Sarawak Cuisine in Tokyo
The Malaysia Gohan Kai, Malaysia Cuisine Restaurant and Midin Events Company organised a Sarawak cuisine sharing session in Tokyo recently, with door gifts sponsored by the Sarawak Tourism Board.
46 Japanese nationals gathered at the restaurant to participate, an overwhelming response with participants from previous Malaysian cuisine sharing sessions.
‘Tuak’ or rice wine was served, while Sarawak specialities like Sarawak Laksa, three-layer tea and pepper were also introduced at the event.
Oto Furukawa, the speaker for the sharing session, was introduced to Mitsumasa Hamano, Hikaru Yokoyama, Mika Yonaha and Yuta Nitanai — participants of a student exchange programme from Japan who had their internship in Sarawak with the Sarawak Tourism Board who brought recordings of their personal gastronomic adventures in Sarawak.
Another speaker at the event, Jun Tanaka, who revealed that he visited Sarawak nearly 10 times and was ‘head over heels’ with the unique Sarawakian palates, particularly Sarawak Laksa, as well as the friendliness of Sarawakian people.
Jun’s love for Sarawak encouraged him to promote Sarawak and its food on social media and even published a limited edition Sarawak cuisine booklet on his own initiative.
At the event, Hikaru, who had an eight-month internship at a local travel agency in Kuching, performed the sape (Bornean Boat-lute), adding to the Sarawakian ambiance at the session.
