Japanese New Year's Day Dinner

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

I was very lucky to be invited to a lovely Japanese New Year’s Day Dinner here in NYC. Perfect for a cold and snowy day, it was awash with fun, laughter and delicious food. Best of all, it was a very clean and light meal, nothing like the usual heavy brunches eaten on this day of recuperation.

The main part of the dinner is a broth of hot water with braised kelp that is then removed so one can place veggies and other goodies into it and cook them. There’s also some wafer-thin slices of marbled beef, and at the end udon noodles are added to absorb all the flavors the infused broth has to offer. It’s amazingly light and refreshing, a wonderful way to welcome the New Year with a clean slate. The flavors are just so vivid it’s amazing.

All my pictures from yesterday can be found HERE and on Facebook. I’d add them here but they’re way too large and editing them is a PITA and I am lazy.

So, as they say, Akemashite Omedeto! Happy New Year!

2

Serge,

My friend’s mother is Japanese but has lived in the US for 37 years. However, she keeps certain traditions, including the New Year’s Day dinner meal and won’t bastardize it. I know that they spent several days getting all the ingredients and most of the day cooking and prepping. It truly was an amazing experience.
Cheers! [cheers.gif]

3

I really enjoyed the pictures and description on your blog. I’ve been getting into Japanese cooking and some time soon I am going to have to try my own hand at a “Nabe” like you had. I think it would be called a yose-nabe based on the ingredients. Did your friend’s mother use that term?

I’ve read that sometimes for New Year’s Day (a very big deal in Japan) they serve something different called Osechi:

Osechi - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Looks like tons of work though, although both dishes involve some significant prep time.

4

Frank,

No boxes, but they did make the sesame and ponzu sauces from scratch. In fact, everything was from scratch. The daikon salad and sour pickles were amazing, to put it mildly.

5

in a lot of taiwanese households, come the chinese new year we have hot pot. Which is akin to shabu shabu but being the glutenous race that we are… there are usually 6-7 types of raw sliced meat, tons of veggies, and assorted items. And we very often have a spicy soup base.

Quite delicious on a cold day. Not quite the “procedure” for Shabu Shabu like the Japanese, but it shows the difference between the two cultures.

6

There seem to be lots of variants of hot pot in Japan, as well as closely related things in China, Korea, etc.

Nabemono - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It’s more than just the food, apparently, you get a feeling of closeness and sharing from having everyone reach into the same pot. Serving bowls of the stuff from the kitchen wouldn’t give the same friendly feeling.