SHÖGATSU

The Japanese New Year starts off with a simple bowl of soup.

- TAKASHI YAGIHASHI

JANUARY 1-3

I GREW UP IN A BIG, BUSY CITY called Mito, north of Tokyo. The week before New Year's, my mother would prepare assorted cold dishes for sharing with relatives and friends dropping by to wish us a happy new year. But on the first day of the new year, nobody drops by-it's a day families spend together. And it's on that first day that you make something hot: ozoni, a special New Year's soup with a dashi or miso broth, vegetables, and a little meat or fish cake, topped with grilled mochi.

My mother did most of the cooking, but my father always made the ozoni. He was an accountant and had his office attached to the house; in it, he had a gas space heater. He would grill the mochi on the top of the heater. I remember being in second and third grade and how much I loved what my father was doing.

My mother would warm up dashi broth and some carrots and some yam or potato, finishing it with a little soy sauce. When the mochi finished grilling, my father brought it to our side of the house, and we'd all get served.

When I was in my 20s, I came to the United States and got married and started my own family. I began making ozoni for my children and my wife every New Year's at our home in Chicago. I follow my father's rules: I always use square mochi. The protein is chicken. There will be carrots, sometimes taro root, shiitake mushrooms, and a little bit of spinach for color. It's the first thing we eat on New Year's Day. You wake up a little bit late because you were up late, and it's the first meal of the year. Most of us eat ours out of a miso bowl, but my son always says, "Dad, I want to have more," so I serve his in a ramen bowl.