“Shoga-yaki” ginger pork bowl “tei-shoku” lunch 豚の生姜焼き丼定食

A few weeks ago, my wife suggested that it has been quite a while since we had sukiyaki すき焼き and it would be nice to have some. I agreed, but when I went to the Japanese grocery store, I forgot to get the frozen "Sukiyaki meat" すき焼肉. So, the next time I went I was proud of myself for not forgetting the meat. But apparently I picked up the wrong thing. My first clue was when my wife said, “I didn’t know sukiyaki is made with pork, I thought it was beef.” Instead of sukiyaki beef, in my haste I had picked up thinly sliced pork for "shouga-yaki" 生姜焼き. Since this package was next to the "shabu-shabu" シャブシャブ beef, I assumed it was also beef but for sukiyaki. In my enthusiasm I bought not one but two packages of the stuff. All was not lost, however, as I may have mentioned before, in Hokkaido 北海道, where I am originally from, many families use pork instead of beef for sukiyaki as was the case in my family. So, we went ahead and used one of the packs of pork to make sukiyaki. It was not good. The pork was too lean and too thickly cut. It got hard when cooked as sukiyaki. (So note to self: next time when at the Japanese grocery store get appropriate sukiyaki beef). Meanwhile, since I had bought two packages of this pork, I had one package left and it was clear that it would not be used for sukiyaki. So, one weekend I decided to use the pork as originally intended and made “shoga-yaki” ginger pork. Pork shoga-yaki 豚の生姜焼き is a very popular dish in Japan. When I was a college student, coffee shops near the university served lunch in addition to tea and coffee. In addition to  “Western-style” lunches such as sandwiches or spaghetti, most of the coffee shops also served Japanese-style  bento 弁当 or teishoku 定食* and shoga-yaki was among the popular ones. I am sure this has not been changed even now.

*Digression alert: I am sure it is no need to explain “bento” but here it goes anyway. When “bento” is served in restaurant/coffee shop, it is usually a lidded rectangular box which contains the entire meal but unlike pre-packaged bento, the rice and dishes are warm or just made. "Teishuku" (please follow the link for illustrated guide) is the Japanese concept of a "complete" meal or "meal set" which includes a bowl of  rice, soup, tsukemono 漬け物 (pickled or more likely salted vegetables), main dish (protein) and small "kobachi" 小鉢 side dish or bowl. In many "Taishu-shokudo" 大衆食堂 or "public" eateries which serve those who want drinks with food and those who want a complete meal, many different teishoku are available (the main protein dish varies and can be grilled fish, sashimi, or meat etc) but the remaining items, or “sides” such as soup, tuskemono, are usually the same for each available teishoku. The main and side dishes can be had as a single dish without other items (this is great especially if you are just drinking). It could also be "teishoku" for the price of a few more yen. 

So, this is  my rendition of "shoga-yaki" donburi teishoku 生姜焼き丼定食. In this case, the main protein and rice were combined as a donburi.

The main dish shown in the next picture is a bed of rice to which I added pork shouga-yaki with onion, seasoned shiitake mushroom (this was from dried shiitake and seasoned in "ama-kara" 甘辛 or sweet and salty with mirin and soy sauce) and blanched broccoli.

Miso soup is wakame ワカメ sea weed, "abura-age" 油揚げ fried tofu, silken tofu 絹ごし豆腐 and chopped scallion ネギ.

The "Kobachi" side dish was simmered root vegetable including "renkon" lotus root, "gobo" burdock root, "takenoko" bamboo shoot, shiitake mushroom, and "konnyaku" devil's tongue and blanched sugar snap in salt broth.

The tsukemono is cucumber, daikon, nappa cabbage, jalapeño pepper, and ginger (I salted this a bit stronger than I usually do; with salt 3% of the weight of the veggies instead of usual 2% and also added a dash of Vodka which makes it last much longer without changing the taste. (With this preparation it can easily last for at least one week in the refrigerator).

How to make pork shouga-yaki ginger pork (Although I posted "shouga-yaki" over 11 years ago, this time,  I am using a more appropriate, albeit not perfect, cut of meat). I am sure that there are so many variations and preferences and, of course, you could use other meat such as beef but this is what I made.

The essence of this dish is thinly sliced meat sautéed and seasoned sweet soy sauce flavored with ginger. Using lean meat can make tough shouga-yaki and using fatty cuts such as thinly sliced pork belly will prevent that but the traditional cut to be used is "pork roast" meat 豚のロース cut thinly (thin enough but not paper thin).

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced pork, 4-5 slices for one meal size serving (in Japan, specially packaged "shouga-yaki" pork is available widely. The one I got here is a bit too lean, the perfect cut has more fat. I used the entire package which is about 20 slices).

2-3 tsp neutral oil

Onion slices, optional

For marinade:
Mirin, soy sauce, and sake (1:1:1) ratio, enough to marinate the meat plus more to add while cooking.
Grated ginger (amount arbitrary, totally depends on your taste, I used whole grated ginger but you can use just the juice from grated ginger).
Dash of dark sesame oil
(optionally, grated onion).

Directions:
Marinate the meat. The amount of the marinade is enough to cover all meat slices and a bit more (additional 1/4 cup). I marinaded for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
I drained the marinade (the excess marinade reserved) and spread the meat slices on a paper towel to remove excess marinade.
In the non-stick frying pan, add 2 tsp neutral oil on medium flame. 

Add onion slices and cook until soft and somewhat transparent, set aside

Cook the meat slices, spread out without over lapping, in batches. One side 30 seconds and the other side 15 seconds. Do not overcook (the meat will finish cooking when cooked with the marinade later).
Set aside the cooked meat slices.
When all the slices are cooked, add the marinade to the pan (if not enough add more sake, mirin and soy sauce).
Add back the cooked meat with the accumulated juice and the onion .
Quickly cook and coat each slice with the marinade. Take it out and set aside.
Since I was planning to make a doumburi, I added a small amount of water at the end and heated the marinade to make sauce.

Assembly:
Top the rice with the shouga-yaki pork slices (I used 3 slices per bowl).
Pour in the sauce from the frying pan (just slightly moisten and season the rice).
Add any other garnish or topping (such as ginger julienne in vinegar or "benishouga" 紅生姜). I added seasoned shiitake mushrooms and blanched broccoli.

Compared to the sukiyaki we made with this pork, the shouga-yaki came out much better. The meat was tender and well seasoned. Perfect lunch for the weekend.

Steamed renkon balls 蒸し蓮根まんじゅう

This is on the theme of fresh renkon lotus root. This is another renkon ball 蓮根まんじゅう but instead of deep frying, this was steamed/microwaved (hence healthier). The original recipe calls for "ginnan" 銀杏 ginko nuts but we did not have it. So I used shelled edamame 枝豆.

I added gentle broth made of kelp-bonito dashi pack and shirodashi 白だし seasoning. I garnished it with more edamame and blanched snow peas.

Ingredients:
200 grams grated fresh renkon, skin peeled, excess moisture drained
1 tbs potato starch
4 shrimp, thawed, shelled and cut into bit size chunks
20 shelled edamame, cooked

For broth.
200 ml kelp and bonito dashi (made from dashi pack), heated
2-3 tbs shirodashi 白だし or 1tbs mirin and 1 tbs light colored soy sauce

you could thicken the broth by adding potato starch slurries (optional)

Direction:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
Made 6 small balls.
Using a microwave safe silicon container, I microwaved for about 2 minutes or until done.

Place one ball in a small bowl, add hot broth and garnish.

The texture is very different from the deep fried version. Much softer and gentler. We like this variation and it is easier to make. Some recipes suggest wrapping the balls in plastic wrap and microwave but I did not like the idea of microwaving in plastic wrap. That’s why I used a microwave safe silicon container instead.

Kinpira Celery セロリの金平

I saw this dish in Dave P's review of "En" in Kichijouji 吉祥寺. "Kinpira" 金平 is a very simple Japanese way of braising thinly sliced or julienned vegetables, seasoned with mirin and soy sauce. Burdock or "gobo" 牛蒡 is the most common. I have made "kinpira" with diakon, carrot, lotus root or "renkon" 蓮根 beside gobo but celery is a nice idea.

I used 4 stalks of celery for two very small servings. I sliced the celery on bias thinly. In a frying pan on a medium flame, I add 1 tsp of vegetable oil, a dash of dark sesame oil, and red pepper flakes (whatever amount you like). When the oil is hot, I add the celery slices and saute for 30 seconds. I then add 2 tsp each of mirin and soy sauce, stirring until liquid is almost all gone (2-3 minutes more). I happened to have carrot slices in sweet vinegar and used them as a garnish. I sprinkled sesame seeds and 7 flavored Japanese pepper powder or "Shichimi tougarashi" 七味唐辛子, since I did not have red pepper threads 糸唐辛子 or 실고추 (shil-gochu). This is nice dish. Nice heat and crunch. This is definitely added as our Home Izakaya regular "Teiban" 定番 dishes along with Japanese style celery salad.

Sushi taro Osechi and New Year's day evening 2018 元旦の夕べ

It was a mellow relaxing New Year's day. My wife wanted to see the first sunset of the year at our sunset gazing spot in our house. First rate sunset admiration requires food and libation. Rather than carrying up many plates and bowls,  however, I came up with the idea of using stackable "Tsugaru-nuri" 津軽塗り Japanese lunch box which my friend gave me many years ago.

Although we were ready to dig into our Sushi-taro osechi box 寿司太郎御節箱, I started with what I made, which, to my surprise, mostly filled the boxes. I only added shiitake-umani 椎茸旨煮 and "fu" gluten cake 梅麩 from the Sushi-taro osechi box. For the occasion, I used "Hagoita 羽子板*"-shaped chopstick pillows or "hashi oki" 箸置き.

*Hagoita is a racket for Japanese badminton-like game which was traditionally played in New Year. Now, almost nobody plays the game and "hagoita" rackets are a purely decorative item for New Year, there are special "ichi" or markets before the New Year which specialize in decorative "hagoita".

Recipes for most of the dishes I made are posted in the "Norio's New Year's Dishes" tab in this blog. #1=Salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻, #2= salmon "Nanban" 鮭の南蛮, #3=Russian marinaded salmon 鮭のロシア漬, #4=Date-maki omelet roll 伊達巻き, #5=chicken patty with dried fig and Gorgonzola cheese いちじくとガルゴンゾラチーズの松風焼き (I garnished with my figgy cranberry sauce), #6="Matsukaze-yaki" chicken patty with pine nuts, 松風焼き#7=simmered shiitake mushroom 椎茸旨煮 and "fu" gluten cake 梅麩 (these are from the osechi box), #8=blanched green asparagus with mayo-sesame paste-soy sauce アスパラの胡麻マヨ, #9=Thinly sliced rib roast with wasabi/horseradish Greek yogurt sauceローストビーフ, and #10=spicy tofu cubes ぴり辛豆腐.

After watching the sun set, we came back downstairs and hit the osechi box. The picture below is the top layer. We were excited to find "Karasumi 唐墨" Japanese bottarga. As usual, the box is packed with goodies.

Here is the close up of sun-dried karasumi 天日干し唐墨.

The picture below is the bottom layer.

This is the plate I prepared from the osechi box. I served the karasumi slightly heated in a toaster oven and sandwiched between thinly sliced daikon. The other items are ginko nuts 炒り銀杏, pickled flower-cut  lotus root  花輪蓮根, steamed "uni" sea urchin 蒸し雲丹, caramelized small shrimp "Tsuyani" 小海老艶煮 and grilled Japanese "Madai" snapper with Japanese pepper tree leave/miso or "kinome" sauce 真鯛木の芽焼き. I also heated up the fish in the toaster oven.  Some items especially grilled fish are best enjoyed heated up slightly to take off the chill of cold. Karasumi is, of course, our favorite and we started with cold sake we brought from Japan on the last trip there.

Here is the close up of all the items which go so superbly with sake.

The sake we opened was the limited edition,  "extra premium Jurakudai" daiginjou from Sasaki-shuzou in Kyoto 聚楽第大吟醸エキストラプレミアム, 佐々木酒造、京都. It was brewed from Yamada Nishiki 山田錦 milled to 40% and a special artesian well water from the ruin of "Jurakudai" castle 聚楽第跡, hence the name of the sake. All sounded very promising but it was not as impressive as we had hoped. It has  all the characteristics of daiginjou sake. Very fruity and it almost tasted slightly sweet which may not have been our favorite type of sake. Since this was bought at the duty-free shop in Narita airport, we did not have a large selection and we did not have any foreknowledge of the sake we were buying. Still, this was an excellent sake, especially with karasumi, uni and grilled fish with kinome sauce. Kinome has such a distinctive flavor you cannot miss. So we were warming up for more goodies and proceeded to make a second  plate from the osechi box.

The below are the second plate which included "tarako" cod roe kelp roll 鱈の子昆布巻, flower-cut simmered carrot 梅人参,  sweet simmered chestnut with inner skin 栗渋皮煮, pickled myouga 酢取茗荷 (new this year), Kumquat in syrup 金柑, simmered sweet fish with roe 子持鮎甘露煮, herring roe marinaded in miso 数の子味噌漬. I am not sure if snow pea 絹サヤ came from my own or from the osechi box.

Herring roe was very nice with very subtle sweetness.

Japanese sweet fish "ayu" with it's roe was also perfect.

At this point, we were quite full. As a ending dish, we had my fuccacia bread with Spanish olive oil for dipping.

This was a pretty auspicious way to start the New Year but it's not over yet. There are many more goodies in the osechi box.

Sushi Taro Osechi box 寿司太郎のお節重箱

Again this year, we got Sushi Taro's New Year's Osechi box 御節重箱. Many of the items are expected classic osechi items and are just great. A few items, however, change every year.  I am providing you with a description of a few items we really love. The picture below shows the first tier. This year, there were more chestnuts "Shibukawani" 栗の渋皮煮 than last year's box (supposedly one of the customers asked for it which suited us just fine).



The steamed sea urchin 蒸し雲丹 is wonderful. Short of having raw fresh sea urchin this is a close second.



Herring roe on kelp or "komochi konbu" 子持ち昆布 was presented on a skewer with a green vegetable which was very nice but I cannot figure out what kind of vegetable that was. Small seasoned whole shrimp 小海老艶煮 were nestled between the duck and kumquats simmered in syrup (this is new this year and we really liked it but a word of caution when chewing, you need to pay attention to the orientation of the shrimp to avoid mouth puncture). Hiding in the left lower corner is (miso) marinated egg yolk with walnuts 黄身くるみ or 黄身の味噌漬けくるみ入り which we look forward to every year; great sake snack. Quite a few more items are hiding behind these and we will uncover them as we dig down.



This is the bottom tier. Good sized prawns braised in sake 海老酒煎 are under the "flower" renkon 花輪蓮根 lotus root.  Tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 is just below on the right. In the bottom section on the right is burdock root stuffed with mustard からし牛蒡 which we love. But the best items for us are quietly hiding in the dark recess of the upper right corner (close up coming).



Here are the close ups of mustard stuffed burdock root and New Year's sweet omelet roll  伊達巻.



Many of the "must-eat-for-New Year" vegetables were present and well prepared.



Here is the close up of the right upper corner; karasumi 唐墨 and monkfish liver terrine 鮟肝とうふ. We can consume a large amount of sake with these two items alone.



We are like kids in a candy store. For the first few days of the new year, we will be living on these items in the box and other items I prepared. This is the best part of the new year's celebration.

Pork curry with almond sauce アーモンドソースポークカレー

 We like to roast pork in our Weber but because of Covid, the cuts we usually use for roasting are not always available and we have had to make do with whatever we can get. Case-in-point, we recently got a bone-in shoulder pork roast. This cut was very large. In addition, it contained a portion of the scapula bone which I removed requiring some further “at home” butchery to get the various sizes and portions that we wanted. In this case I removed the bone and divided the roast into three segments. The first segment was the meat around where the bone was removed. I cut it into small chunks for stew or curry. The remaining two segments consisted of a smaller portion of roast which I used for “ni-buta” 煮豚 or simmered pork and a larger portion of roast which I barbecued in our Weber. 

I commissioned my wife to come up with a dish using the small chunks and suggested a curry. This time, my wife wanted to make a new curry she had not tried before. She chose one from Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook “Indian Cooking. In addition to using quite a few spices (#1 & #2 below), it also includes pulverized almonds which is something we have not used before. The resulting curry is shown in the picture below. It was a lunch one day. I served the curry over rice with tomato (Skinned Campari tomato), blanched sugar snaps and broccoli which I warmed up in the curry while the curry was being heated.

I also served Japanese pickles which traditionally accompany Japanese curry. The red on the left is “Fukushin-zuke” 福神漬け (people from Hokkaido call it “Fukushin-zuke”a but the rest of Japan will call in “Fukujin-zuke” (a mixture of daikon, lotus root, egg plant and cucumber, soy sauce flavored) and the white objects on the right are “rakkyo” らっきょう (pickled small onions).

Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
1 inch sized ginger cube coarsely chopped
5 Tbs. slivered almonds, roasted
3/4 to 1 cup of chicken stock
2 lbs. of pork shoulder cubes
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

2 medium onions finely chopped

1 tsp. ground coriander

2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala

Directions:

Put the garlic, ginger, almonds and 6 Tbs. chicken stock in a blender (we used an immersion blender) and blend until you have a paste (#3).

Add several tablespoons of peanut oil into wide frying pan. Add the cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and cook until they “bloom” becoming fragrant. Put in the onions and cook until lightly browned (#4). Put in the almond paste as well as the coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper (#5). Stir until it browns slightly. Add the meat the salt as well the chicken stock (#6). Cover and cook on simmer for several hours until the meat gets tender. Add the garam masala before serving.

Just a Note: The meat did not get tender in the sauce even after several hours so I removed it and put it in a sauce pan covering it with chicken stock. I simmered it that way for about an hour. It got nicely tender and made additional sauce in the chicken stock. I added the meat back and sauce into the curry and it was much better.

This was very good. We've never had anything like this before. It had plenty of depth of flavor but was not too (spicy) hot. The almonds gave it a creamy texture and added a note of nuttiness that was very nice.  The additional veggies I put in as it was being heated up added some bright notes of freshness as well as additional flavors. It made a great lunch.

11 (or 12) Appetizers 11種類の酒のつまみ

This is another version of multiple small appetizers dishes. I used the divided plate with space for 9 dishes. But I had more than nine to serve so I doubled up in the divided space.  But I still needed to add two more small bowls for a total of 11 small dishes. If you count each part of the doubled up item (lotus root tsukune 蓮根つくね was divided and served with quail eggs and ginko nuts) (bottom row left and center), it would be 12 appetizers. None of them are new recipes. Even though the single portion is small, we were quite full after working our way through 12 of them.

To highlight a few the one shown below is Name-take mushroom なめ茸 (top row right),

simmered taro “satoimo” 里芋 potato and carrot with “Kouya-dofu” 高野豆腐* and sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし (middle row right)

and two small bowls; tofu and shimeji with oyster sauce 豆腐としめじのオイスターソース(top),

simmered shirataki and deep fried tofu 白滝と油揚の煮物 (bottom).

*Kouya-dofu is freeze dried tofu (for preservation I suppose) which creates unique texture and absorbs whatever liquid it is cooked in.

These appetizers are mostly comprised of vegetables and provide so many different textures and tastes. We really like this type of classic Japanese multiple appetizers.

Myoga flower ミョウガの花

This year we were a bit late in harvesting myoga (myouga) ミョウガ.  The area of our backyard where the myoga is growing is solidly in the domain of mosquitoes and requires some resolve and protective gear on our part to enter their territory without paying inordinate “blood tribute” (literally).  Usually, my wife bravely volunteers for the task but that was slow in coming this year (I do not blame her).  This year, we kept postponing the harvest until my wife pointed out she could see little white flowers surrounding some of the myoga plants (meaning that the myoga, which is best used before it flowers, was moving past its prime). So, one weekend we donned protective clothing and together we harvested the myoga. Of course, my wife is a much better myoga harvester than I am (it is not easy to find the myoga buds that have not yet-flowered since they are buried below the surface of the soil and the soil can be almost hard as rock). Many of the ones we (especially "I") found had already blossomed. In previous years we discarded those. This year, however, my wife advised that once we had suited up and were scrabbling with our noses in the dirt we should retrieve every myoga we could find regardless of its condition and we could sort them out later. As we sorted through our haul we realized that even if the myoga has blossomed, we could eat it as long as the bud was still solid; once the bud becomes "hollow" or soft, it can not be used. Since we usually discarded the myoga with blooms, we never really paid any attention to how the flowers might be used. Although the flowers generally wilt quickly, this year we had more flowers than usual and many of them had just opened so we decided to eat them rather than discard them.

Here I used myoga flower to garnish my cold simmered vegetables. This time the cold veggies included daikon, carrots, renkon (lotus root) and konnyaku (devil's tongue). I garnished it with blanched haricoverts  and myoga flower.



Here are two flowers open from a single bud.



We removed the flowers and washed them in cold water.



The below are "good" myoga before blossoming.



The myoga flowers are usually not available in stores even in Japan since they are very perishable and probably not worth harvesting or selling. The flowers do have a nice ethereal quality. They have a distinctive myoga taste but are very delicate in texture without the somewhat hard or fibrous texture of the buds. They may also be slightly bitter. They can be used as a garnish or just eaten as a part of a salad.

Pork belly and diakon simmered in miso 大根と豚バラ肉のみそ煮

 We have been getting gourmet meat such as duck and lamb from D’Artagnan. This time, we got an email promotion from them for pork belly from young pig called “porcelet”. Since we have not had pork belly (from adult pig or otherwise) for sometime (we usually get it from Whole Foods), we decided to give it a try. It arrived hard chilled with skin on. It was also much larger than we expected. Although the ad said it was 6 lbs. it was essentially half of the entire belly and we realized that in its present shape it probably would not fit in our freezer so I immediately divided it into three portions. I vacuum packed and froze two and thawed one. I made several dishes from the one piece I thawed. One dish is shown below. I thinly sliced a small portion while it was semi frozen. This preparation is called “buta-bara komagire” 豚バラ細切れ and is usually used to “season” other ingredients, mostly vegetables, rather than served as a “meat dish”. I used it to make a Japanese style miso simmered dish with root vegetables. The original recipe came from erecipe, a Japanese recipe site. One evening I served this dish (left) with dashi-maki omelet, rapini buds (substitute for “nanohana” 菜の花 dressed in mustard-soy sauce or “karashi-jouuyu” 辛子醤油 and skinned Campari tomato.

Ingredients:
150 gram (1/3 lb) Pork belly, thinly sliced
1 carrot, medium, peeled and cut into bite size (“rangiri” 乱切り).\
Lotus root (renkon), I used frozen already cut ino slices, I used 4 which was cut into half circle.
1/3 Gobo burdock root, skin scraped off and cut into bite size (“rangiri”), soak it in vinegared or acidulated water until use (this is my addition since I had some left over gobo)
1 small piece of ginger root, skin scraped off and cit into julienne.

Pre-cooked green beans or other greeneries

oil for sautéing (I used peanut oil with  a dash of dar sesame oil)

Simmering liquid
150 ml Japanese both
3 tbs sake
1 tbs mirin
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs miso
1 tsp soy sauce (this is added at the end of cooking)

Directions:

Add the oil to a pan and sauté the ginger until fragrant. Add the pork and cook until the color changes

Add remaining vegetables and cook for few more minutes.

Add the simmering liquid (sans the soy sauce)

Cover it with either a parchiment paper lid or “otoshi-buta” 落とし蓋 on low flame for 20-30 minutes and the liquid reduces by half.

Remove the paper lid and mix the contents of the pan

Add the soy sauce and green beans

Pork and miso are a good (and classic) combination. The ginger flavor also goes well. This is Japanese home cooking and is very satisfying. It goes well with sake or rice.

Sushi Taro Osechi Box 2017 寿司太郎おせち ２０１７

Once we got used to having a Sushi Taro Osechi Box, it is difficult to cerebrate New Year's without one. We started getting the Osechi box from Sushi Taro in 2012.

This is the top box. It was nicely packed with all kinds of goodies. I just wanted to share the excitement we had enjoying this box and provide some trivia concerning Japanese "Osechi" dishes. These Japanese New Year's dishes are traditionally prepared as auspicious dishes to have at the beginning of the year. They are for the family to eat during the first 3 days of the year which are considered the most auspicious and are called ”Shogatsu Sanganichi" 正月三が日.

Each of the dishes through their color, shape and number, among other things have symbolic celebratory meaning often in multiple layers or as puns/plays on words. For example, red combined with white is considered an auspicious color combination.  Thus, red and white is a traditional color motif for New Year's dishes as exemplified by the red and white fish cakes (#2 in the annotated picture below). Red snapper is an example of a dish that has multiple layers of symbolic meaning; not only does it incorporate the venerable color red but also includes a play on words because it is called "Tai" which in Japanese rhymes with "Omede-tai" おめでたい commemorating "celebration" (#6). Many small fish and roe are symbols of prosperity and numerous offspring and are represented multiple times through out these boxes by such things as salmon, cod, mullet and herring roe. Herring roe incorporates an additional layer of meaning since it is also "gold" in color and gold would be considered the color of fortune in almost any culture. Dishes rolled in kelp represent a pun on words since "kelp" or "Kobu" rhymes with "Yoro-kobu" 喜ぶ which means "to rejoice". So cod roe wrapped in kelp (#17) incorporates the symbolism of numerous offspring and rejoicing. Black "kuromame" beans are eaten because "beans" in Japanese are called "mame" 豆  another play on words because it sounds similar to the word which means  being "attentive, truthful,  and helpful".  (All this symbolism gets complicated but the degree of thought that goes into the choice of these particular dishes becomes evident). All these auspicious foods are thought to set the tone for the upcoming new year. Of course, many of these dishes are great with sake which flows more readily during New Year and what would a celebration be without it?

1. Kuromame 黒豆 black beans, 2. red and white fish cake "Kamaboko" 紅白蒲鉾 3. Bottarga "Karasumi" 唐墨 (our favorite!) 4. "Jako" hatchling fish simmered in "Sansho" 山椒 Japanese pepper flavor 雑魚の有馬煮 (In a plastic container wrapped in white paper) 5. Pickled "renkon" lotus root cut in a decorative flower shape 花輪酢蓮根 6. Grilled whole small red snapper "tai" 子鯛姿焼 7. Stem lettuce or celtuce marinaded in miso チシャトウ西京漬け (this is new this year. Crunchy and sweet miso flavor is nice) 8. Soy sauce marinated salmon roe いくら醤油漬け 9. Daikon julienne picked in sweet vinegar 錦なます.

10. Herring roe marinated in miso 数の子味噌漬け 11. Mustard stuffed burdock からし牛蒡 (our favorite, the best way to enjoy gobo as far as we can tell) 12. Steamed sea urchin 蒸しウニ 13. Steamed fish cake with matsutake mushroom 松茸真蒸 14. Simmered small whole shrimp 小海老艶煮 15. Burdock root in sesame dressing たたき牛蒡 17. Cod roe wrapped in kelp タラコの昆布巻き 18. Kumquats simmered in syrup  金柑蜜煮 19. Simmered chestnuts with brown skin 栗の渋皮煮 (We had inside information that these are North American chestnuts and only the ones without deep creases are chosen for this dish) and underneath are "scallop braised in sweetened soy"  ホタテの甘煮.

"Karasumi" is our favorite and really encourages sipping sake with each nibble. This was prepared in house at Sushi Taro. We like the Japanese preparation of this, especially Sushi Taro's, as compared with Bottarga from Italy. As previously mentioned, the Japanese preparation goes especially well with sake. Although not the best with sake, grated on the pasta, Bottarga is mighty fine.

Of course, ikura salmon roe marinated in soy sauce is another dish that goes so well with sake.

I made salmon kelp roll this year and this dish is similar but uses cod roe "tarako" wrapped in kelp instead of salmon. It was a very nice variation.

Of course, raw sea urchin is the best but steaming is a good way to make sea urchin last longer.

Small red snapper is peaking through.

This is the bottom box.

1. Monk fish liver terrine あんきも豆腐 (Another of our favorites) 2. Mashed sweet potato with chestnuts 栗きんとん 3. New Year Omelet roll 伊達巻 4. Pickled renkon with decorative flower cut 花輪蓮根 5. Yellow tail sushi wrapped in picked turnip 鰤かぶら寿司 6. Grilled pompano marinaded in sweet miso まながつお西京味噌焼 7. Steamed head-on prawn 長寿海老 (this is the first time we had head on prawns. The bent "back" of the shrimp symbolizes longevity as represented by the bent backs characteristic of the venerable elderly in Japan in the old days) 8. Grilled Japanese snapper with "kinome" miso paste 真鯛の木の芽焼き  9. First spring harvest bamboo shoot 新筍土佐煮  10. Duck breast teriyaki 鴨照り焼き and other wonderful simmered vegetables. I think I may have left out a few items.

The prawns were really good with firm texture and sweet taste. Since these were head-on prawns, we could "suck" out the tamale from the head (which we did).

The grilled fish was best heated up in the toaster oven before enjoying. "Kinome" miso (green stuff) has a very distinctive flavor. This is the young shoot (leaves) of Japanese "sansho" (or Chinese) pepper tree.

The duck breast was great. I think that, underneath the duck, there may have been small dumpling made of edible lily bulb and grated renkon.

These vegetables are good but especially unique is "Kuwai" くわい, best seen bottom right, which is an unusual vegetable for Westerners and has very interesting texture. This is mostly served as a New Year dish because of the shape, it was equated with "me-ga-deru" 芽がでる meaning "sprouting" that sounds like "me-de-tai" めでたい meaning "auspicious' or "celebratory", another "pun".

In any case, I may have gone on longer than I probably should have but I just wanted to convey what a joy it is to delve into these boxes. All the multiple layers of symbolism and meaning entailed in these celebratory New Year's dishes are given justice through the attention to detail and careful execution by the chefs at Sushi Taro making it especially memorable.  Luckily, we will be feasting on these boxes for some days to come.