Happy 100th Day - Okuizome
Happy 100th day to my dear cry baby ♥
Since (unfortunately) I don’t know much of Taiwanese/Chinese culture of doing 100th day celebration (ginger and red egg party?), I did the Japanese style celebration for my daughter: Okuizome. It is performed in hopes that the child would never have to worry about food. I wasn’t planning to do it at first, but I heard one of my Japanese mommy friends did it, so I was like, heck, why not?
Here is the whole setting I had for my daughter:
- Fish. We are supposed to use Tai (red snapper/sea bream, known for celebratory fish) for this, but Ranch 99 didn’t have it today
so I replaced it with tilapia… I didn’t feel like grilling it so I just asked Ranch 99 to deep fry it, too. The sea bream (served with the head and tail intact) is homonyms with mede-TAI which means joy and celebration in Japanese.
- Osekihan (red bean rice). This is made with sticky rice and red beans and often served on auspicious occasions in Japan. Color red is auspicious color.
- Osuimono (soup). I made it with clam and shrimp. Each of clam shells only match to its original pair, hoping that the child will some day find a significant other to share her life with. Shrimp has bent back, hoping that the child will live to a great age.
- Chikuzen-ni (stewed vegetables): It has lotus root, hoping that the child will see far ahead to the future. Also bamboo shoot, hoping that the child will grow well like bamboos.
- Sunomono (pickled vegetables): I put octopus in it, meaning the child will have lots of happiness (多幸), or her teeth will line up beautifully, just like octopus’ sucking disk, or hoping that the child will not have to worry about food.
- Umeboshi (pickled plum): The wrinkled pickled plum represents a wrinkled old person in the hope that the baby will live a long life.
お食い初め。妊娠するまでこういう行事があるなんて知らなかったんだけど、しかも「おくいはじめ」と呼ぶんだと思っていたのだけれど、しかもしかもめんどくさそうだからやろうかどうか迷っていたのだけれど、最近知り合ったママ友さんがやったと言うことを聞いて、興味がわいてやってみた。
とは言っても当日まで何の準備もせず。当日になって、スーパー三軒ハシゴして材料を揃え・・・るはずだったんだけど、尾頭付きの鯛が近所のスーパーで売っていないことが判明。おかしいなぁ、この前行った時はあったと思ったんだけどなぁ。仕方ないから尾頭付きの他のお魚を買って、しかもやっぱめんどくさくなったのでその場で調理してもらってしまった；ま、でもその他のは全部作ったので、良しとしよう。
でもあれだね、赤子抱えてスーパーいくのはつらいね。ベビーカーで行ったらカートが押せないから買いたいものの置き場に困るし、抱っこひももいちいちつけたり外したりが面倒だし・・・。だいたい安全のためとはいえど、チャイルドシート使うのが一番めんどくさい！なんなら、車に娘を置いてちゃちゃっと買って帰りたい。あー、面倒くさがりでごめんなさい。
ま、でも、準備する期間が短かった割には成功だったと思う。寝てるところを起こして記念撮影＋食べさせるふりをしたので、娘はぎゃん泣きだったけど (笑)
さて、次は桃の節句か。
Originally published at Rublog. Please leave any comments there.