Unorthodox Osechi at My Parents' - 2006 -

New Year’s Day is a time for tradition in Japan. Just like many other families in this country, my family (my parents, my sister, her husband and two kids and me) got together and celebrated the holiday. (Photos with '*' mark can be enlarged.) * As I wrote in my New Year’s celebration entries last year, my family, especially my dad, always makes a big fuss about observing the traditional customs, but the funny thing is that our family tradition is quite different from the mainstream practice. For example, I don’t know any household in my hometown (or anywhere else) that makes a decoration like the one in the left photo. Dad calls it "yone" and I assume the name probably came from "rice." I have no idea when and who started this custom in my family... Looks like dad forgot to add taro last year but this year he didn't forget to do so. We did the ceremony with otoso (sake dedicated to god) and zoni (rice cake soup) in the morning as we do every year, then we went into the dining room and had a big feast. (I heard that otoso usually means sweetened sake, but at my parents' house, it is straight sake.) Read More As I wrote last year, our osechi (traditional New Year dishes) is quite unorthodox as well as the decorations. Sorry, the food photos are a little blurred this year. It was not my or my new digital camera’s fault. My sister’s kids were so excited and they tried to hug me when I was taking shots and also tried to get their hands with peace signs in the food photos. The bigger one above is the only shot that survived without being blurred. We have to give the kids credit, though. Three of the below photos are the jubako (lacquer boxes) that they packed. * For more detailed explanation of osechi, see these sites. It has been our big problem that we make too much osechi every year, so this time we really made an effort to reduce the variety and quantity of the food. We bought no rolled-sushi and less of the colorful kamaboko (steamed fish cake), but we did make the "must-haves" like kobumaki (fish strips rolled in kelp), inari-zushi (sushi rice stuffed in deep-fried tofu pouch) and konnyaku-sushi. You can have a better look of the konnyaku-sushi this year. They are the gray, triangle-shaped stuff underneath the turtle ornament in the bigger osechi photo. We sliced konnyaku (devil's-tongue jelly) into triangular pieces, boiled and seasoned them with soy sauce, sugar, etc. then made a deep cut in each piece to make a pocket and stuffed it with sushi rice. Of course, we couldn’t omit the kids’ favorites: ebifurai (breaded and deep-fried prawns) chicken karaage (deep-fried chicken) and meat balls. But I must confess that about half of our osechi food was store-bought. (Oh, and what I called “a BIG mistake” was the red-and-white vinegared lotus roots. They had a real unpleasant bitter taste which the vinegar couldn’t hide, and my sis’s husband said it probably came from some kind of bleach they seem to have used.) :( * We should have used something better than a plastic tupperware to put the kazunoko (seasoned herring roe) in. ;P * Since the ocean was rough and local fishermen couldn’t go fishing at the end of last year, no wild yellowtail was available. The sashimi was pretty good, though... except the extra-chewy squid sashimi. After the osechi, my niece prepared green tea for everyone (except my dad who was taking a nap). My mom teaches tea ceremony and looks like she gave my niece an intensive lesson a few days before the New Year’s Day. These are the wagashi we had: the photo on the left is higashi (dry-type wagashi) and the one on the right is namagashi (moist-type). So, we went through the necessary rituals again this year. It made all the family members really busy, but we know that we would have felt awfully sad and dull if we hadn’t done it (but once a year is definitely enough). ;)