Iron Chef 2009
Record Turnout for the 7th Annual Competition
A great time was had by all at this year’s Iron Chef Competition. This was the 7th year JETAA Portland has hosted this event, and it was by far the largest and most successful! We had over 45 people: JETAA members, J-Kaiwa friends, family members and kids. It was a family-oriented event with great opportunity for everyone to catch up and enjoy good conversation and of course…great homemade Japanese food!
Iron Chef Results
This year’s competition proved quite fierce as separate tables were needed for each of the competing categories. Below are the winners (and their winning dishes):
- Iron Chef Main Dish – Leslie Siebert (Boiled Gyoza), runner up Walt Barker (Thai stew)
- Iron Chef Side Dish – Jarod Bishop (Miso Salad), runner up Chiyomi Higashi (hijiki)
- Iron Chef Dessert – Scott Smith (Mochi Ice Cream), runner up Tracy Suzuki (Kuzu Mochi)
All Iron Chef winners not only basked in the glory and pride of winning, they each received a gift card to Uwajimaya. Runner ups received consolation prizes of Pocky snacks.
Sake Tasting
This year we added a bit of sake to the mix. We enjoyed sake tasting featuring a variety of delicious sakes from Sake One (www.sakeone.com) in Forest Grove, the only American owned Sakery in the world! Choices for sipping were: Asian Pear, Organic Ginjyo Junmai, and Organic Nigori. All three provided the perfect complement to the great food.
Consulate Participation
Recently arrived Vice Consul Shoichiro Watanabe attended his first official event for the consulate by attending our Iron Chef party. This was his first impression of JETAA and it appeared that he was very impressed. Thanks to everyone who introduced themselves and got to know him. He wrote a very nice thank you note and looks forward to attending our J-Kaiwa and other JETAA events.
JETAAs Old & New
The highlight of this party was the wonderful collection of JETAA members. In attendance were members from the first year of the JET Program through recent returnees and included six past presidents! Former president Tracy Suzuki and previous Sports Chair Chris Reidel hadn’t seen each other for 7 years! And Charlotte Stewart (2002-2004) found out that she lived in the same apartment building as Leslie Siebert (1993-1996) in Japan! These stories are examples of why coming to JETAA Portland functions reminds us why our time in Japan was so special.
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