Namaste India introduces vegan food in Japan
Asian Community News (ACN) Network's Tokyo correspondent Nupur Tewari talks to Rahul Garg, President, Indian Students Association that organised Namaste India food stall during May Festival at University of Tokyo recently.
Hongo (Japan). The ‘Namaste India’ food stall serving Indian vegan cuisines turned out to be a huge hit amongst Japanese nationals besides Indians at the University of Tokyo during May Festival (五月祭 gogatsusai) on May 19.
On the platter was Paniyaram, one of the everyday breakfast from the South Indian cuisine that share similarity with Japan’s popular Takoyaki. But since it was prepared without Tako, the organizers Indian Students Association, therefore, named it as Takenashi Yaki.
The Indian drinks included India’s favorite summer sharbat Rooh Afza and Tang.
Rahul Garg, the president of Indian Students Association at the University of Tokyo said that the association set up Namaste India food stall every year during the May Festival.
“Every year, we introduce new Indian food for the Japanee friends here. This time we introduced vegan food delicacies like Paniyaram – a delicious of south Indian food similar to Takoyaki, which is very popular in Japan,” said Garg who is a Civil Engineering student and doing his master here.
Paniyaram is healthy as well as delicious too and is a perfect melange of southern spices and veggies. This South Indian recipe is made with idli batter, carrot, cabbage, and mint leaves.
Last year, the Indian Students Association introduced gole gappe (pani poori), and the previous year paranthas and pao bhaji.
Nupur Tewari and Yogesh, who also represent non-profit organizations Heal Tokyo/HealIndya, helped Indian Students Association to spread awareness about Indian food at the Namaste India stall.
“The idea behind, introducing various Indian delicacies is that we want to tell the Japanese that Indians don’t eat curry and rice only. As regards the vegan food, since most of the Japanese are non-vegetarian but we have introduced vegan food as the trend is shifting to it now,” Garg added.
He said those coming to Japan to study, need not worry about finding vegan food. The Indian Students Association can be approached for any help such as applying for Japanese universities etc.
May Festival is an academic and cultural festival by the students at the University of Tokyo, held annually in May. The festival, marking its 92nd time this year, dates back to 1923.
The May Festival is a student festival that is held annually in Hongo. It all started on May 5th, 1923 as both a gesture to welcome new students and a large-scale garden party for the student association.
Students opened up every Faculty in the morning and exhibited machines and devices that were incomprehensible to outsiders throughout the day held debates about student autonomy issues at noon.
Since then, the event has been renamed a few times, for instance to Daikonshinkai (meaning large social gathering) and Zengaku-kaiho (meaning the opening up of the whole school). The event came to be called Gogatsusai (May Festival) from the 10th time it was held.
