Happy New Year 2023 新年おめでとう御座います2023

It is morning of the first day of 2023. The past year was marked by many events; not the least of which is the still lingering COVID-19. In any case, here is the “Kagami-mochi” 鏡餅 New Year’s decoration. It is  accompanied by various rabbit figurines because this is the year of the rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac. We usually place the new year’s decoration in the tokonoma 床間 alcove  of  our “tearoom” in the basement but this year, we decided to place it in the room where we spend most of our time to maximize our enjoyment of the collection.

As usual, the highlight of our new year is the Sushi taro osechi box 寿司太郎お節箱. We drove down to Dupont circle and picked up the Osechi box and hand-cut soba noodles “toshikoshi soba” 年越しそば (which we usually enjoy the 2nd day of the new year). For many years, we traditionally have our regular breakfast of Cafe Latte with yogurt and breads and have the New Year’s “Ozouni” お雑煮 soup for lunch. I also served a few items I made. As always, we wheeled out the real Japanese laquer ware bowls my mother gave us a long time ago.

As usual, we encased the mochi in a fried tofu pouch or “abura-age” 油揚げ (in an effort to make the eating experience a bit more manageable). It is at the bottom of the bowl so you can’t see it in the picture. I cut the carrot into a flower-shape and the daikon into a ginko leaf-shape. I also added burdock root ごぼう (the white rectangular object in the picture), shiitake mushroom, shrimp, flower-shape gluten cakes or “fu” 麩, snow pea, scallion and yuzu zest (frozen). I made the broth from dashi packs, a bit of mirin and x4 Japanese noodle sauce.

The accompanying dishes (from left to right) are all listed in “Norio’s New year dishes”. They are: chicken squares with gorgonzola cheese and dried fig, salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き, datemaki omelet 伊達巻, and salmon Russian marinade. (This year I made some modifications to the marinade by adding Dijon mustard and dill). Of course it wouldn’t be an adequate celebration of the first day of the New Year without at least a token glass of sake. This year it was our house favorite Tengumai Daiginjo 天狗舞大吟醸. The soup and these items were pretty good if I do say so myself.

Although we did not tap into the osechi box, here is a preview of what to expect when we eagerly dive in this evening. The picture below shows the first tier. Although many goodies are hidden below the items we can see, we can spot our favorites like “karasumi” 唐墨,  “mushi uni” 蒸し雲丹 and “Kazunoko” 数の子.

The second tier also has our favorites such as “Ankimo tofu”, “Ikura” and duck breast.

We are repeating ourselves but it is so wonderful that we are able to get this incredible osechi from Sushi Taro. We will be enjoying these delicacies over the next few days.

New Year Soba 2022 新年そば 2022

When we get Sushi Taro Osechi すし太郎お節, we also order  "toshi-koshi soba" 年越しそば or “going-over-the-year soba” every year. This soba is definitely very special since it is hand-made and hand-cut (or “Teuchi-soba” 手打ちそば)  by Chef Kitayama. We remember when we had an omakase counter dinner some years ago before Covid, he discussed making soba with us. He showed us some soba dough which was too dry and talked about how he was planning on getting special “soba flour”  蕎麦粉 or buckwheat flour from Japan.  We really appreciate this New Year soba because it's quality reflects Chef Kitayama's dedication. This year, the soba came as a complete kit with the dipping sauce and all the garnishes. It also included more precise instructions, from the chef, on how to prepare and serve the soba including the final directive; “slurp”.

I am repeating myself but when I was growing up, my family never had a tradition of "toshikoshi soba" or eating soba on New Year’s eve.  Now, we also tend not to eat soba New Year eve but rather we enjoy the soba in the New Year. We hope, despite the delay in consumption,  the same effects of bringing good luck and long life will be in effect. We've sometimes had the Sushi Taro soba as a warm soba but this time following the chef's instructions, we had the soba cold with dipping sauce (The way I served is called “mori-soba” 盛り蕎麦. If you are interested in different ways of serving and the respective names for soba dishes, please refer to Wikipedia). Although we rarely have cold soba, I remembered that we have a special soba serving plate/basket called “Soba-seiro” 蕎麦せいろ and a soba dipping bowl called “soba-choko” 蕎麦猪口 (which I use to make chawan-mishi). So this is the "Mori soba" set I served as a lunch on the 2nd day of the New Year.

A good dashi smell was perversive as soon as I opened the dipping sauce container. It was a gentle and great dipping sauce.

The condiments included (from left to right) finely chopped scallion or "kizami negi" 刻みネギ, tempura bits, "tenkasu" 天かす or "agedama" 揚げ玉. I added thin strips of nori called "Kizami nori" 刻みのり.

Other condiments included (from left to right), grated daikon or "daikon oroshi" 大根おろしand wasabi わさび (as soon as I opened a small container, a nice wasabi aroma wafted out. It was clearly freshly grated real wasabi).

I also served Russian marinated salmon with ikura. This year, I added mustard in the marinade which gave it a nice but a bit different flavor.

The soba had nice aroma and nice bite to it. The dipping sauce was very gentle and perfect. Adding the wasabi gave very fresh but not spicy hot flavor. The tenkasu was still crunchy and flavorful. Perfect soba dish for the New Year's lunch.

New Year Soba お正月蕎麦

Chef Kitayama of Sushi Taro is passionate about making hand-cut "teuchi" soba 手打ちそば. This year, "Toshikoshi soba" 年越し蕎麦 was an option with  the Osechi box and we got one order (for two people). It also included "Soba dare" 蕎麦だれ in a plastic botttle. We knew we could not eat the soba on New Year eve as "toshikoshi soba" since we would be too full. As in other years, we enjoyed it as "New Year soba" (if such a word exists, お正月蕎麦). We had this as a lunch on the second day of the New Year.

I asked my wife if she wanted the soba cold or warm. She chose warm. So I made "Kakesoba" かけそば.  I topped it with all "osechi" items to make it "New Year soba". Some came from the Sushi Taro osechi box some are what I made.

We used one portion in a plastic wrap for two of us.

How to cook "raw" 生そば or "teuchi" soba 手打ちそば:
Since most of us including me usually have commercially made dried soba, it may be worthwhile to mention how "teuchi soba" should be cooked (mostly for my own reminder).

1, Large amount of rapidly boiling water.
2. Add soba by separating and distributing in the water.
3. Gently move the soba in slow circular motion with a pair of long cooking chopsticks to prevent the soba from sticking to each other but not to break the soba. I cooked about 1 minute and half.
4. Scoop up the soba using a wire-meshed ladle, if you want "Sobayu" 蕎麦湯 (which is the water in which soba was cooked) to dilute the dipping sauce for drinking (applicable to cold soba).  Otherwise, just drain it in a colander and gently wash it in running cold water (this process is important to remove the cooked flour on the surface of the noodles (if left on, the flour would make it a bit slimy) and to cool down the soba to make it firm.
5. For warm soba, either you could warm it up again by dipping it in hot water or briefly warming it in the soup broth. Since my wife has a "cat's tongue" (her own words) she does not like very hot soup so I chose to just to put the cooled and washed noodles in the bowl directly (see below).

These are the toppings I used for the New Year soba. The sake-steamed shrimp, ume-fu (flower or more specifically plum blossom-shaped gluten cake), and white and red fish cakes are from the osechi box. Chopped chives (I could have used "Mitsu-ba" since I had it but I forgot), sugar snaps in salted broth, and the datemaki are what I prepared. I prepared bonito and kelp broth using a dashi pack and added Chef Kitayama's tare sauce to taste (not quite 1:1) and kept warm on a low flame.

I warmed these toppings (except for the chives) briefly in the simmering broth and assembled the final bowls (see the first and second pictures). I then poured in the hot soup. This was quite good. I could have gone with a "volcanic" hot soup but my wife was happy with this since it was safer to eat without burning your mouth. I do not know if soba eaten in the 2nd day of New Year will bring any luck and  longevity but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

New Year's day 3 lunch 正月３日のランチ

We had "Ozoni" as a New Year's day lunch and Chef Kitayama's "toshikoshi" soba 年越し蕎麦 as a lunch on the 2nd day instead of New Year's eve (I did not take pictures). We made grilled cheese "mochi" for the 3rd day's lunch with some goodies from what I made and from the Sushi-taro osechi box.

Sushi-taro osechi box included  traditional New Year's dish "Kuri-kinton" 栗きんとん (mashed sweet potato with chestnuts).  Since it is a bit sweet, I served it as a desert along with chestnut "shibukawa-ni" 栗渋皮煮.

"Kuri-kinton" included chunks of chestnuts.

To go with these Japanese sweets, we had an interesting green tea which was given to me by a friend last year when we were in Japan. This tea came from "Sakurai baicha research center" or 櫻井焙茶研究所 in Aoyama, Tokyo 青山、東京. This one is a very interesting blend of spearmint from Aomori prefecture and green tea from Shizuoka.

Besides green tea leaves, dried spearmint leaves floated up when pouring hot water with whiff of spearmint.

We initially thought spearmint flavor would overwhelm the green tea but the spearmint flavor is very delicate. It is definitely there but not too overwhelming. We really liked this green tea. It went really well with this desert.

Unboxing Sushi Taro Osechi Box すし太郎の御節重箱

Again this year,  we got an osechi box 御節重箱 from Sushi Taro すし太郎. In addition to the box, we also got hand-cut "Juwari-soba" 手打ち十割そば for "Toshikoshi soba" or "End-of-the-year soba" 年越し蕎麦 and even a desert. The desert was a Japanese style black bean steamed bread with "maccha" green tea 抹茶 and white sweet bean paste (I may be wrong just a guess, see the last picture).  This was how unwrapping and unboxing went on new year's eve.

The menu is in both Japanese and English. The soba and steamed bread are not listed on the menu.

The upper box looked like this (picture below). All the "good luck" new year foods and more. Miso marinated kazunoko 数の子の味噌漬け, and baby mackerel nanban 豆鯵南蛮漬け were among some of the new items this year. I have never tasted miso-marinated kazunoko. It had a nice sweet nutty flavor. This one also had a really nice crunchy texture.

This was the lower box (picture below). Among the simmered dishes simmered conch/whelk バイ貝の柔らか煮 was new and very good. This year's daikon namasu 大根なます included sweet dried persimmon. This combination is also a first for me and the sweetness and soft texture of the persimmon created a good contrast. (I made a more traditional daikon namasu, myself, this year).

The plate below shows the first serving of the new year's eve feast. Everything was good as we sipped cold sake. The monk fish liver terrine あん肝豆腐 (front row second from the left) was our favorite as before. But everything on the plate was a treat. 

And we went back for seconds. The version of matsukaze-yaki 松風焼き (square chicken loaf) was sherry flavored. Indeed, we could taste the sherry and it was a pleasing variation. This year, we ourselves tried a variation on matsukaze-yaki including one with dried fig and Gorgonzola cheese (subject for future post). The daikon namasu  with dried persimmon 干し柿 is shown on the right in the back), we really liked it 

Although I was thinking about serving the soba as an ending dish or "shime" 〆 we had to pass on it because we were quite full. (We never seem to be able to eat soba on new year's eve for the same reason every year--too full). 

On the second day of the new year, we had the soba. We knew Chef Kitayama 北山料理長 was into making hand-cut "Juwari" soba from 100% buckwheat flour without any binders or "tsunagi" つなぎ such as wheat flour or mountain yam. "Juwari soba" is indeed the pinnacle of soba making prowess that only a real soba master can accomplish. His soba was just such an accomplishment. It was slightly thicker than usual soba, but had a more delicate texture with subtle soba flavor. I made warm soba with cooked vegetables or shippoku soba しっぽくそば but in the haste of enjoying it before the soba got soggy, I completely forgot to take a picture. The soba was fantastic. But I did take a picture of his steamed bread or "mushi pan" 蒸しパン which we had as a dessert with our short-drawn espresso (green beans are from Sweet Marias, Espresso Workshop#37 blend, home roasted to full city roast).

This was a perfect combination. Although I am sure green tea instead of espresso could also have been an excellent accompaniment, the contrast of the coffee really accentuated the flavor of green tea in the bread. This was indeed an elegant desert.

Sushi Taro's New Year's eve soba noodle 寿司太郎の年越しそば

As before, Sushi Taro osechi also included “Toshikoshi soba” (New year’s eve soba). As before, we could not eat soba on the new year’s eve. So this was, new year soba for lunch. This year, I made warm soba in broth or “Kake-soba” かけ蕎麦. Since it also included kelp and rather thick shavings of dried bonito (Katsuobushi 鰹節), I used them to make a broth and seasoned it with soy sauce and mirin. I added shrimp, red and white fish cake sliced and blanched snow peas in addition to chopped scallion. I served it with Japanese red pepper flakes or “Ichimi tougarashi” 一味唐辛子.

I also served some items from the box as well as ones I made. A piece of fish (the second from the right) is from the box, grilled Japanese snapper with sansho miso paste 真鯛の木の芽焼き which I heated up in the toaster oven which made it much better than when it was cold. This time, new year’s omelet roll or “date maki” 伊達巻き was from the box, although I also made my own. The rest are from what I made for the new year.

Even though this was lunch this type of food, calls for sake and it is very difficult to resist. We succumbed but restrained ourselves to only one small sake glass full.

New Year's eve soba noodle from Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎の年越しそば

This should have been posted earlier but somehow got delayed. New year's eve soba noodles or "Tosh-koshi soba"年越しそば appears to be a common custom in Japan (with about 57% of the population participating according to Japanese Wikipedia). When I was growing up, however, our household did not have this custom at all. We usually had a feast on New Year's eve that did not leave any room to eat soba even if we wanted to. It appears that the custom started in Edo period 江戸時代 for good luck/longevity (longevity because soba is thin and "long" and to "cut" bad fortune from the previous year as soba is brittle and easily can be cut). In any case, Sushi Taro Osechi also included hand cut or "teuchi" 手打ち "Toshikoshi soba". We were too full to eat this on the New Year's eve but we ate this as a  lunch on the second day of the New Year.



There appears to be many variations of toshikoshi soba (cold or hot in a broth etc), I made it to "zarusoba" ざるそば as you see above. ("Zaru" means "bamboo basket" as the noodles are served a special flat bamboo basket or in a special container like I used).

The Sushitaro soba came in a separate box with instructions. According to Chef Kitayama's description, it was made from specific soba and wheat flours produced in Hokkaido. A pieces of kelp and "Katsuobush" 鰹節 dried bonito flakes (real "MaCoy", probably shaving from the ends of the dried bonito or katsuobushi were included and were perfect to make dashi). I followed the instructions and prepared the soba and dipping sauce. For garnish, I served thinly sliced scallion and nori strips. I also added Japanese red pepper flakes ("Ichimi tougarashi" 一味唐辛子)



The noodles had a nice al-dente texture and we enjoyed it although it was not the "end-of-the-year" but "beginning-of-the-year" soba.

New Year's Eve: Champagne and Chawanmushi with sea urchin and salmon roe 大晦日夜 シャンパンと雲丹とイクラのせ茶碗蒸し

This was the last day of 2011. According to the old Japanese system for counting a person's age called "Kazoe-doshi" 数え年, everybody turned one year older on New year's day and New Year's Eve was referred to as "Otoshitori" お年取り meaning to be a year older. Although eating soba noodles or "toshikoshi soba" 年越しそば on New Year's Eve appears to be popular, this was not the custom in our household when I was growing up. I think eating soba noodles is more a custom for trades people who simply did not have enough time to make an elaborate dinner on New year's eve. My mother used to give us a feast for New Year's Eve akin to Christmas dinner.

In any case, New Year's Eve has very important (added personal) significance to us. We opened a bottle of Champaign. To go with the bottle of vintaged Champaign, my opening salvo was a chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し or Japanese savory egg custard topped with California gold uni and salmon roe (ikura).

My chawanmushi recipe is the same as before; three parts seasoned dashi broth and one part whole egg. To accommodate the special toppings, I did not use all the ingredients I usually use such as shiitake mushroom and shrimp. Instead I used only ginko nuts (from a can), shimeji mushroom, small pieces of chicken and sliced (on a slant) scallion. As ususal, from 3 eggs (about 150ml) plus seasoned dashi broth (450ml), I made 6 small containers (a small cup for dipping soba noodle) as you see below.

I let it sit after steaming was completed for 10 minutes so that the chawanmushi was not too hot and topped it with the uni and ikura. This was the ultimate--perhaps only surpassable with the addition of foie gras but I have not tried that yet!. This dish went so well with this Champagne. Although we are not champagne connoisseurs by a long shot, this particular one had a pleasant yeastiness with a fruity finish that went very well with the richness of the dish.

This was followed by a small sashimi (tuna and uni) and pickled herring in cream sauce (the white stuff in the picture above). The pickled herring was a nod to my wife's tradition of eating herring on New Year's eve. She claims this came from growing up in Pennsylvania Dutch country. She admitted, however, that the herring was too harsh a flavor compared to the subtlety of the sashimi.

As a small grilled fish dish, I served fatty belly of salmon (harasu ハラス), simply salted and cooked in a frying pan accompanied by namasu daikon (daikon in sweet vinegar) garnished with ikura. After a few more dishes including a small hand roll of salmon skin as a shime dish, only thing we had to do was stay awake until midnight to see in the new year.