05/04/2026
Osechi ryori - a festive table to celebrate the New Year in Japan. Here is your cheat sheet to interpret the traditional delicacies:
1. Datemaki, the sweet rolled omelet, mixed with hanpen (a fish cake) like a a scroll it wishes for the development of culture and learning.
2. Kuri kinton (sweet chestnuts) golden dango (sweet dumpling) made of chestnuts: wealth.
3. Kamaboko (boiled fish paste) in red and white. The red color fends off evil spirits, the white represents purity. The shape of the kamaboko, is the sun at daybreak, the first sunrise of the new year.
4. Kobumaki: the kobu, or kelp, is a homonym for “yorokobu” joy and happiness. Many offspring when written as “子生,” a kanji that represents childbirth.
5. Kazunoko, or herring roe, also uses an easy wordplay. “Kazu” means numbers and “ko” means children = being blessed with many children. Herring is called “nishin” but if written with different kanji, it becomes “二親” ("ni shin"), meaning two parents.
6. Ebi (shrimp) wishes you a long life, until you have a bent back and long beard and the red color scare evil spirits away.
7. Kuromame: (black beans )the colour black is a protection against evil spirits. The word “mame” originally means good health and strength.
8. Tatsukuri (dried, sweetened baby sardines) means rice farming. Farmers used dried sardines as a fertilizer for their rice fields. Its other name, gomame, literally means “50,000 grains of rice” and derives from the fact that sardine fertilizer produced a great harvest of rice.
9. Renkon (lotus root) is considered a plant of purity, a happy future without obstacles.
10. Kikuka-Kabu (turnip), are served in the shape of kiku (chrysanthemum), symbol of Japan.
11. Gobo (burdock root) is strength & stability.
12. Tai (sea bream) auspiciousness & celebration is a play on words, it derives from "medetai", meaning “to celebrate”.
What is your own Japan? Mine is a festive gastronomic family table.
Until next year!
