Sukiyaki Dinner For Japanese Visitors

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30274, 29 October 1963, Page 2

Sukiyaki Dinner For Japanese Visitors

The hosts provided the ingredients but left the cooking to the guests of honour when the Japan Society of Canterbury held a sukiyaki dinner for members of the visiting Japanese goodwill mission, at Elizabeth House last evening.

At each table for 10, one or two of the Japanese visitors took charge of large plates of paper-thin raw fillet steaks, strays of cut vegetables, incl uding sliced mushrooms, leeks, spring cabbage and onions, cauliflower, asparagus, bean shoots and bean curd, and deftly tossed them in an electric fry-pan. Steamed rice was served separately. Soy sauce, pickles and spices, specially flown from Japan for the occasion, added the exotic flavour to a wonderful meal. In a matter of minutes every diner was served and in even less time was ready for a second helping. And so it went on, with the chopsticks working like familiar tools. Raw Eggs Raw eggs broken into individual bowls, into which portions of meat and vegetable could be dipped, fresh fruit, sake (rice wine) and green tee were the accompaniments.

For the Japanese it was their first sukiyaki meal in New Zealand, for the New Zealanders it will not be the last. Many of the women kept a close watch on the Japanese cook at. their tables, observed the ingredients and made a mental note of everything they did. Japanese prints and lanterns round the walls of the reception rooms, the kimonos worn by the Japanese guests and many members of the society, gave the party an authentic background for a sukiyaki meal. He only concession to Western ways were

the chairs at the tables. The president of the society (Mr Peter Blaxall) welcomed the guests and said he hoped Christchurch would be the highiight of the mission’s tour. Mr A. Kawamoto, leader of the mission, said the sukiyaki dinner was somthing the visitors would always remember with a great deal of pleasure. It pleased him to see that the society had arranged a "Japanese atmosphere” with so many guests wearing kimonos. Mr Kawamoto spoke in Japanese and Commander J. S, Pallet interpreted. After dinner, Mr David Wong gave a demonstration of fire-eating on the patio.

Youth is the main target of a widespread “socialist education'* and "class struggle” campaign now underway throughout China's far-flung rural areas.—Reuter.