+22 Days Happy New Year

In Japan, the New Year is celebrated on more than just its eve. However, three weeks is pushing it. Regardless, I went to a Japanese New Year party yesterday, and had a blast. The house party was attended by about seven families, some of whom brought their children, all of whom brought something to eat.

Despite my love of cooking Japanese food, I was unsure about the mix of Japanese to American to children present, so I took the safe rout and made M&M cookie pizza, the cookie dough was from scratch. Even though I find baking to be a science I messed around with the recipe. Having tasted the batter and found it lacking, I added a little more vanilla extract (the real stuff, not the imitation) and some white chocolate flavored Coffee Mate. A little dusting of extra flour to counter the liquid and they tasted much better. Off to the party.

The smorgasbord of food was wonderful. There was simple party fare, like pretzel sticks topped in poppy seed, garlic, salt, and sesame, a crudités platter with ranch dip, BBQ pulled park sandwiches and a fruit tray. But then things got interesting. In addition to the normal fare, the gracious host made a Japanese boiled dish with green beans, carrots, potatoes, chicken thighs, lotus root, seaweed, and bamboo shoots. There was a Thai-style pulled chicken that had a sauce which was reminiscent of peanut satay with sesame and cilantro to brighten it up. A rice noodle dish with slivers of seedless cucumber and shitake mushrooms sat next to a plate of mochi. The mochi, a glutinous pounded rice cake, was made minutes before serving. Traditionally, mochi is pounded for hours and is molded into ball shapes. They can be filled or topped with a variety of  flavors including matcha (Japanese green tea), sweetened sesame, poppy seed paste, and my personal favorite, anko (mashed sweet red beans).

Dessert was coffee, cheesecake, banana nut bread, and my cookies (most of which were eaten already by the kids). As with most dining experiences, your company can make or break the meal. In this case, conversing in Japanese (something I don’t get to do too often in Scranton), meeting new people, and sharing great food made for a fantastic afternoon.

Oh yes, before I forget, someone had made the two hour trek to New Jersey to visit the Japanese market there and brought back two cases of natto (fermented soy beans, a traditional and normal part of the Japanese breakfast). This was then resold to eager party-goers, including myself. Mmmm, pungent, stringy, bacteria filled soybeans, breakfast of champions (I’m not kidding, I love this stuff!)