If you don’t know what an “enkai” (宴会 - banquet) is, it’s basically a Japanese take on reserved parties.

In the Japanese work culture, “enkai” are treated as a workplace bonding experience. If you’re saying farewell to a departing employee at the end of the working year, there will be an enkai. If you’re welcoming new employees, there will be an enkai.

If you want to see out the calendar year and bid farewell to the hardships faced?

There’s an enkai dedicated to that too.

If you’re working as an Assistant Language Teacher and you get invited to an enkai, take the opportunity to do so. As far as I am concerned, they are great opportunities to improve your Japanese communication skills.

I digress.

This is a quick and dirty post to show off what kinds of food you can expect to eat at an enkai. Enkai are typically held at izakaya-style restaurants, but with the pandemic still going on, the enkai I went to last night was held at a hotel near Nagasaki Station.

This was the set meal that we had:

Fish sashimi with various Japanese side dishes

Sashimi with several side dishes.

A dish of tempura prawn and squid on a bed of crunchy noodles and sauce

Tempura prawn and squid with a spicy sweet-and-sour sauce and crunchy noodles.

Tempura fish and vegetables

Tempura fish with broccoli, carrot, potato, and mushroom

Western-style beef with mashed potato, a mini croquette, half a Brussel Sprout, a piece of carrot, and some jus

Beef with potato done two ways, carrot, and Brussel sprout

Chocolate Swiss roll with a sliced strawberry and cream

Chocolate Swiss roll with a strawberry slice, cream, and a citrus sauce

Not shown: rice and soup.

Also not shown: beer and wine. Then again, I stopped drinking shortly before moving to Japan over four years ago.

As for why I ended up eating double? We had an absent teacher, their food was piling up on the table, and we didn’t want to see any of it go to waste.

If you were to organise a two-hour enkai, what would you order for the courses?