What I Ate Traditional Japanese Foods for This New Year's Holidays

Thursday, January 4, 2024

What I Ate Traditional Japanese Foods for This New Year's Holidays

New Year's holidays, which are called oshogatsu (お正月) in Japanese, are the most important holidays for Japanese people. Today, I'm going to share with you what I ate this New Year's holidays.

Traditional Japanese Food for New Year's Eve

It's a Japanese traditional that osoji (大掃除), big cleaning, is done in late December before the New Year comes. Indeed, my husband and I did osoji late December. The last meal before the New Year came was toshikoshi soba. It's a Japanese traditional to eat soba noodles, which are called toshikoshi soba (年越しそば, 年越し蕎麦).

Toshikoshi Soba (年越し蕎麦)

This time, my husband cooked soba noodles with prawn tempura. We purchased our favorite frozen prawn tempura at Costco.

Traditional Japanese Foods for New Year

Japanese New Year (Shogatsu) runs January 1 through January 7 (O-shogatsu, 大正月) or January 15 (Ko-shogatsu, 小正月). Specially, January 1 through January 3 is called sanganichi (三が日), and people visit shrines and meet families and relatives for the first time in the year and enjoy Japanese traditional New Year's foods.

Osechi (おせち料理)

During New Year's holiday, people in Japan eat Osechi (おせち), Osechi Ryori (おせち料理). Osechi is a collection of lucky foods such as chikuzenni, kuromame, kamaboko and so on.

On New Year's Eve, we cooked these Osechi dishes all day long for coming New Year.

Zoni (雑煮), Mochi Soup
During New Year's holiday, it's a Japanese traditional to eat mochi. Specially, mochi soup which is called zoni (雑煮) or ozoni (お雑煮) is commonly eaten in Japan during New Year's holiday.

This time, my husband cooked this chicken zoni. We were glad that our Japanese friend gave us this homemade mochi before New Year's holidays. You can also purchase Japanese mochi on Amazon.

Chikuzenni (筑前煮), Nishime (煮しめ)

I cooked this chikuzenni as our Osechi. I used some vegetable, konjack and chicken. If you are interested in how to cook chikuzenni, you can check out my previous entry, How to Cook Chikuzenni, Japanese Simmered Chicken and Vegetables.

Simmered Prawn, Ebi No Umani (海老のうま煮)

Prawn and shrimp are called Ebi in Japanese. Ebi symbolizes a wish for a long-life because of the appearance. When you are very old, you will probably have a bend waist.

On New Year's Eve, we went to Costco to purchase fresh prawns for Osechi. It was my first time to cook this simmered prawn and it turned out so good. :)

Grilled Cheese Mayonnaise Prawns (海老マヨチーズ焼き)

Because we purchased a lot of fresh prawns at Costco, I decided to cook grilled cheese mayonnaise prawns. These were so tasty! I told my husband that these tasted like ones we had during a wedding party. I would like to cook these again some day!

Kazunoko (数の子, かずのこ), Herring Roe

Kazunoko (かずのこ) is herring roe. Kazu (数, かず) means number and Ko (子) means child, so Kazunoko symbolizes a lot of children and a large family.

My coworker gave me this kazunoko for New Year's food. When I was a child in Japan, boxes of kazunoko were in our refrigerator during New Year's holidays. However, it was my first time to prepare kazunoko for osechi. I didn't know that it took so many hours to prepare before I could enjoy it. Anyway, I was glad that I had a chance to eat Japanese kazunoko in the U.S. on New Year's holidays. (Kazunoko is so expensive in the U.S.)

Kuromame (黒豆), Sweetened Japanese Black Beans

Kuromame (黒豆) is black soy beans, and mame symbolizes working diligently and healthily.

Just like the previous year, I cooked kuromame again. You can check out my previous entry, How to Cook Kuromame for Osechi, Traditional Japanese Foods for New Year Holiday.

It's not a traditional Japanese New Year's food, but my husband made a lot of taiyaki on New Year's Eve!

It's because tai (鯛) is a lucky fish! Tai (鯛, たい) means a red snapper, sea bream, in Japanese. People in Japan eat a broiled red snapper on happy events such as on a wedding day, baby's 100th day, New Year's day and etc. Auspicious is called medetai (めでたい) in Japanese. "Tai ha medetai (鯛はめでたい)" means tai is a good luck fish. That's why taiyaki is a kind of a good luck fish-shaped cake and can be eaten all year round.

Because my husband cooked anko (あんこ), sweetened red bean paste, to eat with mochi for New Year's holidays, he also cooked taiyaki (たい焼き), Japanese fish-shaped cake filled with sweetened red bean pastes. You can also check my previous entries, How to Make Perfect Anko, Japanese Sweetened Red Bean Paste, and , How to Make Perfect Taiyaki, Japanese Fish-Shaped Cake.

Happy New Year's Holidays!

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