Japanese Food Tips

Shogatsu (from the 1st to the 3rd of January) is a Japanese event to celebrate the New Year. Because the food served during that time is very rich and gorgeous, on January 7th, some Japanese eat for breakfast a simple rice gruel in order to rest their stomachs from New Year's heavy celebratory food. It is said that if you eat the gruel, you can live one year without disease. It seems that this custom originated in China in the Nara period (710-794). Our predecessors changed the format, and it spread throughout the common people in the Edo period (1603-1868). The ingredients are different for each region. The rice gruel dish Nanakusagayu contains these seven Japanese herbs (nanakusa) - seri, nazuna, gogyo, hakobera, hotokenoza, suzuna, suzushiro. Actually, these herbs contain vitamins and dietary fiber, and are effective in promoting appetite, improving digestion and preventing colds. It is a wonderful thing that there still remains a custom that has been transmitted from such a long time ago.