TOKYO TASTER | By Kylie Andrew, VIS Sports Dietitian & Nutrition Coordinator
With less than 18 months to go until the Paralympics, I set off on an information gathering expedition to Japan with Paralympics Australia’s Lead Sports Dietitian, Siobhan Crawshay. Our destination…. Kobe … a city on Osaka Bay in Central Japan and the site for the 2020 Paralympics Staging Camp.
Our mission: to determine how and what we will feed our Paralympic athletes as they put the finishing touches on their preparations for Tokyo.
To do this we visited several different supermarkets, both local and international, with interpreter in tow. We scanned the aisles, read labels, took numerous photos, purchased products for sampling, compiled lists and made plans.
To get a better feel for the local cuisine and appreciation for the sorts of foods that would be available to our athletes, we dined out at several Japanese restaurants and tried some typical Japanese dishes, including Japanese hot pot, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) and teppanyaki. Kobe is well known for its wagyu beef, considered a delicacy in Japan and valued for its flavour, tenderness and fatty, well-marbled texture. Quite different to an Aussie eye fillet!
We were also warmly welcomed at Nichii Gakkan, the planned venue for the Paralympics staging camp, where we met with the chefs to discuss catering for our athletes, to ensure that it would meet not only their nutritional needs, but tastes and personal preferences too. The chefs had kindly prepared a number of dishes for us to try; some traditional meals that they would typically serve to residents, as well as a number of Western dishes for which we had provided recipes.
With very full bellies and a taste of what’s to come in 2020, we headed off to the airport and back home to continue the important planning and preparation. I can’t wait to get back there next year!!
