Happy Girls’ Day! Today, March 3rd is Hinamatsuri, or Japanese Girls’ Day, and is also known as Girls’ Doll Festival. Dolls are displayed in the family’s home to wish for happiness and good fortune for all the girls in the family. This year, we managed to display our Hinamatsuri Dolls for longer than a few days as we remembered to set them out earlier in February. In years past, we hastily displayed our dolls just a few...

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Wishing all of those who read and visit my Bebe Love Okazu blog , my family and friends, a heartfelt and happy February 14th! For me, Valentine’s Day isn’t just about sweet nothings for your partner, but about remembering the love and friendship in my life and appreciating what I have. ♥ This morning Bebe woke us up and we wished her a Happy Valentine’s Day. ♥ I missed a phone call from my...

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Valentine’s Day is just a week away! At our home, this means that Bebe and I put up various little heart-shaped decorations and start working on Valentine crafts. We also like to pull out our favorite Valentine’s Day children’s books and we start reading them at nap and bed time. It’s definitely a fun holiday that we enjoy. (Photo Credit Above: Hideki Ueha) As for celebrating on the 14th, I usually cook dinner and...

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In Japan, Setsubun, marks the beginning of Spring and is celebrated annually on February 3rd. It coincides with the Lunar New Year and is characterized by a traditional bean throwing ceremony. Above: Fuku Mame – Lucky Roasted Soy Beans Setsubun is often celebrated as part of Haru Matsuri (Spring Festival) but growing-up in Los Angeles, it usually meant that my Mom would buy roasted soy beans and allow my brother and I to toss these out...

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I firmly believe there is a Japanese sushi chef somewhere in California that woke-up one morning and decided to mix a few pieces of fresh sashimi-grade fish and abalone with some mayo, throw in some masago (caviar) for good measure, and baked it all together in his little toaster oven. (Photo Credit: Hideki Ueha) This sushi chef, after tasting one bite of his crazy creation yells at the top of lungs, “D-Y-N-A-M-I-T-O-H!!!!!  Kore wa...

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Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとう！ 2014 is the Year of The Horse and true to family tradition, on January 1st my parents lined-up in front of their local Japanese market to get their free New Year’s zodiac ceramic. My Mom takes my Dad along with her so that he can get an extra ceramic to ensure that both my brother and I get one. Our ceramic horse is proudly decorated in our home as I write! (Photo Credit: Hideki Ueha) This...

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      My favorite osechi ryori, or Japanese New Year’s dish is kazunoko. It’s caviar made of herring roe, simply seasoned with dashi konbu (seasoned seaweed), katsuo dashi (bonito broth) and shoyu (soy sauce). Kazunoko is typically found in Japanese supermarkets only at the end of the year, which is quite unfortunate because I wouldn’t mind eating this year round. I’m sure there must be other markets that sell this...

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The day after Christmas, if not sooner, my Mom and I begin our Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year) menu discussions. Each year, our menu changes slightly, but my Mom still undertakes the bulk of cooking our family’s Osechi Ryori (traditional Japanese New Year’s dishes). Slowly but surely, each year I’ve been learning how to make a new osechi ryori dish. This year will be no different as I contemplate which dish to...

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