2026 osechi: part 2

Pin It

A pleasant surprise for this new year is the gift of a second osechi (おせち) box, courtesy of Mr. Chichi (吃吃君). I went to pick this up from Sushi Kumogaku (寿し雲隠) today, and I was pretty excited to check out the contents.

At first glance, there seems to be fewer number of items in this box compared to the one we had earlier in the day. But a closer look shows that there are two or more pieces on most items, which worked out perfectly for Foursheets and I.

I won't go into the specific significance of items already covered for today's lunch, which can be found here.

Dried mullet roe (唐墨) - I eat my fair share of dried mullet roe thanks to my Taiwanese upbringing, and while this wasn't as salty as the piece from lunch today, it was still a little much for me.

Cooked carrot with plum (梅花人参)

Stewed monkfish liver (鮟肝の旨煮) - always nice and soft.

Stewed oyster with ginger (牡蠣のしぐれ煮) - the word "牡蠣” sounds like ”嘉来”, meaning the coming of joy. Oyster is also a bivalve, symbolizing marriage harmony.

Sake steamed abalone (鮑の酒蒸し) - as it takes many years for abalone to mature, this symbolizes longevity. Dunno why it was missing from our lunch box today.

Cooked Japanese tiger prawn (車海老の旨煮) - these were bigger and nicer than the ones we had at lunch.

Fried shrimp taro (海老芋揚げ) - always nice to taste the silky smooth shrimp taro.

Cooked octopus (蛸の桜煮) - the colors of cooked octopus are both red and white, which are the lucky colors. The word for octopus also sounds like ”多幸”, signifying happiness. This was very tender and delicious.

Rape flower (菜の花) - signifying the vibrant life of the coming spring. Unfortunately this was mushy.

Bamboo shoots (筍) - nice and crunchy.

Scallop with shanshou pepper (帆立貝山椒煮) - better execution than lunch, but that wasn't a surprise.

Conger eel hachiman roll (鰻の八幡巻) - not sure whether this was conger eel (穴子) or eel (鰻), but the yawatamaki (八幡巻) was pretty tasty. The burdock (牛蒡) in the middle signifies solid foundation for the home as well as wishing for good harvest and luck.

Futomaki (太巻き)

Chestnut with sweet potato (栗金団)

Black beans (黒豆)

Slices of pickled red and white radish (紅白なます)

Tamagoyaki (玉子焼き)

This was, of course, MUCH higher quality compared to the one from Nadaman (なだ万). Very grateful for the gift, and hopefully this does bring us good fortune this year!