On June 22, Japan's Emperor Naruhito and his wife embarked on a week-long trip to the United Kingdom at the invitation of King Charles III.
The two flew for more than a dozen hours, landed at Stansted Airport in Essex, received a grand welcome at the airport, and then took a Bentley car sent by King Charles to their hotel in central London.
(Mr. and Mrs. Naruhito)
Emperor Naruhito's original plan was to visit the UK in 2020 when the Queen was in office, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic...
Until the Queen's death, the Naruhito couple came to attend Queen Elizabeth's state funeral, and the visit did not take place...
Naruhito's visit was Charles' third state visit since he succeeded to the throne, and Masako was also with him, so both of them should want to relive their years of studying at Oxford University.
(Naruhito's young photo)
Two days before arriving in the UK, Naruhito and Masako were busy visiting the Japan House, a facility that spreads Japanese culture, and meeting Japanese people living in the UK and British people with ties to Japan at the hotel.
On the evening of the 25th local time, the fourth day of the emperor's and couple's visit to the United Kingdom, Charles and Camilla held a state banquet at Buckingham Palace to officially entertain Naruhito and Masako.
(Dinner)
The visit did not attract much attention among the British public, but Charles took it quite seriously...
During the day, Charles sent William to personally greet Naruhito and his wife, and stayed with Naruhito and them ever since. In front of the media, Charles held Naruhito's hand at all times, and the two seemed to be close...
Naruhito was awarded the highest knightly order, and Charles received the "Order of the Chrysanthemum", Japan's highest honor.
(British Royal Family & Royal Couple)
At the state banquet in the evening, Charles also brought out a collection of luxury tableware to entertain the Naruhito.
The deluxe version of the tableware, all made of silver and plated with a thin layer of gold, is said to have been bought by George IV for £60,000 in the early 19th century, and was first used at a banquet in 1811, but it is antique.
(Banquet Heart)
Last year, the delicate boy Charles temporarily decided to put his own stamp on all the royal tableware for the state banquet - a small white porcelain plate with a "password" on it, so that the guests could see it at a glance when they were seated...
(Charles Code)
Buckingham Palace staff were busy for weeks to prepare for the state dinner, as it took eight people about three weeks to clean and polish the dishes.
In the video posted on the Buckingham Palace Twitter account, the waiters are still preparing the table before the banquet, and they are too busy to touch the ground. Camilla personally came to inspect the banquet site...
(Camila comes to make rounds)
At the banquet, only the king, the emperor and his wife, as well as the core royal family members and VIPs sat at the main table, and Prime Minister Sunak was not able to make it to the main table...
(State banquet scene)
As for the banquet menu, it was the royal chef who was in charge of formulating it, and the Japanese had been eagerly predicting it for a long time...
A French course with a Japanese state banquet usually consists of 8 dishes, side dishes, appetizers, soups, fish dishes, frozen desserts, meat dishes, cheeses, and desserts.
But this British state dinner is actually a total of four courses, one appetizer, two main courses, and one dessert and fruit.
It's gone......
It's really a food desert.......
(State Banquet Menu)
Here's how the dish looks...
(State Banquet Menu)
Each dish is accompanied by a wine, an appetizer with champagne, a red wine with "herb butter lettuce fish", a white wine with "creamy potato and spinach croquettes", a rosé wine with a dessert "peach sorbet"...
Since spinach croquettes are a vegetarian dish, the only ones that are dipped in meat are fish and shrimp, but in the eyes of the Japanese, this is not a meat dish...
And there's no "shepherd's pie," a beloved English folk dish on the menu, lamb stew and mashed potatoes, on the menu...
(Shepherd's Pie)
The explanation of the Japanese media is that Charles has long been concerned about environmental issues, and he vigorously promotes organic farms, eats vegetarian food several times a week, and indulges in organic vegetables.
This year's state dinner dishes also use local British organic food and organic vegetables, and also incorporate unique British ingredients, all grown on farms, without the use of pesticides.
But they also implicitly imply that red wine is usually paired with meat dishes, but this time it comes with fish...
(Suspected cold shrimp cucumber with basil sauce and cold tomato consommé)
Japanese netizens couldn't sit still either, and they had a lot of complaints about the menu...
"I'd be a little surprised if there was no meat for the main course...... When I think of England, I think of roast beef. ”
(Japanese netizens speak)
And feedback on the queen's visit to Japan before, the state banquet menu prepared by Japan...
(Menu of the Queen of Japanese Hospitality)
The dishes are all French cuisine made with special Japanese ingredients and are tailored to the Queen's tastes to make her happy.
According to the detailed introduction produced by the Japanese media, the noodles at the dinner that year were not made by machines, but ground from stone mortars...
(Making noodles)
The first course of soft-shelled turtle soup is made by adding soft-shelled turtle, beef and vegetables, and carefully boiling for 8 hours...
(Soft-shelled turtle soup)
The meat of the sea trout is sandwiched between the meat of shrimp and squid, and there is clam meat next to it, but looking at the head of this raw fish... I don't have any appetite either.
(Seafood platter)
Roasted quail with black truffle in the middle ...
(Foie gras grilled quail)
Lamb with mint sauce to highlight the meaty taste...
(Roast leg of lamb)
It can only be said that it is like two food desert PK, but the Japanese side has put a lot of effort into it...
I don't know if Charles really started to maintain his health, or took care of the Naruhito couple's body and didn't dare to cook meat dishes, or the royal chef Mae Lang did his best...
The British state banquet is about to win the first place in the world's gastronomic deserts