| Well, its new years morning, you wake up, after having been out around the neighbourhood till well after midnight (try 3am) taking in the sights of an interesting place. Listening to speeches at the main university (called Todai) and you hit the sack with the plan of sleeping in a bit ... well, do Japanese familys have news for you. Its called Gantan Asagohan | |
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Wake up and smell the fish! Hoot!! Spread out before you is a veritable feast of interesting looking things. I know that here at my house we are not really that big a family, so the richness of food that can be found else where is not here, but here is a small glimpes of the colouful and interesting food that is presented on the first meal of the year. Over in the far corner at the right , you'll see "Kuri kinton" which is Chestnuts, that are coated in a sweet yellow sauce made from sweet potato, on the big plate here you'll see pink and white coloured fish cakes, and yellow marbelled omlette, small silver dried fish (yep, heads n all) and small very cute packages of Kelp tied up in cute bundles. For me at least looks can be decieving, as I didn't like most of it .. bummer that |
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As you can see, when I said that they were small fish, I wasn't kidding, they really are small whole fish! These are called Tazukuri. Hmmmm looks like just the treat for the cat, but I gave them a shot. They are at least high in calcum |
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Here we have Koubumaki (a kind of cute kelp parcel tied up with Kanpyou, which is dried gourd shavings) and Datemaki (this is basicaly an omlette with some fish sauce). The kelp tastes like ... well seaweed really, but the omlette is much nicer, as with all Japanese food, presentation is what its really all about, and this is no different. In this case, I didn't mind the Nouveau Cusine approach (of its not on the plate, its all on the bill) as I guess you have to be brought up with this kind of food to appreciate it. I wasn't. I console myself with the knowledge that I've seen the faces of Japanese when they try Vegemite on bread (Now, that is worth watching if ever you have a Japanese visitor) |
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Of course, no first days meal would be repleat without a Sake or two. These small jugs hold 180ml which is a basic measurement of liquid ichigo (ichi = 1) Interestingly after we all had a sip, all the Jugs found their way to my end of the table. I was already feeling a little seedy anyway, so I wasn't so keen to go for some more so soon in the day. This is the hazzard of living with older people, they want to go though the motions, but not follow though. So it fell upon me to polish off the Sake ... being a proud Australian, how could I refuse ... |
| Konniyaku and mushroom soup, this stuff is popular all year round, and Japanese profess to really liking it. As far as taste goes, it is just like a tough jelly that has no taste of it's own. Its made from something that is simmilar to Agar. No matter how long you boil it, it never assumes any of the flavours in the soup, it just stays the same. |  |
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Another popular dish (not really restricted to New Year) these are a thing simmilar to a taro called a Sato-imo. Typical sauces include things like Katsuo (a kind of fish that appears in almost all Japanese cooking) and of course you can spot the Carrot and the snow peas. Behind the grey bowl, is a bowl of Hakusai, this is a lightly pickled chinese vegetable that I know as "wombok" back in Australia, its kind of a chinese cabbage |
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No New Years meal would be complete without a bowl of ozouni, in this instance we've got a little chicken stock and Naruto (the white disks) this is a kind of fish cake, and is made from minced up fish, some flower, and some konniyaku as well. The green vegetable is Komatsuna which is a common green here and is sort of like a small version of spinnach. Normally you'd expect that there would be a bowel of Miso, but for O-Sechi Ryori we have O-Zouni. |
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After breakfast, some folks head back to bed for a little nap, called hirune , before going out and facing the queues at the temples and shrines. |
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