Happy New Year 2024 明けましておめでとう2024

Like the last year, we put the New Year’s decoration including “Kagami-mochi” 鏡餅 and dragon or “tatsu 辰” zodiac figurines shown in the picture #1 in the room we spend most of our time rather than in the tokonoma 床間 in the “tea-room”.  Upon waking New Year’s day, we learned of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit Ishikwa prefecture 石川県. We hope for the wellbeing of the people affected.

On New Year’s eve, we started the evening with a plate of assorted sashimi, most of the sashimi came from “Riviera Seafood Club”, our most recent favorite source of “home freezer” sashimi or sashimi that we can store in the freezer here at home and thaw at any time we want sashimi. Since the portions are smaller than sashimi we can get from other sources, we can eat more than one kind of sashimi at a time. On the New Year’s plate (picture #2) we had chutoro tuna 中トロ, hamachi はまち, scollop ホタテ, and octopus leg タコの足 (which was from D’artagnan). I added wasabi with chopped wasabi plant stalk (from tube) and yuzu kocho 柚子胡椒 (from tube).

On New Year’s day, we had only coffee (cafe latte and macchiato with a bit of steamed cream) rather than our usual breakfast so we wouldn’t be too full for the large lunch we planned of “Ozhoni” お雑煮 New Year’s soup. As usual, I served the soup in real lacquer ware bowls (gift from my mother many many years ago) with a side of some New Year’s dishes I made (picture #3).

This year, I precooked all the vegetables and proteins that went into the soup. This included “gobo” burdock root 牛蒡, shiitake 椎茸, shimeji しめじ and wood ear 木耳 mushrooms, carrot 人参, daikon 大根, and “kinu-saya” 絹さや snow peas. The protein included sous vide chicken breast (a few slices) and poached shrimp. As usual, I encased the “mochi” 餅 rice cake in “abra-age” 油揚 deep fried tofu pouch (peaking out of the bottom right of the soup bowl). I made the broth from the dashi packs I usually use as well as by poaching the shrimp in the dashi broth. I seasoned it with x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce. By precooking the vegetables and the proteins, I had better control over cooking everything just right. It also made it possible for me to make a better arrangement of the ingredients in the final soup bowl serving. Just before serving, I added frozen yuzu zest which added a nice yuzu 柚子 citrus favor (picture #4).

The side dishes (picture #5) included the usual New Year’s dishes I like to make including: salmon kelp roll 酒の昆布巻き, salmon “Russian” marinade 鮭のロシア漬 garnished with “ikura” イクラsalmon roe, daikon namasu  大根なますand poached shrimp.

We also had a few small glasses of  sake with this as a libation to the New Year. Now, this evening we will be hitting the Sushi Taro Osechi box すし太郎お節箱. The below is a preview (pictures #6 and 7).

We expect some good New Year’s feast to come with the osechi box. Already salivating!!

Small Rice Bowl using the last of Osechi お節残り物丼

We had a lunch yesterday of mochi rice cake and cheese 焼きチーズ餅 and some side dishes. Today is the end of the first week of the new year called “Matusno-uchi” 松の内, I made a small “donburi” rice bowl topped with three of the last items from Sushi taro osechi box. (It would appear that I make a similar dish almost every new year). This time, I added a scrambled  egg with blanched broccoli florets. This was just a perfect size dish for us.

The small fish shown at 12 O’Clock is “Jako-no-arima-ni” 雑魚の有馬煮.  At 9 O’Clock is “soboro” そぼろ which I made using  the meat removed from a grilled small “tai” snapper 小鯛の姿焼き included in the osechi box and cooked in “mirin” sweet Japanese cooking wine and soy sauce until almost dry. I also garnished with ““ikura-no-shouyu-zuke いくらの醤油漬けor marinated “ikura” salmon roe.

With a side of  salted cucumber and nappa cabbage  胡瓜と白菜の浅漬け, this was a perfect lunch.

New Year’s day Evening 元旦の夕べ

So finally, we busted into the osechi box for the New Year’s day evening feast. Like we did before, I decided to use “Tsugaru-muri” 津軽塗り lacquerware two-tier lunch box (one tier for each of us) to serve the goodies. As a side, I also served the diakon-namasu 大根なます I made topped with slices of boiled Spanish octopus leg we got from D’Artagnan  and Ikura salmon roe.

I picked up most of the key items here including our favorites like “kazunoko” herring roe marinated in miso かずのこの味噌漬け, “karasumi” 唐墨 botargo and “ankimo tofu” あん肝豆腐 monkfish liver terrine. I lightly toasted karasumi, duck breast and “sawara saikyo-yaki” 鰆の西京焼き before serving.

These small items were such a treat. We enjoyed every bite along with a sip of our house sake “Tengumai daiginjo” 天狗舞大吟醸.

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 2022 Jan 3 Salmon three ways 一月三日鮭尽し

We have been enjoying the items from the Sushi Taro osechi box. After indulging in a serving of wonderful dishes from the box which go perfectly with sake,  I served this plate as the “second course”.  The red and white fish cake or "kouhaku kamaboko" 紅白蒲鉾 (upper left in the picture) came from the osechi box (they were the last four slices). I made a deep pocket in each and stuffed the pink one with the leftover Maruhide sea urchin shutou 丸秀雲丹の酒盗 topped with a dab of wasabi. I topped the white one with Ikura marinated in soy sauce イクラの醤油ずけ topped with strips of nori.

The remaining items were all different salmon dishes which I prepared for New Year. Starting from right upper, clock wise, is salmon nanban 鮭の南蛮漬け、Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシア漬け, and finally salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き. These three salmon dishes all have different textures and flavors. For the salmon nanban, the salmon was dredged in flour and fried before being marinaded in sweet vinegar which gave it a bit firmer texture. The Russian marinated salmon started out as thin strips of raw salmon marinated in sake, vinegar and oil without any sweetness. This year I something different. I added dijon mustard to the marinade and emulsified it with the “motor boat” emersion blender. As a result the oil didn’t separate or solidify. Also, the salmon did not “over cook”  and had a lovely soft texture. Finally the salmon kelp roll was simmered for sometime in seasoning broth, producing a yet different soft and moist texture. These are wonderful to enjoy with sips of sake.

Sushitaro Osechi 2022 寿司太郎お節 2020

As always, we are so spoiled to have Sushitaro osechi.

This is a picture of the upper box.  I am not going into the details but its all good stuff. Many items are hidden behind and under the items on the top.

This is the lower box.

This was what we ate from the box the evening of January 2. I just served whatever caught my eye. This round was mainly items that go well  with sake.

The next picture shows is an assortment of goodies. I lightly heated (toasted) “Karasumi” 唐墨 mullet roe or botargo, and wagyu roast beef 和牛ローストビーフ, which makes the beef unctuous melting in you mouth and the karasumi soft with enhanced flavor. Of course, “ankimo tofu” あん肝豆腐　or Monkfish liver terrine is one of our favorites.

In this three compartment plate, I served (from left to right) “Mushi uni” 蒸し雲丹 or steamed sea urchin, “Uni shutou with yuzu-chilli” ウニ酒盗 柚子胡椒 from Maruhide 丸秀 and  “ikura shouyu-zuke”  いくら醤油ずけ soy marinated salmon roe.  I added wasabi-soy sauce to the steamed uni and made a cucumber boat to contain the ikura. All perfect for sake.

After these, we had simmered vegetables (again lightly warmed in the microwave) and finished with a mayo-biscuit my wife made that afternoon (subject of another post).

P.S. In the January 1, 2022 post, I mentioned that we thought we had some better zodiac figurines for the year of tiger but the ones we displayed in the blog were the only ones we had. My wife quickly remedied the situation by ordering two figurines from Japan, one (the first picture) perfectly matches the style we have for the other zodiac animals (it is made from earthenware as a bell called "Do-rei" 土鈴).

The fellows below came from the same kiln as the one above. But they have more accoutrements. Aren't they cute?

Hope we can used these figurines again.

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.

Happy New Year 2022 明けましておめでとう 2022.

Happy New Year 2022! The pandemic still persists with the Omicron variant making it debut and spreading so quickly just when we thought things were starting to come under control and using a quote from the movie Jaws "it was safe to go back in the water again".  In any case, both my wife and I took all the precautions; being vaccinated and boosted. We sincerely hope we can get past this soon.

This is the year of tiger according to Chinese/Japanese zodiac signs. We thought we had a larger tiger figurine but these are what we had. The two shown below look somewhat like cats rather than tigers.

The one shown here really looks like a tabby cat. It is made of carved wood and is one of a full set of the 12 zodiac figures we got in Kyoto on one of our trips to Japan. This year, I decided not to get "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 new years decoration since we generally do not finish the round mochi inside. 

When it comes to traditional Japanese New Year food, we look forward to and revel in the routine (or some may call it a rut) that we've developed over the years. First off is the expectation of the wonderful goodies contained in the Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎お節 on 12/31/21 or "oomisoka" 大晦日 in Japanese.  Picking it up on New Year eve is an excursion we generally look forward to, although it is a bit of an arduous drive going into town and back. It was especially so this year when we discovered various parts of the route were closed to cars that day and only open to bike traffic. But it was worth it. We will be hitting the Osechi box this evening. We established the tradition of having our usual breakfast with cappuccino and the choice of various holiday breads such as stollen or panettone for the first day of the new year or "Gantan" 元旦. Then, for lunch, we have the more traditional Japanese New Year soup or "Ozouni" お雑煮 as well as some of the auspicious foods served for the New Year as shown in the next picture.

The next picture is a close-up assortment of "good luck" foods I served.

Some came from the Osechi box such as the fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (#3) (since I did not get any red and white fish cakes this year), small fish じゃこの有馬煮 (#1), shrimp 小海老甘露煮 (#2) and black beans 黒豆 (#5). This year I was lucky to be able to get salted herring roe or Kazuniko 数の子 from the grocery section at Tako Grill. The amount was not too much and just right. I prepared kazunoko marinated in sake lee and miso かずのこの粕味噌漬け(#4). I also served salmon kelp rolls 鮭の昆布巻き and the datemaki 伊達巻 New Year's omelet roll (#7) I like to make based on my Mother's recipe. I also served salmon "Russian" marinade 鮭のロシア漬け which again was something special my mother used to make. I made it some days ago, so it had cured enough to eat. I also served simmered root vegetables including the symbolic "renkon" lotus root, "kobo" burdock root, bamboo shoot and carrot (#9).

Now the "ozouni" New Year soup. New Year is the rare occasion when I use this genuine Japanese lacquerware bowl that my mother gave us many many years ago.

Although you can not see it, the "mochi" 餅 rice cake is placed in a deep fried tofu or "abura-age" 油揚げpouch. I usually seal the pouch with a kanpyo 干瓢 (or gourd peel) tie. But in recent years I have not been able to find kanpyo and I used up what I had for the salmon kelp rolls. So this year, I had to improvise by blanching a whole scallion and using that to tie the tofu pouch. Other items in the soup included shrimp (from Great Alaska seafood), chicken tenderloin from some sous vide chicken breast I made, and vegetables including shiitake mushroom, daikon, gobo, and carrot. For the green, I used rapini flower buds. The shrimp was particularly good. I poached them gently in the broth with the shells on for a few minutes, took them out and shelled them before placing them on the top of the soup.

As usual, I served "daikon namasu" 大根なます with "ikra"  salmon roe いくら and a slice of boiled octopus leg 茹蛸.

Another salmon dish is sautéed salmon in sweet vinegar or 鮭の南蛮漬け.

Although this was lunch, no New Year feast is complete without the symbolic libation of sake (Koshi-no-homare hiyaoroshi 越の誉　冷やおろし). We toasted 2022 with one glass each to commemorate the New Year. This was a good New Year lunch covering many good luck foods. Let's hope it portends similar fortune for the rest of the year.

Matcha green tea tasting 抹茶の飲み比べ

Two years ago I made green tea and black bean cake  using the left-over "kuromame" 黒豆 black beans in syrup that came in the Sushi Taro osechi box. The recipe I used is in English in our blog. This year I commissioned my wife to take over making the green tea cake. Then, she pointed out that we were out of "matcha" 抹茶 green tea powder. I kept it in the freezer and mostly used it for cooking such as making "green tea salt" for tempura and apparently didn’t replace it after using it up. Since we are not physically going to our Japanese grocery store because of covid, I decided to get the green tea on line. Hibiki-an 響庵 is a company we have used in the past to get green tea and we could have gotten matcha from them but it is shipped directly from Japan and would have taken too long to get here. I then found "Matcha Kari" which imports its matcha stock from Japan but is located here so delivery time was much shorter.  I bought a mid-priced tea from them called "First harvest sipping matcha". (According to Mach-kari’s, Hibiki-an’s, and other websites which sell matcha, they offer several grades of matcha which appear to range from lowest quality/lowest price to highest quality/highest price, identified as “culinary”, “sipping”, “ceremonial” and “competition”.) (Disclaimer: I am not sure if there is official grading of matcha and if so what the grades would be). While we were waiting for this to arrive, I happened to see, while picking up a take-out at Tako Grill, that they had the matcha tea brand we used to get from our Japanese grocery store. This was very reasonably priced ($0.28 per gram, while the one from Matcha Kari was ＄1.17 per gram or over 4 times more expensive). I assume that the one from Tako Grill  was not as low-grade as “culinary” matcha  according to the lexicon I outlined but would be at the lower end of  “sipping“ grade. It also came from “Uji” 宇治 near Kyoto 京都. We have gotten regular Uji green tea (sencha 煎茶) from Hibiki-an in the past and it was pretty good. So as far as I was concerned this matcha (left in the picture below) was certainly good enough to make green tea cake. Then, a few days later we received the matcha from "matcha kari".

I have not made or tasted matcha for a long time but since we had two different kinds, we decided to have a tea tasting to see if we could taste a difference. I knew I had matcha bowls and a "chasen" 茶筅 (matcha frothing bamboo whisk) and a bamboo scoop or "chashaku" 茶杓.  The chasen and chashaku were easy to find but it took some search to find the matcha bowls. We have two; one that I brought with me for some reason when I first came to the U.S., and one that was given to us as a gift. Both are rather utilitarian  bowls but will do the job.

I made the two kinds of matcha, (the one from Tako Grill shown on the left and the one from Macha kari shown on the right) and taste tested.

For the sweet “chagashi” 茶菓子 accompanying the matcha I served the last of  the “kurt-kenton” 栗きんとん the mashed sweet potato with chestnuts from the Sushitaro osechi box and green plum I made simmered in syrup 小梅の甘露煮. It is customary to serve such a sweet with matcha to enhance the flavor of the tea. 

First of all, as a disclaimer, we have to acknowledge that we are not connoisseurs of matcha. Nonetheless after carefully sniffing and tasting both matcha we could state, with confidence, that despite quite a difference in price, we could not identify any difference in taste; none. The first thing that came to mind was the Japanese expression “Giving gold coins to a cat” or “neko ni koban 猫に小判” i.e. giving something of value where it can’t be appreciated. Well we did say we weren’t connoisseurs and this may just prove it. In the future, however, we will stick to the more reasonably priced macha.

Osechi day 1 and day 2, 2021 元旦と２日の御節

While the Sushitaro osechi lasts, the only “cooking” I have to do is to arrange the items and, as need, warm some of them up using either microwave or toaster oven and, of course, (this is the most strenuous part) open a bottle of sake.

The below was the first sampling. I tend to go for our favorites first. "Kazunoko" 数の子 herring roe, steamed sea urchin むし雲丹, roasted wagyu beef 和牛ローストビーフ are among them.

Here are three of our favorites; smoked oyster 牡蠣燻製 (left lower), karasumi botarga 唐墨 which is lightly toasted and wonderful cured "sawara" mackerel 鰆喜寿司.

This is the second plate;  in the center next to the ikura is monkfish liver terrine 鮟肝豆腐 which is really good.  I put wasabi and soy sauce on the red and white fishcake 紅白蒲鉾 before enjoying.

The yellow ball is soy sauce marinated egg yolk with walnut embedded in the center 黄身胡桃. The texture is really great. Next to the egg yolk on the right is "Koji-pickled Boston mackerel" 鯖麹漬. This is also a great dish with crunchy cubes of either daikon or radish. 

This was the evening of January 2. This time I served in Tsugaru-nuri bento boxes 津軽塗弁当箱 as I did other years. All came from the Sushi Taro box except the small bowl on the upper left.

How many different delicacies are in this box! Of course left lower corner is the karasumi, again lightly toasted.

This is my only contribution. Red radish and cucumber “sunomono”  酢の物, my version of daikon namasu, slices of octopus leg topped with ikura.

This is delicately seasoned in Kyoto-style. I briefly microwaved just to take the chill off.

Although each item is small, there are so many of them; the total was quite filling. We could get used to this.