Notice Happy New Year 2020 January 01, 2020 / by Junko Happy New Year to all! JJ Kitchen wishes you a joyful and healthy New Year, and throughout it, many good meals shared with the people you love! I spent my new year holiday at my parents’ home in Chiba. Ate a lot of homemade vegetables and home cooking by mom. My mom made Ozoni and Osechi for us. It is our custom to eat those traditional dishes at the start of a new year. Ozoni is a soup cooked with mochi (rice cake) and other ingredients. Osechi isn’t actually the name of one specific dish but is a term for a collection of traditional Japanese food dishes that are eaten to celebrate the New Year. For the night, my parents prepared Sukiyaki for me. I was kind of upset by the fatty marbled meat and sweet sukiyaki sauce that I ate so many times last year in our classes, but I of course could not tell that to my parents who bought the special delicious meat for me 😅 On my last day at my parents’ home, I picked up lots of vegetables and flowers from the garden and brought them back home in Tokyo. I decorated the flowers in the room. Now I’m ready to welcome you all! Junko There are so many Japanese dishes and cultures that are not well known outside of Japan and I’m happy to introduce them to you! If you tested any of our recipes feel free to send us a photo and your comments and we will be happy to publish them, even if it wasn't a complete success! :) Seeking the best balance of being free and living a stable life in this busy city, I enjoy kitchen gardening to deepen my connection with nature. Lately, I enjoy traveling to places I’ve never been and dancing Salsa/Kizomba there. Always a traveler at heart. Freelance web/graphic designer. Coffee & chocolate addict.