Hey all! If you haven't guessed already, I'm a Japanese... or my ethnicity is... my nationality is Japanese American... second gernation. Although my family lives in America, we still try to adhere to our lineage, so one way we do so is celebrating New Year Japanese style. We call New Year, "oshogatsu," and there are a variety of things Japanese people do, however, living in America, my family sticks to only a few of the traditions.
TOSHIKOSHI SOBA
The first thing on our to do list is eat "toshikoshi soba" which means year end soba and is basically soba you eat on New Year's Eve. Soba is a type of noodle made from buckwheat. It can be served hot with broth or cold with memmi (salty soup base). Toshikoshi soba is served hot. I'm not sure if there is something that distinguishes it from normal soba besides when we eat it, but in my family, we eat it with toppings we would include any other day. The reason why we eat toshikoshi soba is because the noodles are long and thin which represents longevity.
KOHAKU UTA GASSEN
So my family eats toshikoshi soba for dinner normally and we eat it while doing another traditional activity which is watching Kohaku Uta Gassen, usually shortened to "Kohaku". Kohaku Uta Gassen means "Red and White Song Competition" as a red team of noted singers and a white team of singers compete for a panel of judges' votes. It is a fairly new tradition being only 62 years old. Of course 62 years is a long time but i'm pretty sure the other New Year traditions have been around for a longer period of time. Kohaku lasts about 4 hours and ends a little before midnight. Fortunately my family can take part in this tradition because the rerun is shown on the Japanese TV channel on American time being that there is a time lag between America and Japan.
We watch it every year, but I'm actually not a big fan of it. Kohaku only invites singers that have a distinguished musical career; many are to the taste of the older generation with Enka n stuff which all sound the same to me After the tenth Enka artist = boring. The artists that appeal to the younger generation ALWAYS sing songs that are peppy and happy to the max and as xiaxue said "rainbows and unicorns." Also, a characteristic of the competition is that its extremely extravagant. I would be more into it if they had artists like Miliyah Kato or Daichi Miura....... or SOULJAAA XD. But that's never going to happen because none of them are happy or peppy. Kay back to reality..the competition has a bunch of back up dancers, huge props, crazy costumes just a lot of enthusiasm n craze which is cool n all but i would like it more if it was done more tastefully. I think they look TOO ridiculous. I totally sound like a depressed hater but the music gets old real quick and the outfits are mostly ugly. Basically I'm sitting there for the food, n when its gone, I'm gone :)
OSECHI
So on the morning of New Years, we eat something called "osechi." Osechi is not a single dish, but a name that umbrellas many dishes. Since the food takes a lot of time to prepare, it is prepared before New Years. My mom started cooking 4 days before @_@ she is truly a super woman. Kay but don't freak out, she took so many days because she was working on all 4 of em so she was only able to make a few dishes per day. 'Neways, since its made beforehand, it is served cold.
First, appetizers are served with sake.
These three are always a must. The fish is is called Tazukuri. They are sugar and soy sauce glazed dried sardines. These fish are traditionally used as fertilizer so the dish represents a good harvest. The beans are called Kuro-mame meaning black beans. "Mame" can mean both "bean" and "health" so they represent good health. Lastly, the herring roe is called Kazunoko. "Kazu" means "number" and "ko" means "child" so Kazunoko symbolizes fertility. In addition, kazunoko come from the fish "nishin" which can also mean two parents, soooooo adding one plus one... having fertility from two parents. Wow what a symbolic fish so much depth and deliciousness.
So, as you can tell, osechi has a lot of symbolic meaning which goes for the rest of the food, however its a bit tedious to explain them all and I myself don't remember everything so here's a link.
Each plate contains foods that are cooked similarly. This one has boiled foods I think. BTW there are meatballs, but I doubt they're traditional hehe.
An interesting thing about this bowl is that it has been passed down my mother's father's side. It is a little under 300 years old and from the Edo period HOLY alkjdfoakjefoailaksjdf!!!! My friend pointed out that its older than the United States haha. This bowl has a "tenyo" painted on it (where the konyaku is on the top right in red) which is some kind of goddess meaning this bowl is for celebrations. The bowl has a large crack in it which inadvertently proved to have been a good thing because my ancestors who owned this bowl had many more that were very valuable, but my great great great grandfather, who was a very practical man, decided to sell all of them except this one because of the crack. Soon after, WW2 began and a lot of things were destroyed or lost but this bowl survived. If he kept the other bowls they may have been lost but it was a good thing he got money out of them before that haha.
Here are some things that were in the bowl.
This is the konyaku I mentioned. It has zero calories so it is used as a diet food. I think it is made from yams.
The shape represents a rope which means something that i forgot. soweeee
This is a carrot sliced like a cherry blossom. meaning.. unknown... probably just a decoration
This nextplate has things that are pickled in vinegar. The china it is in is not worth anywhere near as much as the other bowl. One way to know is to look underneath the bowl and see if there is a handwritten symbol or signature by the craftsman. If so, it is worth more. If there is just a stamp or something that's not handwritten, then it is probably mass produced and not very valuable.
This plate has pickled turnips, lotus root, and kohada (fish). My two favorite osechi foods are on this plate; the lotus root and kohada.
Here's the lotus root. The holes are naturally there as compartments for air but the shape of the outside is cut to look like pine. You're probably thinking, "I don't see the pine," nd that's because it looks like pine from traditional Japanese art.
This is radish with a bit of chili in the center. Its supposed to look like a chrysanthemum. Pretty!
Next is the grilled foods plate, and if you're wondering, this plate isn't worth much either.
There's fish on the right, gobo wrapped in beef (i think) in the back, and hidden under the leaves, there's shrimp glazed with egg yolk. I helped my mom make the shrimp. It was the first time we had it in our osechi. It seemed fairly simple on the recipe, so we decided to make it but it was freaking tedious. First you have to slice the back of the shrimp and open it up. Next you skewer them so the shape stays nice when they are grilled. Then as you grill them, you have to paint on layers of egg yolk. When you cook the yolk, you have to grill them as if your drying the yolk. Sounds easy, but it took me like 40 minutes to grill five at once. In the end, we discovered its easier to broil them in the oven and paint on the yolk every 30 seconds.
Kay so the last thing that is served is the Ozoni.
Ozoni is different from family to family and region to region. Ours is a little different every year so we don't apply, but whatever. This year we put kamaboko (fish cake), watercress, lemon peel, and mochi all in broth. Its the only thing served warm so it is nice to have as a closing item.
This is the soup bowl it was in. This bowl is very valuable. My father's mother gave them to us. It is wooden and very light weight. The red and black color is from natural lacquer, and on the bottom, there is a signature. My mom told me that this style of plates and bowls are called "japan" just as ceramic plates are called "china." Japan are (I think) all handmade because they are carved wood. There are other japan soup bowls at my house but my mom said the difference between those and this bowl is one zero on its value.
The last thing we ate was dessert.
The things in the back are called "datemaki" and they are made from eggs. The egg is first cooked into a flat sheet which is then rolled up and sliced. Because it is rolled, it looks like a scroll which represents knowledge. Its actually not a dessert and it was supposed to be on one of the other plates, but the kurikinton, the dessert my mom was going to make the next day, was obviously not done yet. Datemaki is a little sweet so my mom just put it there as an improv. The dessert in the forefront is pineapple kanten which is also probably not a traditional food because it has pineapple in it. However, kanten is basically agar and is a recently popular Asian food (I think haha). Neways, my mom said that the pineapple looks like a fan and fans are a good symbol. I think she got this recipe from our Osechi recipe book. Although it was in the Osechi book, its still probably a new thing.
Osechi is something I enjoy so much. It tastes good but not in the way most people would call "good." I think the dishes are more about enhancing and enjoying the seasonal ingredients so they are each very simple and unmasked by seasoning. It is also intriguing finding out each special meaning. Osechi is definitely not something you scarf down. It is, I suppose, "depth over breadth" with a lot of attention to presentation and details. When I eat it, I feel all of my mom's hard work and hopes for a blessed year. hmm and maybe my own too.. I helped her cook and clean.
cleaning was a bitch.
I just bombed the moment.
sorry it was getting cheesy... barf
I totally forgot I wrote about Kohaku and soba haha those are cool too. I got too into the osechi part.
Okays. I hope you all found that interesting. I know it was insanely long so sorry about that, but I hope it conveyed my Japanese New Year.
<SuNNt>
