In and as 'Yes woman'.

My ‘sensei’ (who teaches Japanese language) had invited us for the Annapoorna world food exhibition as she saw this as a good opportunity for us to taste Japanese food and to interact with Japanese people. Mwah sensei!!

14th November 2008.

It was 9:00 a.m. I’d told my friend Roh that I’d be meeting her at Ghatkopar station at 9:00 a.m. and there I was, already running late. What a great way to start the day! ( Wow, that rhymed!!! Er... way…day! Get it?!) I reached somehow… and as usual, poor thing, my friend… I could see fumes of frustration emanating from her head!! (Embarrassed) Anyway, then I faced some music… [:P], we boarded a bus and reached the venue in Goregaon. We entered and asked the watchman where the food exhibition was… and we also mentioned ‘Japanese food’. He directed us to a certain hall no. 6 where there was a Chinese electronic products exhibition! We went back, this time to another guard and told him, “Japanese please, not Chinese!...woh… khaane ka programme...” he then directed us to the right place!... we registered outside and were given an identity-card…Mine read : ‘Aarthi mohan. Business visitor.’ (?...ahem ahem!!)

The Japanese counter:
We entered and headed straight towards the ‘Japan’ part and saw our beloved sensei sitting there as a translator, telling people about ‘Sake’ – Japanese rice-wine. As we entered, the chef gave us some ‘Tofu’ to taste. It was basically bland, but the green coloured salt sprinkled on it was strong! So, you know… decent combination. Then, we were given some ‘Sake’… (saa-kay), which tasted like medicine! The tonic-medicine types! [:D] I doubt if I’ll ever be able to consume one full-glass of that… I’ll have it in teaspoons! Then we went and spoke to sensei for a few minutes and by then, she had to get back to work. We then went towards the fish … ahem… Personally, I saw this as a good chance to sample non-vegetarian food! There was this silver fish … which was cut and kept in pieces on a tray. “Okay, this is the moment… “, I said to myself. Fish, for the first-time ever! Well, then yeah I tasted it and it was…uhhm… fish-y! [:P] the typical smell et all. Silver skin and it went into my mouth!! Okay. The table opposite to this was fish-y again! I said “Yeah, I’ll go for it!! Today’s going to be all about trying new stuff!” This was a piece of fish with some Soya sauce over it (thankfully, not silver-skinned) I had that n whoa! It was awesome! What a stark difference! It tasted like cheese! And no smell!! I loved that!

Well, then we strolled around the place, visiting the counters of food-products of various countries. We had Belgian chocolates (dark, milk, caramel…. They were all divine! ).We had Indian butter-chicken. The Thai ‘Tom-Yum soup’ (pronounced as tom-kham soup) with cute tiny tomatoes was delicious. I loved it so much that I took-down its recipe! We also had Aloe Vera juice… and ‘felt’ healthy for a couple of minutes!! I even ‘felt’ my skin glowing… hahahh…! We went to the Italian cheese section… and tasted about four varieties from the popular Parmesan cheese to the not-so-popular Gorgonzola and Provolone cheeses. And also learnt ‘Grazia’ for ‘thank you’ and ‘Pregon’ for ‘you’re welcome’.

We also came across a Humane Society International table, where the representative told us about the organization. The pamphlet reads, “You may not know that most eggs in India come from hens confined in tiny wire ‘battery-cages’. The birds spend their lives in cages so small that they can barely move, much less spread their wings. More than 150 million laying hens in India are confined in this manner. This is simply too much abuse to swallow.” Hmm… No, I’m not advertising for them, but those interested to know more about their campaign against the use of battery-cages may visit hsi.org/India/compassion

As we were leaving the Chinese counter, my friend said “Aarigato”, to which the woman inside exclaimed “Aarigato is not our language!” [:D] Then she taught us ‘Shye-shye’ (thank-you) and ‘Sai-shye’ (goodbye). We went to the German counter where there was this blue-eyed German man with ginger-bread. He was surprisingly friendly (i.e. a good salesperson) … he and my friend got talking about soccer/football! Roh mentioned that she roots for Germany and he handed her a German flag! He asked me if I’d like to have one too, to which I said, “No thanks. I don’t really follow the sport.” And then, he asked Roh, “If there were a match held between India and Germany in India, which team would you root for?!” Even though the question was not put to me, I said, “India obviously!” just as Roh said “Germany!” Lol!! We’d had enough of his blue-eyes by then… and decided to move on…we said ‘Danke’ (thank you) and bade him ‘Bitte’ (good-bye).

We returned to the Japanese counter in time for their cooking show. Sushi was being served. Yay! It had been on my mind ever since I joined Japanese-language classes! The sushi was ‘oishii’!! We sampled Japanese green tea, which was o..kayish. I’d prefer the normal ‘chai’ any day! Also, on the menu was ‘Yellow-tailed Shabushabu’. [:P] ‘Shabushabu’ really sounds funny! We thought, "Hey shabushabu, we're coming!!" … and ....frankly, we didn’t like it! Okay the fish was tender and all, but the fish-y stench was too much to bear. But, the chef was in front of us and other people literally searching our faces for signs of ‘Wow! It’s great!’ I somehow managed to finish it, along with a smile… and came up with a modest “Yeah, it’s good… Thank you!” That was difficult! We left immediately, to search for some chocolate counter around!! We found a dried-fruit counter and I put a small piece of dried guava in my mouth… and we looked around till we spotted an Indian chocolate counter! Waqt aane par apne hi kaam aate hain!! Hehe… then we picked up a chocolate from there, whilst talking to the people there… the customary ‘hello’s and went off for some more wandering…

Time for the highlight of the whole experience… We reached the European Excellence arena where there were people having red-wine! Aha… We looked at each other and our eyes said, “Now this is something… Chal, let’s try!” [;)] I was a little apprehensive but eventually, temptation got the better of me! Yeah, okay! It was temptation and the cute European someone who told me, “Don’t worry, just one glass won’t make you heady!” Well, well! We watched as the wine was being generously poured into our glasses! First sip: It’s bitter!! [:D] Second sip: Okay, not so bad! And then, the third … and the fourth … fifth ... and so on ! We were enjoying it! Haha!

We were obviously in very high spirits that day! It was a feel-great experience! And we went home rejoicing!! [;)]