The Original Japanese Meal-Prep Guide
Holidays should be for celebrating, not working. Enter osechi.
The table was lined with boxes, filled with colorful foods specially made just during Lunar New Year. The bright red prawns, still glistening from their sweet sake and soy sauce marinade, invited me to reach for them. My eyes scanned for the sugar-coated black soybeans and steamed shrimp dumplings, a favorite among my family and bound to be finished first. Or do I go for the caramel-colored omelets, beautifully rolled into soft little bundles? Or how about the half-moon shaped slices of pink and white kamaboko?
And of course I couldn’t forget about the ozoni, an especially tempting choice when I thought about the melting mochi rice cakes hidden at the bottom of the clear kombu soup — because sometimes the simplest dishes are the best at the table.
My New Year’s Day always begins with this meal, called osechi ryori in Japanese. Starting during the Heian period, 794–1185 AD, it is now a tradition for osechi ryori to be consumed by families on New Year’s Day. They are served in three-tiered black lacquer jubako boxes, often decorated in red and gold…
