Mr. Sato dreams up an innovative way to ensure good luck and give yourself an excuse to eat fried chicken.
sushi rolls
They’re almost too pretty to eat, but you’ll need to chow down if you want to get Japan’s most delicious traditional luck boost.
Ehomaki sushi rolls are supposed to ensure good luck for the year, and it’s hard to think of having a luckier life than one that lets you eat this.
Tekkamaki tuna rolls have fire in their name, but in this part of west Japan, they’re almost white.
Before you start obsessing over Valentine’s Day plans, let’s turn for a moment to another February whoop-de-do: the Japanese Bean-Throwing Festival or Setsubun. Celebrated on February 3 this year, it’s an intriguing blend of evil ogres and spirits, roasted soybeans, and chomping on a whole baton of thickly rolled sushi while facing in the proper direction. These somewhat disparate ingredients commingle on this day to assure good fortune and health for the year to come.
In recent years, western Japan’s custom of eating a special type of sushi called ehō-maki (恵方巻き, literally “blessed direction roll”) for Setsubun has spread across the nation due to marketing campaigns by grocery and convenience stores; what’s more, the sushi rolls have been evolving into scrumptious cream-filled Swiss rolls! Iconoclastic? Maybe. Delicious? Yes!
So let’s jump on the bandwagon and look into this holiday a bit before drooling over this collection of sushi and their sweet doppelgängers. And Yowapeda fans, I think I spy a Makishima-maki!
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