eG Foodblog: Torakris - New Year's Festivities in Japan

[torakris]

Forgot to say...if Kristin does all her serving on her chopping board, mine is all done on the open door of the microwave!

As for otoshidama...we hand out pocket money to our kids and Keiji's nephew, and also to his father and wife.

There are plenty of "six-pocket kids" around here -- single offspring of only-child parents, meaning that one child has access to the purses of two parents and 4 grandparents with no other kids to spend their money on!

Our kids get a much smaller haul, and complain that Dad is pretty stingy -- but they have Christmas as well!

My husband was like that as a child, his sister was 8 years older and out of the house by the time he was in jr.high, when all of the employees of his father's company would come over to wish his family a happy new year he recieved otoshidama from everyone. He said from jr. high until he was almost done with college he was pulling in close to 100,000 (about $1,000) in just one day!

[torakris]

by the way, the osechi feast was a brunch, so I will be thinking about dinner soon...

I am currently drinking an iced coffee and eating some packaged Italian cookies we picked up at Toys R Us.

[torakris]

New Years day dinner

We were still pretty full from brunch, so I just made a very simple dinner a beef tataki (seared beef, very rare in the middle) with a ponzu sauce and some grated daikon and topped with Japanese leeks, normally I would use the greener scallion but I didn't have any in the house. It could have used more color......

and a miso soup with everything I had left in the refrigerator: konnyaku, satoimo (taro), satsumaimo (sweet potato), cabbage, and Jaapnese leeks, prepared with instant dashi and genmai miso. I topped my soup with yuzu-koshou, a wonderful meibutsu (local product) from Kyushu, it is a paste made from green chiles and yuzu (a citrus fruit). I am currently addicted to the stuff.

I made enough soup so that there are leftovers for breakfast

I had one cookie for dessert, leftover from the afternoon snack and have drunk a lot of water.

[herbacidal]

Good luck tonight with the children. I may not know a bunch about Japanese living but I know about life with children attached at the hip  . I hope it works out.

This thing has been fascinating so far. Whoever comes after you and Jackal has got some work cut out.

hmm. we haven't had anybody do one from southern US yet, have we?

I was thinking the the same thing.....

cool, hope you have your eyes on someone to tag.

[torakris]

Now it is January 2nd and we have finished breakfast. We had the leftover soup from last night and rice with natto and nori (laver).

I am still waiting on my coffee, I just amde some but really want it iced and it get too watery if I drink it right away. I really need that coffee though...........

I still have 3 full days of meals and then it is back to regular days of instant breakfasts for me and the kids, quick lunches for Hide and I and more time to spend on dinner.

We spent most of last night working on our nengajyo, these are New Years greeting sent on postcards to everyone you know. Well not really everyone (though some people do!) just those you want to send to. You usually send them before New Years Day and the post office holds them and delivers them all to you in a bundle on New Years morning. It is a lot of fun to get them and a lot of them have pictures of the families, kids, dogs,etc, we are really lazy about ours and normally don't send them out until after we recieve our first bundle. For about a week they will keep popping up in your mailbox as people seem to get slower and slower every year.

You need to save the nengajyo because they have numbers on them (from the post office) and there is a lottery on January 19 and if your numbers match you can win cash, prizes, etc. The most I have every won is postage stamps but hey it is something!

[Pan]

Do you also send Christmas cards? Do you receive them from your Japanese friends?

[torakris]

Do you also send Christmas cards? Do you receive them from your Japanese friends?

I don't know of any of my Japanese friends who send Christmas cards, it just isn't a tradition here and why bother if you will be sending out the postcards less then a week later.

Most of my foreign friends have also switched to just writing Happy Holidays on the nengajyo and sending those to friends overseas.

I don't write Christmas cards, but I wouldn't write them even if I am living in the US.......

guess that is why I am so lazy about the nengajyo.

[Louisa Chu]

Kristin, I had almost the same thing as part of my dinner tonight - rice, natto, soup, and nori - in Paris! But I also had some leftover cheese and macaroons for dessert. Beautiful new pix too - thanks again. Bonne chance on the lottery!

[Pan]

I'm lazy about Christmas cards, too. My closest Christian friends expect a phone call from me, instead.

I forgot to mention how cute your kids look in that photo with the dogs!

[torakris]

I have my iced coffee and am now very happy.

the happiness also stems from the fact that my husband and all three kids have left the house and there is now silence......

[torakris]

It is the middle of Friday afternoon at we just came back from karaoke.

The kids love it and we go once every 2 to 3 months. I am not sure how popular karaoke is in other parts of the world, but in Japan it is everywhere, most of it is private room style with rooms ranging in size 2 people rooms to 50 person party rooms. We have song books that are bigger than dictionaries to choose from and though theya re mostly Japanese songs there are over 100 pages of just English and other languages as well, mostly Korean, Chinese, Tagalog. The English songs cover all the genres from show tunes to country to rap to the latest Britney Spears song.

Becasue it is a private room no one will hear you singing except the people with you!

The room looks like this

we get the kids room, which has another half room (divided by a low wall) that has toys and a small indoor jungle gym.

This place that we go to has a great deal that is you buy their special lunch (at $11 a person, kids under 7 are free) you get the karaoke room for 3 hours free. So the 5 of us had lunch and 3 hours of karaoke for less than $35.

The food of course isn't the best, but it isn't that awful either, equivalent to what you would get in Denny's or the like.

You get one pizza, a plate of pasta, a salad and one drink person.

we choose the mixed pizza and carbonara pasta, we also decided to get the drink bar at $2.50 person for all you can drink soft drinks, tea and coffee.

lunch

[torakris]

Here is the place we go to Cote d' Azur

http://www.cotedazur.jp/space/index.html

some nice pictures of their various rooms, menu, etc

[torakris]

Friday dinner

parmasean souffle (from Jack Bishop's Italian Vegetarian), liver toscani (from Babbo - a liver paste to be spread on toast), and slow simmered carrots, green beans, onions and tomatoes with EVOO and lemon juice.

Later we will have chocolate pudding for dessert (cook and serve instant kind)

I made a fairly soft meal because I thought my daughter Julia might have the mumps. She woke up this morning with pain in front of her ear, after we came back from karaoke she said it still hurt and she felt warm but not feverish and took a nap. In the meantime I did some searching on mumps since I knew it had been going around her class at kindergarten before break started. She woke up around 5:00pm and said she felt better and it didn't hurt any more, I gave her some grapefruit juice since I read it was painful to drink acidy citrus juices (yes I am a cruel mom!) but she drank it fine and asked for more. She seems fine now so maybe it was just the start of a cold, we will have to watch her tomorrow.

[Pan]

You are not a cruel mom.

You were testing to see if she had a symptom.

I'm almost 100% positive that all American children are still required to get vaccinations for the mumps; in fact, my community college students, unless I'm very much mistaken, have to produce proof of mumps vaccinations (among others), or they get thrown out of class by the school after a few weeks. I take it mumps vaccinations aren't required in Japan? Why not, if I might ask a non-food-related question that is, however, related to your blog?

[alacarte]

Kristin and Helen,

What adorable kids you both have!

The sashimi served at Kristin's New Year feast looks delectable. But...do either of you get nervous about serving raw fish? I admit that I love sushi and sashimi when I go out to Japanese restaurants, but I'd be terrified of making it at home, I'd be worried about salmonella, etc.

Another question -- what's in ponzu sauce?

[gus_tatory]

Well the osechi feast is over!

Torakris--

thanks for your osechi ryouri (new year's cooking) food-blog. i feel like i'm opening my last holiday gift as i look at the beautiful food you all obviously enjoyed.

thanks again!

gus

[Pan]

I'll look forward to Kristin's answer, but I'm guessing that part of the answer is since Japanese people eat sashimi a lot, they demand really high-quality fresh fish and that's what's probably sold most everywhere - just like the Italians demand fresh, high-quality produce and get it in every supermercato. Sometimes, things really are a matter of supply and demand, and whether consumers insist on high quality or not. Of course, we've had that discussion in other threads and no doubt will continue to discuss the topic in the future.

[elyse]

Is it just me, or does Kristin win for most attractive plates of food? Jeez, everything looks so perfect!

Edited January 2, 2004 by elyse (log)

[gus_tatory]

Is it just me, or does Kristin win for most attractive plates of food? Jeez, everything looks so perfect!

that's one of the things i admire especially about Japanese food. there is just no way that you could take a plate of Kraft Dinner <tm> and slip a shiso leaf on it and have it look like that.

[Sinbad]

Pan is correct. Japanese demand high-quality Sashimi and it is available in pretty much any supermarket in Japan. I would argue that the quality of the fish available in most supermarkets in Japan is higher than in most Sushi-places outside of Japan.

Alacarte,

I have never been nervous about serving Sashimi at home as long as I know the quality of the supplier. When I lived in Japan I frequently served Fugu (poisonous blow-fish) at home that I had bought at the local supermarket and I was never nervous about it at all. Some of my foreign guests obviously had some concerns, but after I ate it they did not hesitate either (and they all survived). For New Years here in NY me and my wife bought fish for Sashimi at Mitsuwa, a Japanese Supermarket here in the NY-area, and the quality was very good (and this included some pretty good Uni). If you know the supplier, keep the fish well chilled when transporting it and storing it at home and eating it the same day, eating Sashimi at home is as safe as eating it in a Sushi-restaurant. I actually trust the quality of the fish that I buy at Mitsuwa and eat at home more than I would trust quite a few sushi-restaurants in the US.

[Pumpkin Lover]

Firsties: awesome blog, Helen and Kristin!

Second...ies: Baskin Robbins in Japan RULES TREMENDOUSLY. They have Turkish Delight-flavored ice cream! With chunks of rose Turkish Delight floating in ice cream!

Guh. To die for.

Consider yourselves very lucky women, K and H!

[torakris]

You are not a cruel mom.

You were testing to see if she had a symptom.

I'm almost 100% positive that all American children are still required to get vaccinations for the mumps; in fact, my community college students, unless I'm very much mistaken, have to produce proof of mumps vaccinations (among others), or they get thrown out of class by the school after a few weeks. I take it mumps vaccinations aren't required in Japan? Why not, if I might ask a non-food-related question that is, however, related to your blog?

Japan stoped giving the MMR vaccine many years back when they noticed some kids having problems with it.

Most vaccines here are not mandatory (you can go to school with out them) but are recommended. The recommended ones are free, and mumps is not one of them, along with chicken pox, and hepatitis. They also have some here that they don't do in other places such as TB and Kawasaki disease. The Japanese vaccination schedule is much slower then in the US and stretches over about 3 years.

I would rather my kids get natural immunization to things like the mumps, but if my son doesn't get it by the time he starts elementary school I will have him vaccinated. This is the same way most of my Japanese friends feel. And the same reason most people don't vaccinate against chicken pox here.

By the way she seems fine now....

[torakris]

Kristin and Helen,

What adorable kids you both have!

The sashimi served at Kristin's New Year feast looks delectable. But...do either of you get nervous about serving raw fish? I admit that I love sushi and sashimi when I go out to Japanese restaurants, but I'd be terrified of making it at home, I'd be worried about salmonella, etc.

Another question -- what's in ponzu sauce?

Ponzu sauce is basically just a mix of soy and some type of citrus usually yuzu, sudachi, daidai or a mix. It can be made with lemon or lime juice though and is found pre-made in Asian stores.

Like Sinbad said there is really no worry about serving sashimi in the homes, the Japanese demand and expect top quality fish and any supermarket you go into the fish section is usually divided into two. You have the sashimi-you (pronounced yoh) fish and you have the fish for cooking. In the sashimi you section there will be blocks of fish, there will be a block of fish pre-sliced and there will be platters of sashimi with a variety of fish. The fish is good and can be quite cheap, I can get a platter of 6 kinds of fish (4 to 5 slices each) for about $10.

No one here even gives a second thought to preparing sashimi at home. My FIL really takes pride in his sashimi cutting skills, it isn't as easy as it looks!

[PopsicleToze]

I love your blog (been lurking and reading all of it). No, I don't think you're a cruel mom either, but you reminded me of something my sister did many years ago when my nieces were small. She had read that chicken pox was not serious for youngsters, but if they caught it as an adult (or worse yet, and expectant mother), there would be serious complications. Therefore, when she found out a friend's children had chicken pox, she took her daughters to visit SO THEY WOULD CATCH IT and get over it while they were young. I still don't know if that was a good or bad thing

[torakris]

Is it just me, or does Kristin win for most attractive plates of food? Jeez, everything looks so perfect!

really?

If you are referring to the osechi dishes that was all done by my MIL....

I serve most of my food in the pan it was made in.

lazy, lazy mom!