Jeddah Hilton to serve up Japanese delights

The Japanese Food Festival will take place at Jeddah Hilton from Feb. 11 to 15.
Chefs are being flown in from Hilton Tokyo for the event.
A press release said: “Have an exclusive taste of Japanese food and expand your Japanese food knowledge beyond sushi and teriyaki. Our 3 chefs flown from Hilton Tokyo — Genta Aoyagi, Jun Saitoh and Takanori Itoh — are excited to show you the diversity of Japanese cuisine at the Jeddah Hilton Japanese Food Festival.”
Coinciding with Japan National Foundation Day and Setsubun (beginning of Spring in Japan), the Food Festival will celebrate Japanese dishes showcasing the rich diversity of Japanese cuisine beyond commonly-known dishes such as sushi.
This festival will focus on some of Japanese cuisine’s best-kept secrets.
“Though sushi remains the most popular Japanese food, there’s much more to explore in this Far Eastern cuisine,” said Kevin Brett, cluster general manager of Jeddah Hilton and Qasr Al Sharq — A Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
The Japanese Food Festival will feature dishes like crab meat, cucumber in vinegar dressing ,”Sukiyaki” (slices of beef, tofu, and vegetables simmered with sweet soy sauce), tuna, yellow tail “Hamachi”, squid, prawn, salmon roe Soba buckwheat noodle, boiled komatsuna green vegetable in dashi stock, “Chirashi Sushi” (slices of seafood on sushi rice)
Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food, quality of ingredients and presentation.
The style of presentation of Japanese food is very unique.
Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods, typically rice or noodles, with a soup and okazu — dishes made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu and the like to add flavor to the staple food.
Japan has a deep-rooted food culture and the cuisine is rich in food value with less usage of oil that ensures a great taste with the health in mind.
The festival will open at the Al-Safina Restaurant at 8.00 p.m. on Feb. 11.