Happy New Year!

Don't know about you, but we've just finished doing  the dishes of our New Year's dinner. Nothing fancy mind you, just me and the Missus.

I hope everyone had a most happy New Year!

Like most we've, well I've had a routine on New Year's Eve......I get up early then hit Nijiya, Marukai, and maybe Mitsuwa to see what was going on, something I've done just about every year since our first New Year post. As I've noted over the last couple of years, the variety and quantity of Osechi-ryori, the traditional Japanese New Year dishes has flagged. I'm sure that it will never totally disappear, but what's available has surely gone down over the last couple of years as old traditions fade and new ones replace them.

This year I had a shopping companion....the biggest change in our household over the last year is that the Missus has taken an interest in cooking and shopping......so it was great having a companion when browsing the aisles.

Though there were many temptations....

We decided not to do the time consuming typical Japanese dishes I'd usually make for New Year. Instead, we bought something I don't recall seeing at Marukai......some really nice Argentinian Red Shrimp...not the freezer burnt stuff from TJ's, but some really nice, almost sashimi grade stuff.

I ended up doing a simple salt bake.......

This was so simple. you didn't even season the shrimp.....just make sure not to overcook them. They go really quickly....like 8 minutes over a hot bed of salt in 500 degree oven.

The Missus was in heaven. We paired this with a shaved kale salad, I made some three oil noodles, and also a dish that had been created a couple of days before. Late the previous week, the Missus just wanted to eat fish each day.....so She kind of threw down the gauntlet so to speak and I had to come up with three different fish dishes on three consecutive days....I call it pulling a dish out of my rear end...so to speak. Anyway, one of the winners was a pan fried fish with a Oyster Sauce-Chinkiang Black Vinegar-Honey Glaze on top of mui bok choi.

The flavors were right in the Missus' Northern Chinese flavor ballpark - sour-salty-sweet.....

For dinner we picked up JohnL and headed to our favorite little neighborhood sushi joint.

Loved the "two way ika"......

It was a nice low-keyed evening. The Missus and I almost never go out on the eve, but decided that this would be a perfect new year eve curveball.......and we really enjoyed it.

Sushi Yaro
7905 Engineer Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Nothing fancy for New Year morning....well, at first glance it would seem so. The Missus had challenged me with coming up with zhōu like we had at Shanghai No.1. So this meant starting the night before....I changed up my porridge technique and soaked the rice the previous evening. The next morning while I got the zhōu started, I warmed some water and soaked 2 ounces of dried scallop. I shredded the scallop and added the strained soaking liquid to the porridge. Then made a very Taiwanese thin omelete of egg and prevserved turnip. After about an hour and a half, the porridge looked close....I added more water and turned up the heat to allow for the total breakdown of the rice....giving it an almost luxurious texture.....

Dried scallop congee.....

Of course I'm of Japanese ancestry, so I needed to have soba as my meal to enter the new year - toshi-koshi soba. I went with a version of Sansai Soba......of course I needed to have some egg with it, right?

Dinner was the other half of the Argentinian shrimp....salt baked of course.

Some salad, oven-blasted cauliflower, and another item whose recipe is coming up soon. Porcini crusted ono, with seared truffled polenta, and a porcini-cremini sauce.

So this is the way we started 2013!

I hope you all had a great New Year, and a most delici-yoso 2013!

Thanks for dropping by!

Comments

[caninecologne]

Happy New Year to you and the Missus as well as the FOY's, Cathy and Ed! Looking forward to reading many of your great food adventures for 2013!

Your salt baked Argentinian red shrimp looks amazing...I'll have to look for that at Marukai soon!

[kat]

sounds delicious! looking forward to your adventures in 2013!

[Janfrederick]

FYI Sab E Lee in PQ is now open.

[Kirk]

Hi CC - It was the first time I recall seeing those shrimp....hopefully they'll keep stocking it!

Thanks Kat!

Hey Jan - Thanks for the heads up. Have you eaten there yet?

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Happy New Year. Thanks for sharing all the pictures and descriptions. The missus is so lucky to have such an adept personal chef.

[Janfrederick]

Yep. I have to confess that I haven't been to the other versions. I notice that the the menu is the same as the Linda Vista location.

I had the beef stew/tendon soup, which I really enjoyed. However, I was disappointed that the tendon had been replaced with meatballs. I wish I had been told when I ordered because the tendon was the point for me.

Have you tried the fried chicken?

[caninecologne]

@Janfrederick - thanks for the heads up on the SEL in PQ!

[Kirk]

Happy New Year to the both of you Ed!

Hi Jan - To me, TOSEL shines best with their larb/"salad" style dishes. Give them a try.....

Hi CC - I'm going to try and get over there soon. It will be interesting to say the least.

[Denver]

Mmmmm, salmon belly. I'd like to thank Sushi Yaro for my salmon belly addiction...

[Kirk]

Happy New Year Denver! I'm sure they appreciate your business! ;o)

[Dennis]

Happy New Year Kirk! Somehow missed this post with everything going on. I'm not a big osechi fan but definitely had my soba this year for good omen. To another great year! :)

[Kirk]

Happy New Year Dennis! I hope it's a great one for you!