明けましておめでとうございます, or, Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!  It's a rainy day here in Los Angeles on the 2nd day of 2011, so I thought I'd take the time to post some pics from our annual Japanese New Year meal that my parents have at their house and J looks forward to for about 12 months.  We all do, because it's tradition, and happily for a family of food lovers, it's awesome to sit and eat many different kinds of Japanese goodies that make up the  osechi meal.  Although my mom's version isn't 100% osechi, the meal contains many of the dishes that make up the spread of traditional Japanese New Years foods.

Are you ready for a photo fiesta of Japanese delights?!

あけおめ!!!

Sweet black beans (kuromame) and chestnuts

So here we are, dear reader(s)...the dawn of a new decade! The Japanese above is what my friend Sugar said to usher in the new year- it means "Ake-ome" which is short for "Akemashite Omedeotou" which is the way to say "Happy New Year" in Japanese. So あけおめ everyone!

Kamaboko- fish cake

I went back and forth on whether to open up 2010 on Tuna Toast with these fuzzy images taken on my LG cell phone camera. After all, doesn't everyone want to hit the ground running as best they can, whip out their A-game, vow to be better this year than the last? Although I'd love to do all those things (and still plan to!) I couldn't skip an entry which shows off all of the wonderful food my mom made for our yearly "osechi ryori" dinner at my parents house. Everything was delicious as usual, and my husband J looks forward to this meal ALL year long so you can imagine how good it is!

Lots of sake to wash the meal down with!

So please excuse the poor photo quality, but I figure the quality of the food will shine through my lame camera phone images and I'll make sure to bring the camera next time.

Nimono- simmered lotus root, mountain potato, burdock root, veggies


A rainbow of salmon, tuna and squid sashimi

My mom's famous shime-saba (marinated mackeral)

Sticky little sweet fish to nibble on with sake

Yaki-zakana- salt-grilled snapper (tai)

The table, all set and ready to go!

Happy 2010 to everyone!!!