In Japan, when you start hearing about Christmas cake promotions, it also means you have to start thinking about New Year’s osechi food as well. Osechi consists of different traditional foods typically prepared for New Year’s to wish for luck in the coming year and are usually items that keep well so that you can have the pre-cooked foods throughout the New Year’s holidays without having to do much cooking during that time. You can, of course, choose to keep it simple and simply buy just a few of the key items like datemaki (sweet rolled omelette) and kuromame (black soy beans) at the supermarket, or go all out on a luxury osechi set from a famous restaurant or department store. Well, this year, it looks like a Pokémon osechi set is also an option, and it even comes in a unique container in a shape that fans will find quite familiar — a Poké Ball!
That’s right, the osechi set comes in a round container that looks exactly like a Poké Ball and is filled with two layers of beautifully prepared osechi food. What makes it particularly attractive is that the osechi food is prepared and sold by Kenko Sansai, a company that delivers health conscious pre-packaged meals created by qualified nutritionists.
▼The ball alone should delight children and fans of the series, as it looks to be quite a faithful recreation:
Pictured below is the first layer of osechi food in the Poké Ball set, which contains the more creative, non-traditional foods including: chicken roll with three vegetable, salmon arranged in a rose shape, star-shaped pineapples, mochi rice cake in a fried tofu pouch, heart-shaped carrots, sweet chestnut paste, sweet stewed whole chestnut, mini hamburg steaks with demi-glace sauce, cooked egg, crab-flavored fish cake with cheese, salmon eggs, crab claws, sweet-stewed peach and cherry flower-shaped daikon radish.
And the second layer, shown below, contains more traditional osechi items, including: red and white kamaboko fish cake, datemaki rolled omelette, rolled konbu seaweed, boiled shrimp, black soybeans, plum rice cake, herring eggs, sweet stewed kumquat, marinated radish and carrot, dried sardines and a sweet rice cake filled with red bean paste and strawberry.
The different shapes and colors of all the osechi items create a lovely picture, don’t they? The set, priced at 14,580 yen (US$136.34), will be delivered to all customers on December 30, in plenty of time for New Year’s.
So, how about mixing a bit of Pokémon magic with a traditional Japanese culinary custom to celebrate the New Year? Just be sure to place your order before the set sells out!
Source and photos: Kenko Sansai website (Japanese)