Hi there
Since my last post about the Ganbarou Nippon, Japanese trade show & food fair held at Suntec, I have been waiting patiently for it to start.
There are many exhibitors which I have not heard before, but there are also familiar ones like Ippudo & Yamakawa Trading which is the trading firm that brings you all those Japanese goodies to the supermarket near you.
As the first couple of days are only for traders, I could only wait patiently for them to open to public. Finally got my chance to check it out when it was opened on Sunday.
Once you reach there, you do see visitors coming out from the event with multiple bags, especially Japanese visitors, I guess they were really packing up their favourite goodies there.
It was located on the 4th level of suntec convention hall. The floor area is not that large as it is hosting together with the wine fiesta 2011, sharing the same hall.
Reaching there is a breeze since it is at suntec convention, so only need to take the train to Esplanade Stn. It is free admission for the Ganbarou Nippon fare but payable for the Wine Fiesta. Both fairs drew equal amount of visitors when i reached there.
The fair covers quite a comprehensive range of exhibitors, I managed to find my all time favourite food company kewpie (pronounced as Q-B) which is famous for their Japanese mayonnaise and salad dressing among the exhibitors too.
They gave out many sample portions of salad dressing, and you can really see their mayo products were selling fast as well. By the time I got there, the stock were already running really low, and the salad dressing were all sold out. There were also many recipe ideas in the booth, so you can get a copy and try it at home.
I managed to get couple bottles at very good prices, just $5 for 2 bottles too. One is sandwich spread and the other is regular flavor mayo which is great for making potato salad.
There are also booths that sell Okinawa products, soya sauce, noodles, meat products, bonito flakes and snacks like wasabi pistachio nuts and crackers from the yamakawa trading which bring you all the Japanese products at Ntuc fairprice.
You will get to receive many new products and samples, especially when you purchase products on the spot from the exhibitors. I got some teriyaki sauce, sashimi soya sauce and unagi sauce free samples, and managed to try out that night and turned out to be very tasty.
You can also try out some fruity vinegar which is proven to be really good for health. There are also free Japanese beer tasting and you can see people holding wine glass in one and beer cup in another, enjoying themselves in both events.
There are various kinds of cold dishes available, especially those you can find in Japanese restaurant like Sakae sushi, are also in the exhibit.
Ramen also going for $1 – $2 a pack, so that you can buy back some and savor at your home.
Besides food and beverage, There are also interesting booths which showcase latest products like shape cutter which are great for making kids bento and vegetable slicer which is great for New Year Lo Hei. Exquisite looking Japanese bowls and plates with some quality pans & pots are also for sale.
But I think one of the highlight at the show is probably the wagyu beef booth. You can see visitors flocking to the wagyu beef section because they have constant samples of the wagyu beef and sushi. The aroma of the wagyu beef during cooking is really mouth watering!
During the event, they also have various programs & workshops and I managed to see the kids ramen workshop hosted by Ipudo, you can tell the little ones were enjoying every minute of making the noodles and of course enjoy their fruits of labor.
And like other trade shows, not only you can try out food that you seldom have the chance to see or buy, you can also get it at great discounted prices too. Towards the end of the show, you are able to hear booth exhibitors shouting at the top of their lungs to clear off the stock they bring to the show. That’s where the bargain hunt began.
During this Ganbarou Nippon event, I managed to get my hands on some salted salmon flakes that is great to go with hot steaming rice. Some white soya sauce and my favorite mayo.
Hopefully next year this event will bring in even more exhibitors so that we can enjoy even more goodies from Japan. 🙂
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Cheers
Dawn
the exhibition sound interesting… hope to go next year …. I thought they only sell their goods, didn’t know they got free sampling and free gifts upon purchases.
Hi, yes, actually they are giving away quite a fair bit of samples as well, and at the end of the show, they were really selling their goods at very attractive pricing to clear the stocks away e.g. kitchen gadgets were selling at $5 for really good restaurant quality types. Hopefully next year, you can check it out. 🙂