India, Feb. 8 -- A huge wooden cask bound with metal hoops lies in the centre amid a crowd of people at the Embassy of Japan. The barrel is about to be hit with a wooden hammer. I, then, get to know that it's the traditional Kagami Biraki ceremony, which marks the start of something new in the country. The term literally translates as "opening the mirror" or "breaking of the mochi ," in which a cask of sake is opened. Thereby, the evening with 'Japanese food and sake' begins.

The enormous hall has 10 counters, five on each side. There are different varieties of food and flavours of sake, all from the land of the rising sun. The very first counter that attracts me is that of the Spinach paneer rice. Greens, proteins and carbohydrates, all...