Saturday, January 1, 2011

Tasting the New Year

I love that I married someone that is not Japanese and from a different culture.
For one, I can cook Japanese food that is semi-horrendous and Tim thinks it's good.
And two, I love that our kids are part of two rich cultures and will get to experience both.


So in an attempt to keep both Korean and Japanese traditions alive for our girls, I cooked some traditional New Year's Day foods for my family today. Luckily, my mother-in-law and mom were not here to taste said dishes because they would surely gag at the inauthenticity of it all.
But hey, you gotta start somewhere.
Hopefully one day, my girls will cook these dishes for their kids~


Ddukgook (Korean rice cake soup)

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Osechi-Ryori - traditional Japanese New Year's food


(And yes, that is a chip-and-dip dish. I need to get some traditional Japanese lacquer boxes~)

  • Kuromame (center) - "black bean", symbolizes good health and hard work
  • Kamaboko (left) - Japanese fish cake, pink and white supposedly symbolizes the rising sun
  • Tazukuri (dried anchovies, store bought) - symbolizes fruitful harvest
  • Nimono - "simmered dish" made of gobo (burdock root), renkon (lotus root), carrots, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, peas, chicken (Naomi's favorite)

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Sekihan (store bought) - "red rice", Japanese red rice cooked with azuki beans

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Ozoni - Japanese soup with mochi, shiitake, kamaboko, daikon (radish), carrots, and spinach (Tim's favorite)

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It was good to have a little taste of "home" today~

Happy New Year!







3 comments:

  1. Awesome! The last soup looks sooo good! You'll have to teach me how to cook Japanese food one day! Especially okonomiyaki, unagi donburi... and there was this other thing i really like but can't remember the name of...

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  2. The girls are so lucky to have a mom who recognizes the blessing of two rich cultures! It warms my heart to see this post. :)

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  3. Jess -oooh, I love okonomiyaki! It's super easy to make, maybe I'll blog about it one day..I don't know how you do a food blog, it takes a lot of work to make food taste good and LOOK good too!

    Lindsey - thank you~

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