Sunday 24 April 2016

Experience Japan Festival 2016



All year I've been looking forward to this Japanese festival and I'm delighted to be able to say this year it was even bigger and better. Although the Irish weather can be unpredictable in April, the sun was shining the whole day and the temperature was higher than an average spring day. The first Japanese street food/ Japanese festival food I tried was curry udon garnished with bonito flakes, it was delicious and I got it from the WACAFE


There were more food stalls this year due to the growing demand for this Japanese festival every year. One of my favourite food stalls was the takoyaki and okonomiyaki. 


These are typical Japanese street foods/Japanese festival foods and always taste amazing when freshly made and served like this. 


The queue for this stall was particularly long even at the end of the day.  


I was delighted to see a Japanese gift shop called "Cactus Dublin" at the festival with a fantastic selection of Japanese gifts and they also stocked my cookbook "Japanese Food Made Easy".


There was plenty of opportunity to absorb Japanese culture with displays of marital arts such as kendo and karate. 


It was great to see Irish children embracing marital arts and tentatively listening to their Sensei!  


Asia Market Dublin had a stall again this year with a fantastic selection of Japanese ingredients and their stock of my cookbook sold out! 
 

I really enjoyed my talk on "Japan through the Eyes of Fiona Uyema" in the Cabinet Kitchen. There were so many questions at the end of the session and thanks to everyone who came up to say hello. It always motivates me to hear that people are following my journey and enjoying my recipes and adventures through my blog and online.


I had an information stall in the Cowshed on Japanese food & culture. My little boy came along to help me! 


I bumped into these two beautiful ladies again this year. Every year they wear costumes to the festival, I love them :)


Although the cherry blossom trees are not in full bloom across Ireland yet we found a few that had blossomed.

Notes:
If you 're interested in attending Japanese festivals around Europe you should also look at Hyper Japan in the UK and Japan Day in Germany. I hope to attend these wonderful festivals one day too. 

I want to say a special thanks to Natalia from Smiles!Photography for allowing me to use her photos for this blog post. Her photos are much nicer than mine!!

To see more about Experience Japan festival go to www.experiencejapan.ie

Tuesday 12 April 2016

DISCOVER THIS YEAR'S TOP THREE FOOD TRENDS AT KILDARE VILLAGE LOUNGE WITH FIONA UYEMA


On Saturday April 2nd I gave a talk about this year's "Top Three Food Trends" with seaweed expert Tom Jones from Sea of Vitality.


We spoke about seaweed, matcha and fermentation. During the talk I prepared tastings and drinks for the guests to demonstrate how easily these ingredients can be included in everyday dishes i.e matcha granola, freshly made sushi rolls. miso soup, seaweed pickled salad and matcha flavoured smoothies.


I really enjoyed this event and the lounge at Kildare Village is stunning!


I've linked some of the recipes from my blog at the start of this post, You can also find most of these recipes and much more in my cookbook "Japanese Food Made Easy".


Monday 4 April 2016

Top 5 Japanese Street Foods You Have to Try

On my return trip to Japan last November my family and I got to experience authentic Japanese street food, here's our top 5 Japanese street foods. You can see our return trip which was broadcast on NHK TV if you click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYgg28I9fQ

1. Salted Sweet Potato


There was an elerly Japanese lady at this stall making salted sweet potato sticks, she was so delighted to meet a foreigner that she wouldn't let me pay. My 4 year old and I loved these!!

2. Taiyaki


These fish shaped pastries are freshly made with various fillings such as sweet bean, custard and chocolate. They are absolutely delicious. I was so excited when I stumbled across this local taiyaki stall and got the chance to taste one after 10 years.

Here is a photo of the lady putting the different fillings in the taiyaki while they're baking in the fish shaped moulds.



3. Dango


These are sticky rice balls made from mochi (rice flour). 

4. Yakisoba


See my yakisoba recipe on the link below:


5. Okonomiyaki



I didn't come across okonomiyaki on my last visit to Japan, but I have to share it here as one of the top 5 streets foods from Japan. Here's the link to my okonomiyaki recipe. I've really simplified it so it'll work for you at home.

http://fionasjapanesecooking.blogspot.ie/2014/03/okonomiyaki-japanese-pancake.html

Now, decide which Japanese street food you'd like to try ccoking at home! Fiona :)

Fiona Uyema YouTube Channel - subscribe for recipes


Thanks for all your messages over the past year asking me to start posting recipe videos on YouTube.

I've finally dedicated time to this project and I've started to post some content. I'll add new recipes to this every week so please SUBSCRIBE to my channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtHdgAxEmF1cO_I457qWLow

Check out my new MATCHA video.

https://youtu.be/tD2fnTruCzI

Let me know what type of recipes you like me to post for you.

Fiona x


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