O-sechi

We started the day with o-sechi-ryouri, traditional New Year's food. The foods or ingredients used in o-sechi are all symbolic of various things like long life, good fortune, health, fertility and so on, and they are served for the first three days of the year. They are made in the days leading up to New Year's Eve and are heavily seasoned with salt, soy sauce and sugar so they'll keep throughout the New Year's holidays. This is supposed to give the women of the house a break from cooking, but these days few people eat o-sechi exclusively for three days so often housewives are as busy as ever serving o-sechi for breakfast and lunch and preparing lavish dinners.

From the top dish in the large round server: kamaboko (fish paste), coloured auspiciously in red and white; kazunoko (salted herring roe), with their many eggs representing fertility and many descendants; tazukuri (dried sardines) representing good harvest since these little fish are also used as fertilizer; kobu-maki (kelp rolls filled with salmon or other fish) with "kobu" being the word for both health and happiness; tai-no-ko (sea bream roe), perhaps not a real tradition but like kazunoko symbolizes fertility; date-maki (rolled sweet omelet) which represents academic success since the shape resembles a rolled-up scroll. In the middle are kuro-mame (sweet black soybeans), another pun with "mame" being the word for "bean" and "hard-working" or "health"; the dish on the left contains shiro-mame (sweetened white beans) which, like kuro-mame, symbolize good health and hard work; the dish on the right contains kuri-kinton (sweetened chestnuts in a paste of sweet potatoes) representing wealth with its gold colour.

This is only a small selection of the many o-sechi foods. Most families tend to make or buy only what they like rather than trying to serve them all. This serving style, although served in lovely dishes used only for o-sechi, is rather casual- traditionally o-sechi is served in a layered lacquered box called a jubako.

Here is my first serving of o-sechi, with the sweeter stuff in one dish and the more savoury stuff in another. The chopsticks are brand-new and came in a beautiful New Year's wrapper. Also shown is a pot and tiny cup of o-toso (sweetened sake steeped in medicinal herbs) which is served warm and is thought to ward off evil, and also brings a bit of holiday cheer. To those who like it, that is-- I can't stand the stuff. Those who don't like 0-toso switch to another kind of alcohol after the toast. This is the one time of year when it is acceptable to drink from early morning, and many people take full advantage. My stomach is still a bit icky though, so I'll be sticking to water.

After the o-sechi comes the o-zouni. This is a soup containing mochi (pounded sticky rice cake). The ingredients vary according to location and each family's taste. My mother-in-law's o-zouni is in a chicken broth and contains a square of mochi with hakusai (Chinese cabbage), chicken thigh, a piece of fu (wheat gluten) shaped like a plum blossom, a slice of naruto (fish sausage) and a few sprigs of mitsuba (Japanese wild chervil). That sticky stuff being pulled out of the soup is the mochi, which comes from my sister-in-law's in-laws, who pound it every year.