osechi — Japan

Osechi is a set of small, separately prepared dishes eaten in Japan around the New Year, packed together in tiered lacquer boxes called jubako. Rather than one recipe, it is an assortment: sweet simmered black soybeans, a chestnut and sweet potato mash, a vinegared daikon and carrot salad, a rolled sweet omelette, and other dishes are arranged side by side. It is reported throughout Japan, though the exact assortment reported in homes and stores differs from one region to another, and department stores and restaurants now sell ready-made boxes of it before the New Year. Many of the individual dishes keep well without refrigeration for a few days, which suited a period when cooking was avoided during the first days of the year. Each component is cooked on its own: black soybeans are soaked and then simmered slowly with sugar and soy sauce until dark and glossy; sweet potato is boiled and mashed with sugar, then combined with candied chestnuts; daikon and carrot are cut into fine strips, salted, and dressed in sweetened vinegar; a mixture of egg and white fish paste is baked flat, rolled while still warm, and sliced once cool. The finished pieces are arranged together in the compartments of the box rather than combined into a single dish. Many of the dishes are chosen for what their names or shapes suggest, such as good fortune or long life, though the specific set of dishes, and the meaning attached to each, is reported differently from family to family and region to region. Some households prepare every dish themselves, others buy some components ready-made, and the number of tiers and dishes used varies with the size of the gathering.