On Sunday, my class had a welcome party for the new students. At the same time, I was eating Dutch food from a Michelin star restaurant (my first time!). I didn’t know that it would clash when I signed up, so please don’t think I was intentionally running away (although I am not fond of nomikai).

But that did mean that I had every intention of joining them after the dinner, since both events were at Tenjin.

So first, why was I even at an event like this? Well, it was hosted by the EUIJ (European Union In Japan), and I’m technically signed up for the EUIJ-Kyushu Diploma Program (more about that in a later post). I haven’t actually been to an event before this, since they’re most symposiums, but this looked interesting. And it involved eating.

I was put at a table with…. my first semester English teacher. That was a surprise. I was actually seated next to one of the office workers from the EUIJ-Kyushu Hakozaki Campus office and a French exchange student. So interesting conversations all around.

This is me trying to be sneaky and take a photo of the pretty flower arrangements.

This event was held to celebrate the one year anniversary of direct Fukuoka – Amsterdam flight by KLM. So they flew in Ingrid from De Karpendonkse Hoeve (also known as Ingrid’s place), which holds one Michelin star.

Apart from a lanyard from KLM, we also got the recipes for all the food we ate

And lots of other flyers.

Apparently, the Netherlands are really proud of asparagus (is this true?). But Ingrid doesn’t like Asparagus, and her husband doesn’t like cheese, so this dish seems unlikely to appear in their home. I liked it though.

The third course was Lame in Brioche, Simmered Lam, Green Pea Cream, Rosemary Sauce.

Yums

 The lamb was really delicious. The simmered lamb was really soft, and the Lamb in Brioche, while hard to cut (wrong knives), was tender.

Dessert was Panna Cotta of Ginger Biscuit, Ginger Bread Crumble, Orange Compote.

Apparently, Panna Cotta is Italian and means “cooked cream”. But it was so good and really filling.

Dinner ended with Demi-tasse de cafe, which apparently means half a cup of coffee. But they gave everyone a full cup. I got tea, since I don’t drink coffee.

Was this dinner worth it? Well, I’m going to go with yes. The food was good, and I enjoyed listening to Ingrid talk about the dishes. I’d like to try the dishes in the Netherlands though, since these dishes were prepared by Japanese chefs (so there might be some difference).

I realised that I really should attend more EUIJ events. This was fun, and I dare say that others will be too.

For those of you wondering, no, I didn’t make it to my class party in the end. I wore heels (after so long), and my feet hurt so much that I decided to go home. Plus, I had school on Monday.