Japanese New Year Cake

While also eaten year round mochi is a traditional food for the japanese new year.

Japanese new year cake. It usually consists of two round mochi rice cakes the smaller placed atop the larger and a daidai a japanese bitter orange with an attached leaf on top. In addition it may have a sheet of konbu and a skewer of dried persimmons under the mochi. It s customary for people in japan to say to each other akemashite omedetou gozaimasu or happy new year whenever they see each other for the first time after jan.

Learn about japanese new year celebration jan 01 2018 by nami. Japanese people eat special dishes called osechi ryori during shogatsu.

These little round cakes are even used in certain new year s decorations such as the kagami mochi. Kagami mochi 鏡餅 mirror rice cake is a traditional japanese new year decoration. Mochi is made into a new year s decoration called kagami mochi formed from two round cakes of mochi with a tangerine daidai placed on top.

The culinary tradition of japan is worth a mention. Mochi a type of chewy rice cake is a classic japanese new year s food. A very traditional new year s activity is preparing the mochi yourself on new year s day.

In addition to greeting one another food plays a huge part in new year celebrations. The japanese have a custom of offering mochi rice cakes to the deity of the coming year s harvest or toshigami in the new year traditionally neighbors would get together to make the mochi at the end of the year before. Few families today own the big mortars called usu that are used to pound the rice but mochi tsuki rice cake making events are often held at elementary.

Nian gao sometimes translated as year cake or chinese new year s cake is a food prepared from glutinous rice flour and consumed in chinese cuisine. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time because nian gao is a homonym for higher year the chinese word 粘 meaning sticky is identical in sound to 年 meaning year and the word 糕 meaning cake is identical in. In japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki.