"Tongan Cooking Class by Former JICA Volunteers"

On November 15th, at the Oura Town Central Community Center, Ms. Satomi Gray Arima (job: Support for disabled children and adults), who has experience working as a JOCV in Tonga, held a class on how to make Tongan dishes using local specialties, and together with eight participants, they made the Tongan dishes "Lu Pulu" (Lu is taro leaf, Pulu is beef) and "Ota Ika" (Ota is raw, Ika is fish). Local ingredients used included spinach and cassava from Oura Town, and beef from Gunma Prefecture. The base flavor is coconut milk. While the food was steaming in the oven, Ms. Arima shared her experiences in Tonga, and the delicious food gave us a taste of the tropics. We hope to continue holding Tongan cooking classes using local ingredients, furthering exchanges between Tonga and Japan.