A few days ago I found out about F:EAST JAPAN, a two-day celebration (7-8 June) of Japanese food and culture. It was held in Piccadilly Circus, Shaftesbury Avenue.
There were free tasting stalls for gyozas (fried dumplings), mochi ice-creams, green tea, matcha ice-cream, swiss matcha chocolate, iced desserts & sorbets, dashi soup, miso soup, and sake cocktails. Most of the stalls began at 11am, but since we only arrived at 2pm, we only got to try the gyoza and mochi ice-cream (I had raspberry flavoured). Both were delicious!
There were also plenty of free activities upstairs in the food hall. Ranging from origami paper craft, shodo calligraphy, to yoyo water balloons. I got to observe two Japanese sushi chefs holding a class in the afternoon.
The moment the gyozas were steaming hot and placed onto the aluminium plates, people (literally) raced over, grabbed for a toothpick and went for it. Honestly, if I didn't have any manners, I would have just stood there, eaten one after another, and waited for the next batch of gyozas. Mmmm I can still smell them now in my room. Good thing I bought a pack of frozen gyozas from the Japan Centre food mall. They've totally succeeded in selling their product. At least I've got dinner sorted.
Just before entering there's a small narrow alley way of small booths on both side. The only edible one was a bun and takoyaki stall. And obviously that was the only one I was attracted to. Unless of course, they had a J-POP CD album desk, but unfortunately there wasn't such a display.
There were also forms to fill out for you to win 2 tickets for a trip to Japan. I would have liked to enter, but seeing how I've never managed to win any kind of lottery and with a line filling up in a small space, I decided to go up the escalator and see what else to find instead.
Saw the sushi class in action! Really wanted to be a part of it but the next class was at 3.30pm. Couldn't wait that long, so we ended up buying lunch from the freshly made Japanese food fridge. There was a huge variety of Japanese food - from white rice sushi to brown rice sushi, chicken to prawn, chirashi to sashimi, and sesame ice-cream to strawberry cheesecake. I ended up having a chirashi (which was really the leftover bits of sushi all packed into one plate) and seaweed salad with sesame oil. I haven't had it in a long time! It's one of my mum's favourite side dishes and mine too! Love the punches of spice give by the slices of chilli too.
After lunch, we went around the grocery store to buy some ingredients for beef udon lunch and gyoza dinner, plus dried seaweed - a childhood favourite snack. Scroll through the slideshow below to have a look around the store!
I personally lean towards being a musical hermit whenever possible. However, when I do go out, I always try to make the most out of it! Hope you enjoy these rare outdoor/vacation dates of mine!