Well, another year has come and gone in what seemed like
a blur in time. Partly due to that theory of relativity – since I’m down to
that last 3rd of my personal movie with the credits waiting to
appear in the wings, every year seems to be progressing a lot faster… Though I
think a lot of it had to do with probably the worst election year that I’ve
ever experienced where the country now seems to be regressing to a point in
time that we never want to go back to even if it means I’ll be young forever…
Anyway, there’s a time in the past that’s still welcome
and is still ingrained in my memory banks like it just occurred last year. Those
celebrations in the past of welcoming in the New Year!
The Anticipation
on the 31st
The last day of the year was a bigger event than New Year’s
Day for the Tatsumoto’s as our family always hosted a New Year’s Eve party
celebrating first with Mom’s co-workers at Kahaluu Elementary School and Dad’s
University of Hawaii football tailgate gang. Of course, as the evening wore on,
my homies from high school and newer friends from the University of Hawaii
would show up to end their year at the Tatsumoto abode.
And along with and array of sake and Champagne, a constant for these celebrations was Mrs.
Takamiya’s local style Scotch eggs with boiled eggs wrapped with teriyaki meat and her konbu maki stuffed with shoyu pork, carrots and gobo, Mrs. Oshiro’s futomaki (Mom always requested her sushi as the Tatsumoto sushi
filling was never centered), Obaachan’s hot crab salad and Mom’s kazunoko and chicken hekka.
What the heck is hekka?
Hekka is one of those dishes that
seems to have purely island roots. It’s basically a sukiyaki that’s uses ingredients that can be found in the 50th.
I mean we have our own tofu (though we’re now down to just two producers),
watercress, green and round onions are grown locally and we can even find takenoko in our own backyard. And though
locally raised poultry just started a recent resurgence, there are many
“Jidori” chickens roaming wildly through many suburban neighborhoods. But it’s
one of those dishes that always found its way to the Tatsumoto dining table on
every 31st…
Chicken Hekka
Sauce:
¾ cup shoyu
¼ cup water
2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup mirin
Salt to taste
MSG to taste (optional)
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken, thinly sliced
1 cup onion, sliced
1 cup bamboo shoots, sliced
1 block tofu,
cubed
1 bunch watercress, cut to 1 & ½ to 2 inch length
1 bunch green onion, cut to 1 & ½ to 2 inch length
½ cup dried shiitake,
rehydrated and thinly sliced
1 cup konnyaku,
either noodles or thinly sliced
Combine the sauce ingredients in an electric work or
skillet and set on medium heat. Once the sugar melts arrange the rest of the
solid ingredients except the greens in the wok/skillet and keep on a light
simmer just until the chicken is cooked. Once the chicken is cooked add the
watercress and green onions and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.
The First of the
Year
Though the Tatsumoto’s didn’t follow very many Oshogatsu traditions, one of Dad’s rules
was that ozoni had to be the first
thing you consumed in the New Year. Which is why until this day, New Year ’s
Day is the one day I don’t drink any coffee upon arising as I first have to
finish my ozoni as the first meal of
the New Year. And by the time I’m done consuming several bowls of ozoni with several mochi in each bowl along with untold bowls of kuromame, along with sushi
and sashimi I’m literally too full
for even a small cup of java.
However, with New Year’s day celebrations of the past,
Auntie Corinne always felt she received the short end of the stick since the
Lee’s always hosted the family New Year’s day party and it seemed that most of
the younger generation simply wanted to sleep off the “excesses” of the
previous night so her cooler full of beer remained full for most of the day. But
once that initial shock (along with rehydration) of the previous night’s
excesses cleared, I always found space to indulge in Auntie Itamura’s fried
noodles, kim chi and mochiko chicken along with Auntie
Corinne’s macaroni salad made exclusively for me (she always made a separate
container labeled with my name since I didn’t care for celery way back when)…
along with a beer or two. Of course, the family New Year’s table was also covered
sushi, sashimi and a large snapper, usually a whole onaga simmered in shoyu,
ginger, sugar, sake and mirin with the braising liquid served
with somen since there “had” to be
some type of red colored fish served on the 1st day of the year for
good luck.
My Current Table
On the evening before the New Year, I’ll have a bowl of toshi-koshi soba to “break” any of the
bad luck of the past year (and believe me, both 2015 and 2016 haven’t been
great years by any stretch of the imagination), then have my obligatory o-toso or sake infused with medicinal herbs just at the stroke of midnight.
On the following morning, my Oshogatsu table still has a few of the
basics; a pot of ozoni (go to my blog
site for basic instructions: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=38797124#editor/target=post;postID=914294998880841841;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=1;src=postname),
some homemade kuromame along with sushi and sashimi. I’ll also sample a nice bottle of daiginjo sake as well as a nice bottle of Champagne, probably with
a fair amount of iced water to replenish fluids lost the previous evening. I
stopped consuming kazunoko or shishamo on the 1st as anyone
past the half-century mark shouldn’t be fruitful over the subsequent year (including
Sir Mick) as well as lobster or shrimp as it’s not about the number of years of
life that matters but the life in those years we are blessed with. And
especially in the Year of the Rooster, I hope that all of us in this country
comes to its senses and realizes that we’re in it for the long hall, that it’s
not Red vs Blue, privileged vs the masses, gay vs straight, this religion vs
that religion but that there is just one group, us, all Americans that need to
move forward. So once again, I hope the Year of the Rooster brings all of you
health, happiness and peace of mind. Shinmen Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu.
Comments