Osechi Traditional New Year Japanese cuisine

You now know what Japanese people do to celebrate Christmas on the Eve. Couples spend time together and families order KFC. I wrote about it in the previous article.

So what do Japanese people eat on New Years? New years celebration is generally bigger than Christmas in Japan, and people usually go back to their home to spend time with their family.

Many Japanese people eat “Osechi” to celebrate the New Year with the family. We used to go to my dad’s parents’ home for the New Year and my mom and grandmother prepared Osechi together. It was delicious.

Osechi is a traditional Japanese cuisine people eat on New Years. Usually it is pepared at the end of a year and family get together and eat Osechi together during the first three days of the New year.

If you are not familiar with Japanese cuisine, you may wonder what the contents of Osechi are..I don’t even know some of them. LOL In my family, the following items were included in our traditional Osechi we ate at my grandparents’ home.

1) Kuromame (Black bean)
Black bean is boiled and this is my favorite dish because beans are sweet and soft.

2) Shrimp
I never understood why we ate Ebi (Japanese word for Shrimp) as part of Osechi but apparently Shrimp’s barbell and winding body symbolizes our longevity.

3) Namasu
It’s vegetable. Sliced carrots and radish marinated with vinegar. I quite liked it.

4) kamaboko: Broiled fish cake.

5) Kazunoko: Herring roe. The interesting thing is that Kazu means “number” in Japanese and Ko refers to a child in Japanese. So you understand why Japanese people eat Kazunoko on New Years.

6) Tai- Red sea bream.

7) Zoni-a soup of mochi rice cakes in clear broth.

Zoni is my most favorite osechi ryouri. But I do have to say that preparing for Osechi is a pain so our family no longer cooks Osechi and rather order from stores.

You can order online now..