Happy New Year!

In Japan, New Years is an important celebration with special foods.  One of these is mochi, which is a sort of HEAVY dumpling made out of pounded rice.  It is considered good luck to start the new year eating mochi but you must eat an uneven number of them.  So, it's one or three.  Eat two and you might end up with a broken foot like Vince did one year...at least that's what his aunt told him.

There are several ways to prepare mochi.  Vince makes a soup which is delicious so when he roused me out of bed this morning with an offer to come up and share it with me, I accepted.  Mochi can also be roasted, sprinkled with sugar, or stuffed with ice cream but I think the soup is the most traditional.

The bag of mochi.  Toby waiting just incase...

 

Reconstituting the mochi in a soy based fish broth; I think they are dried (you don't want to drop one on your foot).

Soup base with fresh shitake mushrooms and a bit of carrot

Fish cake (pink roll), napa cabbage, onions, and carrots for the soup

Grated daicon (radish)

Vince opening a bottle of cheap sake.  We also had sushi (the little pockets of rice), salted salmon, and flank steak marinated in teriyaki sauce.

Soup also includes tofu cubes.  This fish cake (pink) is a fancy one; I think that is a Japanese character incorporated in it.  Not much mochi left in this photo...

Mr. Toby actually had a special treat also.  Vince brought him some roasted tri-tip and he got some salmon skin.

So, Happy New Year everyone!