After our busy day trip to Nikko, we were all invited to dinner at the International House of Japan. This is the former home of Koyata Iwasaki ( of Mitsubishi ) and is situated in beautiful grounds not far from the Tokyo tower, it was established in 1952 by Nelson D Rockerfeller and Shigeharu Matsumoto. There were 18 ( I think) of us , of which we were 8. All of the rest were Japanese but they all had lived and worked for many years overseas, including the USA and the UK, so language was not a problem. Our host, a member of this club had kindly arranged a special menu for us, and had arranged the seating so as to ensure we all had ample time to chat with everyone. Interestingly, he is studying wine and hope to take his exam in the not too distant future, and consequently some of the wine he had chosen for the evening was in fact Japanese, which is a growing industry.
Our menu, consisted of the following:-
- Carrot Ice
- Smoked chicken cake with mango
- Pan fried rockfish with vegetables and curry cream sauce
- Pan fried lamb with parsley and mustard sauce
- Cassis and kirsch mousse with a raspberry sorbet.
We were very fortunate to be able to have this dinner in the International House of Japan, and to have Lamb on the menu is exceptional as , was explained to me, it is very expensive in Japan, however our hosts all had developed a taste for I whilst living in the UK!
