Koshogatsu, red rice soup day

This the food for today in Japanese tradition :

Hey, why not ? An okayu (rice porridge) makes a nice… brunch. It’s simple just fill the rice cooker the day before.

This version is not traditional. It’s genmai brown rice. Then I’ve added fish bone stock and a few red items as final toppings. All that together was really tasty.

Dessert.

Sestubun : Oni hunt is opened. Don’t count your daizu before they are hatched. (via GiO)

Be prepared. It’s a busy week for foodies in Osaka. Tomorrow crepe days. And the day after Setsubun Japanese Spring Day. This year, Setsubun (the bean nd giant maki day) is February 3rd, and Rishun the rise of Spring is February 4th.

These ugly oni invaded this blog (and all Japan)…let’s fight them with BEANS !

Okayu for the Woman New Year (via GiO)

Once upon a time in Japan, there was 正月 Shogatsu (new year) and 小正月 Koshogatsu (little new year)…

Ubatama

Photo and shape could be better. It’s an experiment + we have totally awful dark days of typhon. Not enough light for photos. I’ll do some again, nicer.

It’s a wagashi (Japanese sweet), great for Summer. it looks like a truffle caught in ice. They are very refreshing.

Ubatama is the name of the peyote cactus. So maybe the shape comes from that… or the cactus was named after the sweet. Tama is ball. Uba may mean “bird wing”, like black crow wing. But there are different writings.

It’s koshian (smooth azuki bean paste) flavored with kurozato (black sugar), in a agar agar jelly.

I should have colored the jelly. I’ll know next time.
They were delicious. The black sugar gives them a pleasant old-fashioned flavor.

For happiness this year, eat a sushi South South East

The skies tell you how to fill the 恵方巻 (ehomaki) horoscope sushi… This year is South South East. So take your compass and stand in that direction.

And eat the sushi in one sitting…well standing. In one piece, without making any pause.

Hey, I cut mine ? I am not superstitious. I don’t want to stuff my face. It’s huge.One roll contains 2 rice servings for me, and I don’t eat so much (my cold-flue-plague is ending… slowly). That nearly made all my food today.

Of course, they sell them at every corner of street today. I went down to the kombini (convenience store) to get the shiso, cucumber and koyadofu and the shopkeeper was yelling “What about a ehomaki ? Don’t you… ? “. And seeing my basket : “Oh I see, you don’t ours…”. She had a box of may 500 rolls at her side. They didn’t look good.

You can order some from sushi shops, department stores, supermarkets. They look nice. Prices are… comfortable, for the sellers. This is an ad from a local supermarket :

Then I don’t know what South South East food is. I copy some of their ideas :

Seafood maki :
Shiso, ikura (salmon roe), salmon, tamago (egg), anago (conger), shrimp, maguro (tuna shashimi), negi maguro (tuna fat and negi leeks), ama-ebi (Nordic shrimps sashimi), cucumber, shishamo smelt roe.