January 8, 2010
Nigori sake for the New Year
Nigori sake is getting more popular in Japan, but to my feeling it in the first places suits auspicious occasions as the New Year. We had a strong nigori genshu (an undiluted, raw nigori). The sake set is typical for the new year, too. Of course we did not warm the nigori and only used the kettle to pour from. The cups are flat "sakazuki".
Zoni
Zoni or the New Year soup consisting of white miso with rice cakes (mochi) is literally a "killing" dish. The half-molten rice cakes get extremely sticky and every year several persons - mostly elderly - choke on them. But zoni remains a fixed part of the New Year meal. The advice is to use smaller mochi and to take small bites off them - take care not to suck them up with the miso soup!
Auspicious food for New Year
Here is a plate of New Year food, of which most items have an auspicious connotation: Starting at the bottom and going around clockwise:
- kazunoko or herring roe - the name sounds the same as "many children"
- Koya tofu, freeze-dried tofu
- the black pouches next to that: konbumaki or kelp rolls, sounds like "yoroboku" or "to enjoy oneself"
- renkon or lotus root -see my previous post;
- kinton, puree of sweet chestnuts
- tazukuri, small dried sardines; "tazukuri" means "preparing the rice fields" and this term sounds like "otsukuri", which in its turn is another word for sashimi, raw fish. In other words, "tazukuri" is "sashimi for farmers", who could not eat real sashimi in the past as they didn't live near the sea...
-datemaki, rolled omelet
- and in the middle: red (pink) and white slices of kamaboko fish paste
There was no space left for the black beans, kuromame, which sound like "mame ni ikiru", to have a healthy life.
Looking into the future
Lotus root (renkon) is one of the fixed New Year dishes in Japan. It is considered as auspicious for three reasons:
1. The lotus is a flower symbolizing the process of enlightenment in Buddhism, as it rises up from the mud of the pond towards the light.
2. With its spokes and holes, a slice of lotus root, as on the picture, resembles the Wheel of the Law, an important Buddhist symbol.
3. Through these holes, the Japanese say, "you can see the future" ("saki ga mieru").
What does this future show you?
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