Oishii Japan is ASEAN’s largest dedicated showcase on Japanese food and beverage, with an array of authentic Japanese ingredients and food, culinary techniques and equipment, plus demonstrations and classes. Serving as a bridge for F&B businesses between Japan and ASEAN, Oishii Japan provides visitors with valuable opportunities to understand, explore collaborations and learn more about the versatility of classic Japanese ingredients, quality seasonal produces, unique prefecture specialties as well as innovative technology and machinery.
This year will be the 4th edition and the largest so far, with the total number of exhibitors close to 300, representing 42 prefectures of Japan (out of 47, so that’s almost everywhere in Japan!)
Event Highlights for Oishii Japan 2015:
1. Food technologies
From the world’s smallest Nigiri Sushi machine that rolls about 1,200 pieces of sushi per hour, to noodle-making machines that can make different types of Japanese noodles such as Soba, Udon and Ramen with a simple change of blades.
2. Shochu tasting
One of the highlights is the introduction of one of the national spirits of Japan – Shochu. 36 shochu products will be available for tasting. The flavours vary with the distilled techniques and ingredients used, such as barley, rice, sweet potatoes or buckwheat.
3. Live tuna-cutting demonstration
Watching a trained Japanese chef artfully break down a whole tuna is a rare experience outside of Japan. So don’t miss the live demonstration where the chef will deftly carve, fillet and slice a massive tuna flown in from Ehime Prefecture.
4. Various cooking demonstrations
From sake ice cream making to patisserie demonstrations, Japanese fusion food to wagyu ramen preparations.
I attended the media preview at Lewin terrace and learnt that this year shochu, a popular Japanese distilled spirit, will be one of this year’s highlights, with 36 varieties of Honkaku Shochu (本格焼酎) and Awamori Shochu (泡盛) to be specially showcased at the event. Visitors will be able to learn about this versatile drink and pick up tips on the different styles of serving and enjoying shochu through workshops and tasting sessions.
I was presented with a crash course explaining what shochu is about.
Many would mix this up with Sake, since Sake is probably the most famous Japanese alcoholic drink. A key difference I noted was that Sake is usually drank straight but Shochu can be served in a many ways – this is kind of like wine vs hard liquor.
So many ways of drinking.
They also mentioned that it is low in calorie, virtually nothing in fact.
Taking a little break from Shochu, the chef did a live demonstration of seabass carparccio as a preview for for the real event where a huge tuna from Ehime Prefecture would be cut on site.
The next segment was a cocktail making demonstration using sweet potato Shochu from Kagoshima.
Ingredients:
- 20ml Satsuma Okokyo Shochu
- 20ml Green Tea
- 20ml Sakura Syrup
- Freshly grated yuzu zest
The result was a really pretty pink cocktail and personally I really liked it!
These 3 types were available for tasting during the media preview. During the real event you can definitely expect more. They served these 3 cold on the rocks, room temperature and warm.
Appetisers from Lewin Terrace: seabass carparccio (from the demo earlier on), pork stew and duck with onion. They were all delicious, especially the seabass!
After trying, I am convinced that shochu is low in calories because honestly, it was pretty tasteless. It really tastes like distilled alcohol. I very much preferred it in the cocktail and took a second glass.
Lunch was served by Lewin Terrace and this Amadai fish (those spikes are edible scales) was really good. Having tried Lewin Terrace before, I must say this is still one of my most favourite restaurants in Singapore.
Sorbet with Shochu.
Gift boxes were presented to participants of the media preview.
For those interested in trying shochu, catching the live demonstration of tuna cutting and checking out new Japanese food products and related equipment, here are the details of Oishii Japan 2015:
Date & opening hours
Trade: 22-23 October 2015, 10.00am to 5.30pm daily
Public: 24 October 2015, 11.00am to 4.30pm
Venue
Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre Halls 405-406 Admission
Trade visitors enjoy complimentary admission when they register online at www.oishii-world.com/en by 19 October 2015. Registration is now open. On-site registration is at S$20 per person.
Public can purchase tickets at S$4 per person. Admission is free for children 12 years and below. Tickets can be purchased at www.oishii-world.com/en.
Hungry Bird 