Category: Beautiful Things

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Home made Sakura Mochi

Sakura-mochi is sweet red bean filling wrapped in pink glazed sweet mochi rice, then wrapped in naturally preserved, should I say pickled, cherry blossom leaf. These mochi cakes have a dreamy aroma of cherry blossom flowers and served to appreciate the auspicous season of Spring – Spring that symbolizes renewal and rebirth.

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Vignettes in the ‘Hood’

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Year of Tiger starting out with our best friend Doggie

Happy New Year !

  • Vaxed , boosted & tested
  • Plating the black bowl
  • With broth in red bowls
  • We are ready for the new year:)
  • Our Persian Prince:)

Shared Ozoni aka traditional Japanese New Year soup with friends ❤️ Plating the bowls is an artistic endeavor ? There are many variations to Ozoni soup depending on the family and/or region of Japan one is from. Mine is just Tokyo-style with whatever ingredients that one can find handy in USA. As we are near a Japanese supermarket we are lucky to have:

  • Mochi (either round or rectangle shaped)
  • Kamaboko (fish cake – these are red and white for auspiciousness)
  • Shungiku greens (a bit like spinich but with more character) my mother used Mitsuba but did not have any.
  • chicken breast
  • Ikura fish eggs in mochi mini-cups I made – just my idea that came due to reasons I can explain later.
  • Shirataki (crystal noodles – totally not traditional – just thought pretty addition.)
  • Normally would have shiitake mushroom, flower shaped carrot, but not this time. For me a must used to be Yuzu peel as a touch for the final garnish but did not have any Yuzu so … a tiny lemon peel ribbon strip.

Once these are arranged, the broth is poured over gently and we are ready to : Itadaki masu! Omedeto !!

My broth is clear made from blending of various dashi – soup stock but some regions may have miso in it or … So Many Variations – fun to see this site for some of the examples – Here’s the Link:)

Greeted by this Prince on their couch. So happy to see a happy dog to welcome the Year of Tiger:)