Japanese Festival!

So we got to go out to the festival Saturday walk around and have some fun. I enjoyed the garden and even got a paper parasol painted with a Sakura tree on it to help keep the 102 degree heat off.

I have to say what I enjoyed most (besides getting to be there with my husband) was the Japanese ladies who did 4 different cooking demonstrations with samples of everything they cooked.  They als talked about how making bentos they always make sure to have 4 colors of food to make sure the kids are getting alot of the vitamins and minerals they need.

The top image, is a bento box one of the lady's moms used to pack for her to take for lunch to her kindergarten class when she was growing up in japan. 

The cooked all traditional home style items that would have been something they ate when growing up in japan and items they still cook today for their kids here in the US.

The items they made where--
Stuffed Lotus Root (In the bento box it is the item on the far left) which is two thin slices of lotus root with a ground meat mixture sandwiched between then lightly pan fried with a pan sauce over.  These where crunchy and only slightly sweet.  I plan on trying to make them for dinner one night, or even make a larger batch to take to the group I game with.
Japanese Style sweet Omelet (in the sample bowl image its on the bottom left next to the fake grass) This was a very different dish for me I had never tasted anything like it.  It was not  my favorite part of the sample but it wasn't bad just different... very um not anything like you would expect.
Steamed Veg & Japanese mustard dressing (broccoli and carrots)  They had cute little metel cutters that where about 1/2 in wide they used to cut stars, flowers, and even kitty faces out of carrot slices the sauce was realy good with them I could see it turning a broccoli hater into a lover easy.
Rice Ball with Sesame and salt - Literally just rice seasoned with sesame and salt but still good.
Finally my favirt item of the sample--
Butter Mochi!!  It was a very sweet and dense style Japanese cake which I can not wait to try making!

Here are some photos of the garden grounds, and some of the bonzi that were on display.

And finaly I will end the post with an image of the gift shops display of my amigurumi.