival, based on various cuisines. Thanks to the encouraging response in the last three years, the students are trading their aprons for kimonos and gearing up to showcase the art of Japanese cuisine -- one of the fastest growing global cuisines that has enticed the Kill Bill generation.

Visitors can expect a feast befitting a Yakuza. Maidoindia will be flying down Chef Shinya Saito, an internationally renowned Japanese chef, to overlook the culinary delights. Expect a tea ceremony simulated in a traditional Japanese tatami room -- a traditional tearoom simply and elegantly decorated with a hanging scroll and a flower arrangement.

Try your hand at Origami, the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding. Get a glimpse into your future with traditional Japanese fortune telling and capture fond memories at the Kimono photo stall. If that isn't enough, check out the Ikebana section, which will have blooms set in the Japanese style of flower arrangement, also known as kado.

The term Washoku literally means traditional Japanese food. A festival named thus will obviously focus on a fine dining experience in Japanese cuisine with bona fide sushi, Tempura (a dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep-fried) and Okonomiy (a savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients). All of the above have been created on an archetypal recreation of a Japanese street. So, whip out that Katana, the battle of the unbeatable flavours is about to begin.

On October 21 to 24 at The Terrace, The Institute of Hotel Management, Veer Savarkar Marg, Dadar (W).
Call 9881141696 / 9970818148