Japanese New Year, Junko style
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Akemashite Omedetou! Happy New Year from the land of the rising sun.
My friend Anna Ryan once mentioned to me that she knew this Japanese-American woman who could cook like nobody’s business for New Years Day. It took me a while, but I finally got in touch with her.
Junko Anderson is an Emporian who still keeps the customs of her homeland and shares them with friends and family. She met her husband Cy, a doctor at the Medical Arts Clinic, when they were both students at St. Benedictine College in Atchison. She was there on an exchange program as she finished her degree in teaching English. The Andersons married, taught around Kansas, and came to Emporia just under ten years ago. They have two children, Kenji and Seki.
Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873 so the first day of January is when they celebrate, rather than the lunar new year like most other Asian countries. It has traditionally been a very important festival covering seven days, although people are tending more towards three now.
The Japanese spend the last two days of the year getting the house cleaned thoroughly and cooking the festival foods. This way you can start the new year fresh and relaxed. Junko says New Year’s Eve can be spent a couple of ways. You can stay at home with family and watch a special national New Year’s Eve broadcast together, or you can go to a temple to wait for the monks to toll the huge bronze bells signaling the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one. Many people choose to stay up the rest of the night in prayer and meditation, and make a trek up a nearby mountain in order to see the first sunrise of the year, Mt. Fuji being the most preferred spot. However, Junko notes that it takes a very long time to walk to the top of Mt. Fuji.
Junko brought a lovely set of lacquered boxes full of delicious New Years festival foods. We had chirashi sushi (cooked sweet rice with vegetables on top), tea pork, tamago (a sweet egg omelet), an avocado and shrimp salad, and green tea crepes.
JUNKO’S TEA PORK
1 pork loin, boneless
2 small tea bags of English black tea
Marinade:
2 parts soy sauce
2 parts mirin
1 part rice wine vinegar
Put one pork loin (sometimes they come in two’s) in a pot, cover with water, add the tea bags and simmer, covered for 40 minutes to an hour. The pork loin should be done in the middle (no pink).
Cool the meat and marinate it in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for at least one week and up to two weeks before serving. Adjust the proportions of the marinade so you have enough to cover the meat.
Slice the pork and serve with fresh avocado and tomatoes. The meat is so incredibly tender you won’t believe it, and the flavor is absolutely wonderful.
In Japan, New Year’s day is spent gathering at the principal family member’s home (parents or grandparents), visiting with relatives, eating and playing games. January 2nd is spent traveling to a temple (Buddhist or Shinto) to pray for good fortune in the coming year. And the third day is usually spent seeing everyone you haven’t seen yet and wishing you could have something other than festival food.
Almost everyone has these three days as a national holiday (it used to be seven!) but Junko says things are becoming so westernized that the traditions are fading, and businesses are staying open to try and make sales.
Normal festival foods include a soup called osechi. It’s made with chicken, vegetables and a rice cake (called mochi) in a fish stock. Certain foods have a meaning. Konbumachi (boiled kelp) means “happiness”. Kamaboku (fish cakes) means “bright and happy”. Kuromame (sweetened black soybeans) provide the strength to work hard at your job. Fish roe means you will have lots of children. Kurikinton (mashed sweet potatoes and chestnuts) means prosperity.
Today, sashimi and sushi are often eaten, as well as non-Japanese foods. After several days of festival food, people resort to a seven-herb rice soup (nanakusa-gayu) to allow the tummy to rest.
On New Year’s Day, many Asian people have a custom of giving pocket money to children, called otoshidama. It is handed out in small decorated envelopes called “pochibukuro”. This is usually spent at the food vendors and toy stalls on the way to temples for New Year prayers.
A tradition that is passing away is the practice of composing poetry, including haiku and renga. There also haiku that celebrate many of the “first” of the New Year, such as the “first sun” (hatsuhi) or “first sunrise”, “first laughter” (waraizome), and first dream (hatsuyume). Here’s one by the famous Haiku master of the late 18th/early 19th century, Kobayashi Issa.
A lovely thing to see:
through the paper window’s hole,
the Galaxy
Junko says another custom that is still hanging in there is playing New Year’s games, like takoage (kite flying), koma (top spinning), sugoroku, and karuta (card games). Even as times change, Junko notes that emphasis is still on family.
This next recipe is a lovely dessert. The crepes are a very pretty shade of green which contrasts with the deep burgundy red of the bean paste. The bean paste is sweet with a good texture — you wouldn’t even know it was beans! You can get red bean paste in just about any Asian food store, as well as the green tea powder. Junko recommends “matcha” which is the same kind of tea used in formal Japanese tea ceremonies.
JUNKO’S GREEN
TEA CREPES
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. Green tea powder
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
3/4 cup water
1 tsp. vegetable oil
A can of sweet red bean paste
A small carton of whipping cream
In a bowl, mix sugar and tea well. Add flour and salt and mix some more.
Add water and mix with a whisk until the batter is smooth. Add oil and mix more. Let it stand for a while in the refrigerator.
Heat up a nonstick frying pan. Pour a tablespoonful of batter or enough to make a thin crepe of 4 inches in diameter. Cook one side, then turn it over to heat through. Cook the remaining batter the same way.
Whip up the cream. Put some sweet bean paste and whipped cream on a crepe, and roll to serve. This recipe makes 16 crepes.
Happy New Year to you all. I will be taking a brief break the remainder of January, and hope to bring you some guest food writers in my absence. Y’all get cooking!
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