JAPAN FOOD FESTIVAL BY JETRO AND KOTA KASABLANKA

How are you guys! So I just came back from attending the opening ceremony of Japan Food Festival in Kota Kasablanka which is brought by Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) - thank you for having me! - and I am sharing my experience to you and hopefully if you have spare time or happen to be around, you can come, visit and actually dine there.

The event will be running for two weeks starting today until November 13th 2016 at Food Society Kota Kasablanka, and one of the main purposes of this event (besides serving good food) is to held the "Test Kitchen" and introduce the people of Jakarta five Japanese food brands/joints that might be opening in Jakarta (keep reading to know who they are).

So more and more Japanese brands that are expanding to Indonesia and it's because of the new regulation made by the government which applies to foreign companies who agreed to invest with 100% capital investment, and through this event, JETRO expects to educate people with more food related information like food business, ingredient distribution, supplier information, food general pricing, cooking wares to ways to recruiting local staffs.

Before I got to the event and the food, I want to give them credit for the nice setting built for this event. It was actually pretty simple but I was feeling the Japanese vibe from the major wood elements used on the deco, overall it's almost set like a semi-outdoor food court and something about the lighting earlier that was pretty (luckily before the heavy rain not too long after).

Speech, followed with the ribbon cutting making the ceremony official!

The opening ceremony was attended by mainly friends, relatives, medias and bloggers.

It's official!

The chef/representative from one of the participating tenants: Sushi Kaz

Kue Cubit Eat & Eat

After the ceremony ended, guests were welcomed to go around and sample the food prepared from all of the tenants. The Japan Food Festival is held in coordination with Eat & Eat, so you'll find some lightbites from Eat & Eat aside from the 5 main tenants in the event: Menya Takeichi (Take You Co., Ltd), Enokiya (Morinaga Gyunyu Haikyu Co., Ltd.), Fujisan Taiyaki (Yataro Co., Ltd.), Sushi Kaz (Riverside Inc.) and Ringer Hut (Ringer Hut Co., Ltd.). Menya Takeichi comes with their signature chicken ramen creation, Enokiya with their homemade Japanese sweets, Fujisan Taiyaki with their pretty taiyaki, Sushi Kaz with their sushi and Ringer Hut with their Champon or  Japanese noodle with assorted toppings.

...and they are all halal :))

Do note that cash payment is not applicable here and you'll need to purchase the Eat & Eat card for payment (minimum IDR 10k but it wouldn't get you anything) and it's better to bring cash as major debit cards couldn't be used to top up the card.

ENOKIYA

Enokiya came with their tasty dango (rice flour ball cake) and their snow skin mochi. The dango was served with this nutty and caramel-ly sauce or coated in nut powder if you fancy. It was probably one of the yummiest dango I've ever had in life! I mean dango has always been quite simple but the highlight has got to be the sauce and the texture. It was firm but chewy without being overly firm and I love that!

While the dango was fabulous, my heart was stolen by the snow skin mochi with this perfect thickness coating the whole sweet, soft and generous red bean filling. MUST TRY!

SUSHI KAZ

Sushi Kaz was all about fresh ingredient, here you can try their delicious sushi and chirasi don with absolutely fresh produce as the toppings. Here you're looking at their Sashimi Chirasi Don with fresh tuna, salmon, beef and shrimp topping!

FUJISAN TAIYAKI

Fujisan Taiyaki - IDR 22k/each
The Fujisan Taiyaki came with three different filling: Matcha, Cheese and Red Bean. Tried both the Matcha and Red Bean but I solely opted for the matcha all the way! The matcha filling was something that I never encounter anywhere else before, it's sweet with a tiny hint of bitter, creamy, sweet and fragrant (I really don't know how to explain the matcha flavor as it was slightly different but delicious), the red bean filling was slightly dry, they could do better with that.

Fujisan Taiyaki Matcha - IDR 22k

RINGER HUT

At a single glance, I thought this was a vegetarian ramen as the amount of veges here was GENEROUS, but turned out they also had chicken and shrimp as the topping. The flavor of the broth reminded me of capcay (in a good way), it was mild, tasty but the thing that I want to highlight was how nice this ramen was for weight watchers, you can defo customize to have this completely meat-free. The noodle was quite thick with firm and chewy texture, just the right kind of noodle for this kind of ramen and broth.

MENYA TAKEICHI
Special Collagen Chicken Ramen - IDR 77k

Menya Takeichi is one of Tokyo's most well known chicken ramen specialist and their Chicken Paitan ramen has gained them quite a recognition and for years has been awarded one of the best chicken based ramen. The broth was indeed very delicious! The texture is considered thick if you compare that with other chicken based broth ramens in town, and along with the thickness comes the velvety smooth texture and flavor-packed broth without being overly salty.

The texture of the noodle could be thicker, but it held the broth nicely before actually meeting your palate. The chicken slices were thick yet tender!

So what's my verdict? Can I see them some time in Jakarta? Absolutely! To me, ramen trend is never ending as Indonesians are too attached with noodle (at least it's me) but it's essential to make 'em really good, especially when you make it halal then it gives the possibility that more and more people can enjoy them out loud! As I am typing this I am craving for more dangos from Enokiya and that sweet matcha custard from Fujisan Taiyaki as well!

I am an avid Japanese cuisine fan, and couldn't be happier for events like this! Looking forward to see more events like this in the future!

Kota Kasablanka - Food Society

Jalan Casablanca Raya No. 88

Tebet, Jakarta Selatan 12870

021 - 2946 5000

Opening hours: 10 AM-10 PM

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Map for Kota Kasablanka