Hanami (Cherry blossom viewing)

[torakris]

It is hanami (cherry blossom viewing) time in Japan right now.

The blossoms (at least for the Kanto area) should be at their peak this weekend, that means it is time to make a bento (boxed lunch) and go to the nearest park.

What are some of your favorite bento additions?

[Wimpy]

Can't be bothered with bento. Usually pig out on all the japanese junk food sold at the temple stalls (Yasukuni jinja is walking distance from my parent's place). Foods include Okonomiyaki, strange corn-dogs, yakitori, cotton candy, yaki-imo, yaki-soba, kaki-fry, corn on the cob, etc, etc.

We then walk it off walking around the imperial palace moat (Chidorigafuchi).

[smallworld]

Nice timely topic!

I was just at Yasukuni/Chidorigafuchi on Monday- the cherry trees were beautiful! Despite the controversy surrounding the area, it's one of my favourite places for hanami (my husband says that's just because of all the yatai, and he's probably right!). My favourite this Monday was 'shapin', a kind of Chinese-style 'oyaki'.

But making an actual meal of yatai food is pretty expensive, so for actual sit-down picnic style hanami home-made bento are best. I'll be making bento for hanami this Saturday and I have no idea what to make- my husband works at home so I haven't made bento for ages. Also, my sister-in-law will be joining us, so it has to be impressive (she's sure to report to her folks what I make!).

Any ideas???

[margaret]

o-dango!

[torakris]

I have 2 Hanami BBQ's this weekend as well as one picnic and I am not sure what to do with the bento for the picnic since it will be a busy weekend. I have to admit I make bentos everyday for my husband and once a week for my daughter in kindergarten, so I am not new to bento making, but I just want something seasonal.

probably will a make my traditional 30 minute family of 5 bento:

variety of onigiri (sake, edamame, chirmen-jako, yukari, etc)

cucumber, carrot, and celery sticks with a kojuchang-white miso-sesame-green onion "dip"

dashimaki tamago (Japanese omelette)

some kind of vegetable wrapped in some kind of meat and sauteed

fruit

a couple cherry tomatoes thrown in for color

[Jinmyo]

Sigh.

I'm in Canada.

Now, as the snow melts away, is the thawing dog turd and cigarette butt viewing season. We are reminded of last autumn and of life's fragile evanescence by what appears on the sidewalk before our feet. Impermanence is the very ground upon which we stand. Rather than a box lunch, many celebrants choose from the selections of a chip truck parked by the curb or in a parking lot.

It's all quite beautiful. With the true coming of spring some time in May one can go down to the bog and watch the mosquitoes hatch. One is then oneself the celebratory treat.

[torakris]

Sigh.

I'm in Canada.

Now, as the snow melts away, is the thawing dog turd and cigarette butt viewing season. We are reminded of last autumn and of life's fragile evanescence by what appears on the sidewalk before our feet. Impermanence is the very ground upon which we stand. Rather than a box lunch, many celebrants choose from the selections of a chip truck parked by the curb or in a parking lot.

It's all quite beautiful. With the true coming of spring some time in May one can go down to the bog and watch the mosquitoes hatch. One is then oneself the celebratory treat.

This is why God invented airplanes!

[smallworld]

variety of onigiri (sake, edamame, chirmen-jako, yukari, etc)

I was going to ask about your onigiri- what is yukari, and how do you make the edamame one- just mix the cooked beans with plain white rice? Sounds good.

But it looks like our hanami party is canceled- my sister-in-law is pregnant! She's been trying to conceive for ages so we decided she should take it easy until she's 'safe'- hanami can be cold, crowded and uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, my fridge is crammed with food and I hope just my husband and I can make it for hanami. If so, we'll enjoy a pared-down version of the menu I'd planned:

Thai-style yaki-beefun (like pad tai) on shredded lettuce

assorted onigiri- sake/shiso, ume/shiso/jako, mentaiko etc.

buri teriyaki

nanahana and abura-age ohitashi

tomato and kaiware-na salad

edamame, sausages, veggie sticks

strawberries

a nice chilled bottle of Reisling or Gevurztraminer (spelling?)

[torakris]

Edited because I messed it up badly, will try again.

Edited April 3, 2003 by torakris (log)

[torakris]

variety of onigiri (sake, edamame, chirmen-jako, yukari, etc)

I was going to ask about your onigiri- what is yukari, and how do you make the edamame one- just mix the cooked beans with plain white rice? Sounds good.

yukari is a type of furikake made from akajiso

picture:

http://www.mountfuji.co.uk/acatalog/5324-350.jpg

The edamame onigiri are just as you describe but the addition of toasted sesame seeds.

Why don't you come the hanami party at Shinjuku Gyoen? We should be there!

[smallworld]

I'd love to go. But yesterday's hanami has been replanned as today's lunch. The weather is nice today so she should be OK, but apparently she already has mornign sickness and weird reactions to food and I just hope she can find something to eat.

[smallworld]

So how was the hanami?

We had yakinuku at Rokkasen in Shinjuku. It was amazing (but then again I'm really easily impressed by any kind of beef these days since I eat it so rarely- still afraid of BSE)! My sister-in-law had a very hearty appetite and has decided that she will eat all her meals out from now on since cooking makes her lose her appetite.

I wanted to stop by and try to find you guys, but after lunch we went to karaoke, where the proud father-to-be sang songs to the baby such as Stevie Wonder's 'Isn't She Lovely'. I doubt that the baby, which is probably about the size of a peanut, really had any idea what Stevie Wonder was on about, but I guess it's the thought that counts...

[torakris]

I actually never made it either.

My BBQ for Saturday was canceled becasue of the rain and rescheduled for Sunday.

Hanami season sure is short, they are all falling off already!

[DavidJS]

Oooooooooooo, I luv Japanese bento especially the real stuff. When I pack my own bento it's usually an eclectic meal - a mix of East Indian, Korean, Japanese and American style.

[torakris]

Oooooooooooo, I luv Japanese bento especially the real stuff.  When I pack my own bento it's usually an eclectic meal - a mix of East Indian, Korean, Japanese and American style.

Glad to know I am not the only one!

I rarely have a true Japanese bento.

My poor husband is probably the only guy in Japan who has kimchi fried rice one day and sausages and sauerkraut the next!

[Bigfoot]

Me too! I do leftovers from wildly mixed cuisines -- I've got a rebellious attitude toward "pure" Japanese bentos. Can be explained as a reaction to a Japanese SO (now ex) pressuring me to make "pure Japanese" & beautiful/artistic bentos as prep for the future (ack); *so* important for a woman to know & conform to expectations. Blech. Long live eclectic bentos!

[torakris]

Me too!  I do leftovers from wildly mixed cuisines -- I've got a rebellious attitude toward "pure" Japanese bentos.  Can be explained as a reaction to a Japanese SO (now ex) pressuring me to make "pure Japanese" & beautiful/artistic bentos as prep for the future (ack); *so* important for a woman to know & conform to expectations.  Blech.  Long live eclectic bentos!

I dated one of those too!

My husband is so different he actually asks for fried rice (just fried rice nothing else) or pasta in his bento. He could care less what it looks like!

[DavidJS]

Sounds like the feminist revolution is taking place in the bento age among Japanese woman.

[torakris]

Interesting bento site:

http://www.tjf.or.jp/eng/ge/ge05obento.htm

[torakris]

Looks like the cherry blossoms are going to be early this year, due to the mild winter, of course the snow that was falling in some parts of Kanto yesterday may set them back again.

By late next week they should be in full bloom, time to start thinking about those bentos again!

[Callipygos]

In my 10+ years in New York, one of the things I look forward to every year is the Cherry Blossom festival in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden each year (they have one section of the garden devoted to Japanese garden design, and then there is another whole grove of cherry blossoms elsewhere in the park). At the peak of the cherry's bloom, they set aside a weekend and have a huge culture festival. I've tried to go each year for the photo ops and such. (I have to confess I probably have the most fun hanging around the Go tables -- they have a Go club here in the city, and set up and man a bunch of tables with Go boards in a corner of the park for people to wander over to and try a game with them. Invariably you get a bunch of kids scoffing, "Oh, THIS looks EASY" and challenging one of the club members to a game and then realizing very quickly they're in trouble.)

The food is the only problem. The BBG's cafeteria usually has a couple "cuisine-appropriate" dishes alongside their standard burgers-and-salads fare, but usually not all that great (maybe a sushi platter, something with teriyaki, and that's it). However, I also live in the East Village, which is becoming something of a cultural mecca for young Japanese expats and as such has a number of Japanese restaurants and markets popping up. So I'm thinking this year I'll pick up something to smuggle into the Garden before I go. I've also heard that there are a couple foods that are traditionally part of the whole Cherry Blossom Viewing experience.

So -- anyone have any recommendations for what I can pick up that would be a) traditionally appropriate, b) easily portable, and c) likely to be found in Manhattan? I stopped by one of the markets yesterday and saw they had rice balls and some bean-paste sweets; that seems really portable, so something like that, maybe? (I can also take a plunge at making the fried chicken I've seen mentioned elsewhere in here.)

[Hiroyuki]

a) traditionally appropriate

I don't think there are such things as foods "traditional appropriate" for hanami.

There are things called hanabi bento, though.

http://www.princehotels.co.jp/yokosuka/restaurant/ha_hanami/

http://www.nadaman.co.jp/tyubo/n_spring.htm

But, such bento are not available in your area, do they?

I would suggest taking any foods that you like.

In Japan, we have a saying, "hana yori dango" 花よりだんご, literally, dumplings rather than blossoms.

The best part of hanami is in eating. Don't you think so?

[Jason Perlow]

Hiroyuki, did you attend any Sakura (Hanami) parties?

I've always wanted to go to one, after reading this chapter in one of my favorite books, Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson:

Will Ferguson's Description of a Hanami Party

Incidentally the book is a great introduction to Japanese culture (with lots of food references), for those Gaijin who are interested in travelling there.

[Hiroyuki]

I didn't ATTEND any parties, but my whole family enjoyed hanami on April 17, when cherry trees were in full bloom here. If I were a company employee, I would have attended a hanami party given by that company.

Somehow the second link you provided did not take me to the right site, so I just read the reviews of the book in the first link. Well, do you mean you want to attend a hanami party just like the author of the book? That would be fun if you were courageous enough to present yourself in front of total strangers . But even if you just attend such a party with some friends of yours here in Japan, that will be a wonderful experience. You really should do that.

[torakris]

I go to hanami parties every year, however they are not the kind written about in the book, we usually go with other families or just mothers and kids, I normally avoid the places were their are the big office hanamis going on as I don't really care for public drunkeness. We usually going to a very large park (just minutes from our house) called Kodomo no Kuni (Children's Country) which is actually a wonderful place for viewing as they have over 5000 sakura trees, It was absolutely gorgeous this year.