By John Redmond
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (CanCham) hosted a dinner evening to introduce Canada’s finest foods at the Grand Hilton Seoul on May 19.
Under the theme “Delicious Canada” the gala dinner was an evening featuring Canadian beef and lobster with live music.
Guests at the formal, white tablecloth dinner savored the ultimate in delectable Canadian food along with live jazz, dancing, and great prizes.
This was the perfect opportunity to experience what is uniquely delicious about Canadian fare. Doors opened at 6 p.m. and began with a first class dinner of succulent Grade AAA Canadian beef and mouth-watering Canadian lobster flown in fresh from the Atlantic Ocean.
Diners were treated to live entertainment throughout the event, a jazz instrumental group played throughout dinner followed by a traditional maritime-style band. There was also raffle of several outstanding prizes, including a free round trip ticket on Air Canada to Vancouver.
CanCham Chairman Don Mackenzie talked about why the Spring Celebration generates so much enthusiasm. “We’re very excited about this event because it offers the best of the best in Canadian cuisine,” he said, adding that “our Christmas event was also an all-Canadian food extravaganza and not only did it sell out completely to nearly 200 people, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and all of the outstanding Canadian food.”
With an emphasis on lobster, the entrees included lobster, avocado and red pimento sheet followed by lobster pastrami, micro greens, whisky cola caviar and lemon dust. The soup was a lobster cappuccino with brandy froth. The main course was half a Canadian fresh lobster, coffee rubbed Canadian flat iron roast, potato gratin square.
Mike Weisbart from CanCham spoke to The Korea Times about the event and the aims of CanCham.
“The primary aim of CanCham is to serve the Canadian business community. But we hope to extend our efforts to the greater community of people who are either from Canada or Koreans who are related to Canada. So we welcome Korean members, especially people who have been educated in Canada or who have lived, worked, and/or invested in Canada. We hope to create a strong community of people who care about Canada and take an active interest in it, and to be a bridge between our two countries. For Koreans who have come back from Canada in particular, we hope to offer them an opportunity to maintain their connection with the country while here in Korea,” he said.
He stated that the event was a success.
“We were very pleased with the event. It was the first time in a long time for us to run this kind of event and we will do it on an annual basis from now. It was a great chance for everyone to throw their best suit on and have some fun with great Canadian lobster and beef. We had more than 100 people in attendance and I know it’s going to be even bigger next time.”
He also went on to state how CanCham plans to expand membership.
“We are currently in the process of expanding our membership and have created two new categories for people to join under. One is a Professional Educator’s category and the other is what we called a Friend’s of the Chamber category. Both enable people to join at reduced rates from our normal business membership categories. We hope to encourage young Canadians working here and young Koreans who have been educated in Canada and returned to Korea to work to get involved with our organization. CanCham can play an important role in growing the Canadian community overall.”
For more information contact www.canchamkorea.org.