Nikkei Matsuri prep... It Takes A Village

It takes a village for our church to prepare for Nikkei Matsuri and the evening’s work in the Fellowship Hall was just one tiny portion of all the work needed. In this instance, the work crew was doing the prep work for the Teppan Taco food booth. The work included slicing and dicing pounds and pounds of pork butt as seen here with Byran Longmire, Karen and Tom Maeda. I know for a fact, all three are very handy with a knife. Below, Lori Longmire is ensuring that each bag is the correct proportion for the marinade.

Several tables of pork cutters included clockwise from left: Jim Mar, Its Yokota, Ichiro and Tyler Bakoshi, Hector Acuna, and Judie Kanemoto.

Doing up some of the coriander going for the taco topping were Jeffrey Oldham and Carl Miya.

Peeling and chopping garlic and ginger were, clockwise from left: Rob Hikido, Marcus, Catherine Huang, Helen Lee, and Natasha Odama.

Yes, many hands make short work and would you believe, this is only the first of two shifts. Vanessa Perry-Mar with Elaine Hikido and Luz Gonzalez.

Making the yummy secret sauce for the tacos were: Sarah Holt, Shelley Nakashima and Bev Acuna.

I love a man in an apron…Jeffrey Oldham helping Brenda Gee do the dishes. No dish pan hands here. We wear gloves!!!