大雪 Big snow (with a few recipes for winter)

Cold sets in, bears hibernate, salmon gather and swim upstream

I always tell people that Japan was the coldest place I’ve ever been. It’s not technically true—since I went to grad school in Madison, Wisconsin, where the wind was so frigid I thought my internal organs would freeze over. Winters went on and on—and yet, all you had to do was step inside any building and you would find yourself in the tropics.

Not having central heat, it was routinely so cold inside my Japanese home that I would see my breath in white clouds in the morning (inside!) It was hard to warm up… but then again, the winter custom of eating oranges under a big blanket at the kotatsu more than made up for the those cold mornings. Yes, sitting at the kotatsu is just as incredible as it looks in anime!

And it wasn’t just eating tangerine snuggling around the kotatsu because I have always loved the warming foods of winter. Below is Part 4 of my personal essay in Gulf Coast Journal, For the Love of Oranges and a few winter recipe links below.

4.

Japan’s oranges are not great. Not compared to what we have in California. But what Japan lacks in delicious oranges, it more than makes up for in tangerines. And nothing says winter in Japan more than a bowl of tangerines placed in the middle of the table. And this is no ordinary table either, but a winter table. Called a kotatsu, it is where families gather. Sitting around on low cushions on the floor, they warm themselves by stretching out their legs under the blanket that covers the kotatsu, beneath which is a heat source, once a charcoal brazier but nowadays electrical. It is the epitome of winter coziness.   

Nine times out of ten, a TV will be on. But this is just background noise for what happens next, when family members—one by one—pick up a tangerine and begin peeling away. The only truly affordable fruit in Japan, people eat tangerines with abandon throughout the winter. Often you will see mothers carefully peeling them for their small children. Never ripping the skin, they carefully peel the fruit in long strips that come to resemble a blossoming flower. 

I used to peel tangerines for my son like this when he was small, always careful to remove the white pith before handing him the fruit, still cradled in its skin. The perfect little bowl for his perfect little hands.

My all-time favorite hotpot recipe is Mrs Donabe’s Amazake-Nabe. Amazake is something people drink around New Years—at least that is when I had it, in Kyoto as the bells rang out at Chion-in Temple for years. It is considered a kind of super-food. If you can’t find it online, I also love this salmon and potato recipe (pictured below). Mrs Donabe’s recipe’s are fantastic —and organized by season. I use this yuzu shichimi togarashi spice on top.

Another favorite is chawanmushi. Here is my favorite easiest recipe (and I know I cut the fish cakes way too generously! My lack of technique with cutting drove my ex-husband up the wall…it’s true, I am not great at any of this.

One of my favorite cookbooks I bought this year (I bought several cookbooks) is The Way of the Cocktail: Japanese traditions, techniques & recipes, by Julia Momose. The cocktails are divided by the 24 sekki seasons and the photographs are gorgeous. I have made several of the cocktails and none of them was worth the effort, except maybe to take a photo. Still I love and recommend the book for reading and drooling!

yuzu salty dog (winter), the bamboo (said to be Japan’s most famous cocktail?) and mugi gin and tonic (summer).