"Two Tuesday Japan Benefits at CRBC, CSUMB" by Food Blog

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Two Tuesday Japan Benefits at CRBC, CSUMB

March 28, 2011

Grab the kimono and prepare to party with a purpose.

At Cannery Row Brewing Company, a full complement of six different DJs (Hanif Wondir, Brandon Gilbert, A.J. Bee, Joey C, Scully and Tyler Jackson) will buttress live music by two groups (Band of Ninjas and Matt Masih and The Messengers) in the basement and a great drink-and-eat deal to help heal Japan.

The deal: Donate $25—which event collaborator Ryan Lama and friends aim to deliver to ground-level organizations and not administration-heavy NGOs with help from local folks with Japanese connections, as they successfully did for a Chile benefit after the earthquake there—and get three drink tickets (non drinkers get raffle tickets) and a taste of Mark Ayers' tasty appetizers throughout the night (I'd hope for deep-friend raviolis, mini corn dogs and pulled-pork sliders personally).

The music starts tomorrow, Tuesday, March 29, at 9pm.

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Across town, CSU Monterey Bay spokespeople report, "It seems that people and food come together in times of great tragedy."

With the help of a former Weekly intern. After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Aya Kamata, an international student from Japan who spent three months learning the journalism craft at the Weekly World Headquarters, contacted Campus Dining at CSUMB with the idea of featuring Japanese cuisine as a fundraising opportunity.

Hence Tuesday, March 29, will be Japanese Relief Day. Tastes like miso soup, pork tonkatsu, teryaki and tofu salads will be offered all day in the Dining Commons and a percentage of proceeds—on all food sold, not just the Japanese dishes—will be donated to the relief effort.

Visitors to the Dining Commons, at least at lunch and dinner, will also be able to get a lesson in origami and get their name written in Japanese script.

The campus website also added this: Japanese exchange students at CSUMB, as well as students in the Japan Club and the International Club began raising money to help victims almost immediately after news reports broke. Though most students left campus for spring break, and most students are broke by definition, $700 had been raised by March 17. That money will be donated to the Japan Democratic Medical Organization.

The Dining Commons is located on the campus quad. Driving directions and a campus map are helpful in finding it.

Arigato.