Japan: Lucky Food for New Year

What are the three must-try dishes for celebrating New Year in Japan?

Kagami Mochi: Good Fortune and Joy

When you visit a Japanese home on New Year holiday, you might think they have a weird taste in cake. On a small table near the entrance or in a tokonoma (a nook for displaying stuff in Japanese houses), you’ll see two rice cakes stacked on top of each other. And on the cake, there’s a Japanese bitter orange, a bunch of dried persimmons, and branches of fern, seaweed and kelp. 

No, they don’t eat these decorations (well, not raw). It’s full of lucky charms. Bitter orange sounds like “generations” in Japanese, so they want a big family. Dried persimmons mean long life, because they last for a long time. The names of kelp and seaweed sound like “joy”, and fern leaves sound like “increase”. They want more joy and happiness in the coming year. It’s like the five-fruit tray “cầu dừa đủ xài sung” in Southern Vietnam, which sounds like “please give me enough cash and happiness”.

The two rice cakes have a quite curious name: kagami mochi, or “mirror rice cake”. But this is not a regular mirror, it’s the magic mirror of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. She’s the lord and ancestor of the Japanese emperors according to Shinto, the oldest religion in Japan. She gave the first emperor three awesome gifts: the Yata mirror of Wisdom, the Kusanagi sword of Courage, and the Yasakani pearl of Mercy. Kagami mochi resembles the Yata mirror in the hope that the Goddess will see her reflection and bless the house.

The Japanese are clever: they also use kagami mochi as a gift for the New Year God Toshigami, who will visit families on the first day of the year. If he finds the cake, he will shower them with good fortune and joy. 

The rice cakes come in different sizes and colors, depending on what the homeowner likes. Kagami mochi is usually white, but in some places like Kanazawa in central Japan, they go for one white and one pink, following an old tradition from the Edo period (1603–1868). For those who don’t have time to make their own, supermarkets and convenience stores offer pre-made kagami mochi. Of course, nothing beats the taste and beauty of home-made cakes. 

After sitting pretty for about half a month, the “mirror” is “opened” on January 11 – karami biraki (mirror opening day). The cakes will be broken into bite-sized pieces, but don’t use a knife or you’ll jinx it. If you have sumo muscles, you can use your hands to break it; otherwise you’ll need a hammer, because the cakes are rock hard. The pieces can be cooked in zenzai (red bean sweet soup) and ozoni (chicken soup). Japanese kids grow up eating kagami mochi to wish for good fortune and joy in the new year. 

Toshikoshi Soba: Longevity

Back in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), Japan was buzzing with the rumor that eating buckwheat cakes on New Year’s Eve would make you lucky all year. The word spread from poor folks eating buckwheat cakes at Hakata pagoda in southern Japan. 

In the Edo period (1603 – 1868), people wanted more than just good luck, they also wanted to live long, so they swapped buckwheat cakes with buckwheat noodles. Just like the Chinese eat noodles on their birthday for longevity, the Japanese wish their lives would be as long as soba noodles, and they could say goodbye to all the bad luck of the past year when they snap the noodles with chopsticks. It was a win-win situation, so from then on everyone slurps a bowl of toshikoshi soba on New Year. 

Oddly enough, even though toshikoshi soba means “year-crossing noodles”, Japanese people never eat it on New Year’s Eve. That’s when the bells of pagodas and temples will ring 108 times to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year. Maybe eating noodles at that time is rude, so you have to eat it before or after. 

How do you like your toshikoshi soba? Cold or hot, with or without broth?  Japanese people are very chill about this, they let everyone eat their own way. The original version was just boiled soba noodles dunked in soy sauce, then cozying up with a cup of hot tea. 

Later, because January in Japan is freezing, people think it’s better to eat warm noodles, so they add broth made from seaweed and dried tuna, shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar and salt. The broth has to be a bit sweet for a sweet new year. Eating noodles on their own is dull, so crispy shrimp tempura and beautiful pink fish cakes are sprinkled on top. Each topping has a good meaning: shrimp for long life and fish for prosperity.

Nanakusa Gayu: Good Health in New Year

In the old days, Japanese nobles had the custom of picking health-promoting herbs in the spring to present to someone they respect to pray for that person’s health and longevity. People chop these herbs into small pieces and cook them with porridge to make them easy to eat.

Have you ever heard of Emperor Koko, the 58th emperor of Japan? Before he ascended the throne, he was a prince who loved poetry. He wrote a beautiful waka poem about a time he went to pick the herbs:

“for your sake

I went into the springtime fields

to pick young greens

while on my robe-sleeves

the snow kept falling”

(English translation by Ad Blankestijn)

Emperor Uda, son of Emperor Koko, loved eating nanakusa gayu, the porridge with herbs, on the 7th day of the first lunar month. And he wasn’t the only one. The Japanese aristocrats followed his lead. This custom became a hit all over Japan during the Edo period. And when Japan switched to the solar calendar in 1873, they changed the date to January 7.

This porridge is quite noble, as it uses seven characteristic herbs that mostly grow in Japan: seri (water dropwort), nazuna (shepherd’s purse), gogyo (cudweed), hakobera (chickweed), hotokenoza (nipplewort), suzuna (turnip) and suzushiro (radish). To make the porridge work its magic, you need to align your cutting board with the lucky direction of the year and slice each herb seven times. No more, no less.

But these days, convenience beats tradition and poetry. Most people just grab a pack of seven herbs from the nearest shop and whip up the porridge. The old tradition of cutting each herb seven times in a lucky direction is almost forgotten. However, nanakusa gayu still warms up many Japanese tables on January 7th,  soothing the belly and chasing away the bad vibes.

The Japanese have a delicious way to welcome the new year: eating lucky dishes that symbolize their hopes and wishes. 

Kagami mochi, round rice cakes that symbolize the sun and the cycle of life, adorn their homes. These chewy delights welcome the New Year God, who brings happiness and prosperity to their families. Toshikoshi soba, long noodles that signify longevity and resilience, fills their bowls. They cut off the bad luck of the past year and start anew with them. Nanakusa gayu, a soothing porridge with seven herbs that nourish their bodies and souls, helps them recover from the fried chicken of Christmas and other festive indulgences and restores their wellness.

What about you? Do you have any lucky and meaningful dishes that you enjoy when the old year ends and the new one begins? Discover them and dig in. Bon Appétit!

mlefood