Osechi New Year's Food

During the New Year festivities, I visited Her Lady Of The Snows' retreat in the hillsides of ol' Hirosh, whereupon I enjoyed the company of her mother and sister, and together we feasted on the food of the New Year period, Japanese osechi, accompanied with free-flowing wine and concluded with an orange chocolate log cake, drizzled in dark chocolate and agleam with gold leaf.

This delicious meal of osechi cuisine consisted of pickled vegetables, fish eggs in mayonnaise (for fertility), kuromame or black soy beans (for good health), gobo or burdock root, lotus root and sweet potato. The yellow round with a white spiral is made from egg and sugar and had a fluffy, cake-like texture.

An enormous plate of tempura (leek, prawn, pumpkin, cauliflower & c) accompanied the meal