Hello everyone, I hope you are all enjoying this lovely autumn weather!
My last blog was the first in a grammar series focused on Future Tense and the correct use of “will”. I will continue discussing future tense in my next blog.
But this time, I would like to discuss something light and fun. Bar-be-que! Everyone loves BBQ parties, right!?
The annual Smith’s School of English – Miyakojima BBQ party was held earlier this month on Sunday, October 2nd . The BBQ party was held on the Yodogawa Kasenjiki area near Kemma, Osaka. It is a beautiful and spacious area with green grass, lovely trees and a view of the Yodogawa River. I was worried about rain or a possible typhoon, but we were lucky again this year and the weather was amazingly sunny, very warm and a cloudless blue sky. A perfect day for a BBQ party!
The Smith’s School of English – Miyakojima BBQ parties are always a lot of fun and this was our biggest and best BBQ party ever. Twenty-eight people attended, and the feedback from my students is that everyone had a wonderful, relaxing time. I think after three years of COVID-19 related social restrictions, everyone was thrilled to take off their masks and socialize with other people in a safe outdoor environment.
I wanted my students to have a chance to experience a mostly western style BBQ, so I did away with the typical Japanese yakinuku and vegetables, and put together a menu that featured some classic western style BBQ/picnic foods, with a couple international items included.
So, what was on the menu for the BBQ party?
Tandoori Chicken:
Half-and-half breast and thigh chicken meat, marinated for 2.5 days in Dan’s special mix of Indian spices, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, and yogurt. Then the marinated chicken was put on skewers, cooked on the BBQ, and finally served with freshly squeezed lemon juice on top.
Hamburgers:
100% pure Japanese beef patties, seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, roasted porchini mushroom powder, chopped-up porchini mushrooms and grated frozen butter. The frozen butter is the secret to stop the patties getting dry on the BBQ. 😉
Toppings included two kinds of cheese, roasted onions, deep-fried onions, pickles, tomato, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and Dan’s special homemade BBQ sauce.
The hamburger buns were provided by Craft Burger, my favorite gourmet hamburger shop in Osaka.
Everyone said the hamburgers were the best thing that they ate at the BBQ party. #1 hit!
Pulled Pork Sandwiches:
Pulled pork is not famous yet in Japan so it was a first-time experience for my students to eat it.
Preparation time is long but it is so worth the effort and time.
First, I covered large pieces of pork roast with Dan’s special mix of spices and let the meat rest for 1 day to let the spices go inside the pork.
Then the day before the BBQ party, the pork was put in a Dutch oven pot and covered with a homemade BBQ sauce. Then it was cooked slowly with low heat in an oven for about 5 hours until it was very tender. Finally, the pork was pulled into thin strips using 2 forks. This is why it is called “pulled pork”.
At the BBQ party, the pork was reheated in a pot with some of the leftover BBQ sauce. Then the pork was put on small hamburger buns and topped with a special purple cabbage salad and secret sauce 😉 Delicious!
Potato Salad:
The potato salad was a North American picnic style one. So, the potatoes were cut into small cubes, not mashed as in Japanese style potato salad. The special ingredients in this salad were American style mayonnaise, crispy bacon, and fresh dill. Fresh dill is the magic herb that made the flavor of this potato salad very fresh and unique.
Coleslaw:
The coleslaw recipe was my copy of the KFC coleslaw recipe. Chopped cabbage, carrot and onion, with American style mayonnaise, sugar, white pepper, lemon juice, white vinegar and the secret ingredient…..buttermilk. I love all kinds of coleslaw, but I think this is the best version of coleslaw thanks to the buttermilk.
And finally….
I served Japanese yakisoba as the last main course. Everyone had eaten a lot of food already, but some how they managed to eat even more!!
One of my passions in life is cooking, and I love cooking for large groups of people. It was A LOT of work but I really enjoyed preparing all of the foods served at the BBQ party. Everything was homemade by hand and with lot of love. My students are like my family, and it gave me great satisfaction to see all of them eat, drink, laugh, communicate, and have so much fun on that day!
Coming soon….
Now, preparations for the Christmas/year-end celebrations have already started. Decorations will start going up in the Miyakojima school at the end of November. And, the Smith’s School of English Miyakojima – Annual Christmas Dinner Party will be held on December 10th.
I and all of my students are very much looking forward to this time, as we celebrate the end of another wonderful year of studying together.
Look for a party report after the annual Christmas party, in a future blog post!
Until then, enjoy the autumn and continue to enjoy studying English.
Dan
Smith’s School of English Miyakojima
Wow Dan, that’s fantastic!
Thanks Jim. It was a lot of work but well worth it. All of my students had a great time and still talk about the good memories.