Seven Herbs: Seven Days: Nanakusagayu
Seven days after the new year Japanese people eat okayu, a kind of rice porridge, flavoured with seven herbs. The dish is called nanakusagayu, or Seven Herbs Okayu.
It’s not delicious. It’s traditional. It’s a way to count the progression of the year — one week has already passed. Like Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, onwards and forewords we travel through the year until we’re back where we started one year further on. Nanakusagayu. It’s that time again.
To make okayu you’ll need a ratio of 1:5 rice:water, though some families add up to 1:10. My host family made it with 1:5 and thinned it out with two cups of fresh hot green tea, but those are recipes for another day and the point of this post is something else:
One week into the new year, are you on track with what you want? Stop. Think. Adjust.
First time to see this, nanakusagayu with western herbs including thyme, chervil, spinach. This is tomorrow’s breakfast. 🙂
As I said, it’s not tasty. A workaround to get us to buy more is to make it from Seven Western Herbs (including thyme, spinach, chervil). That’s tomorrows breakfast.
I bought both.
These are the seven herbs pre-okayu.
(munch, munch, munch) It’s growing on me. I definitely wouldn’t eat this everyday, but once a year it’s a good reminder that spring is coming, time move quickly, and that a new year has begun.
I definitely wouldn’t eat this everyday, but once a year it’s a good reminder that spring is coming, time move quickly, and that a new year has begun.
Holy plastic! What is with that? EVERYTHING is wrapped in plastic. Wow! Too much plastic.
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(lol) You have no idea.
If you buy Oreos each individual cookie is wrapped in the larger wrapped package which is placed into a plastic bag at the check out counter.
The plus side is that every single item in the produce aisle is already washed for you. Spinach, lettuce, potato, there’s not a grain of dirt anywhere.
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I’ve been to your blog a couple of time and each time it is different. 🙂
Well, it is nice that it is clean (as in no dirt), but what of all that plastic. Do they recycle over there?
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At least it only comes around once a year for most.
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I saw this today:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/shortcodes/recipes/
And thought of you. Apparently, wordpress just released a shortcode for recipes. Good news for all food bloggers!
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Thank you, very much!
I need all the help I can get. 🙂
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Still looks and sounds good though!
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