If you happen to be in Japan over this New Year's holiday season, one of the things you may be interested in trying is traditional Osechi ryori お節料理 (Osechi cuisine). These are special dishes, usually served in a square box, often a lacquered jubako tray, which are intended to celebrate the New Year. These dishes are either made with luxury ingredients (top-tier seafood items such as shrimp, crab or lobster) or are considered auspicious because they symbolize long life, family happiness and bountiful harvest.

Unless you are fortunate enough to spend New Year's Day with a Japanese family, the only way to try Osechi cuisine as a foreign visitor is either to order it through a convenience store or department store, or to order it online in advance. You can order big platters which may feed 3 or 4 people, but if you want to feed a large group, you'll need to place several orders, which may be complicated and take time.

The Perfect Solution For a Luxurious New Year's Party

Do you live in Japan or plan on visiting with a large group over the New Year's period? If you're not on a shoestring budget, here's something new to try:

You can organize a very special and fancy party centered on Osechi cuisine for a group of 20 to 30 people with just one step, through Amazon.co.jp.

Introducing the "Super Ultra Extra Large Osechi Platter supervised by Chef Hiroto Hayashi from the Smiling Dinner Table" 笑顔の食卓 匠 林裕人監修 スーパー超特大おせち

That's a mouthful (and it really does say "super ultra extra large," or the closest equivalent thereof), but not even close to the gigantic proportion of the platter you'll be receiving. At nearly 4 feet wide and 2.5 feet long, this tray is overflowing with a whopping 84 luxury dishes and items.

Six packages of karasumi (salted mullet roe), 13 whole lobsters, 10 tins of caviar and 10 shells filled with uni (sea urchin roe)...

12 shrimps, 12 pieces of kazunoko (herring roe lightly marinated in soy sauce and dashi), 12 abalones in their shells

3 extra large sea breams

Order here


All yours for 390,000 JPY (includes tax, excludes shipping)

Top-tier Osechi cuisine platters can cost anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 JPY. Since 390,000 JPY for 30 people works out to 13,000 JPY per person, it's quite a reasonable proposition considering the convenience of one-stop ordering, and the fact that you're also getting lobster, uni, caviar, snow crab, and countless other luxury items.

Perhaps even more importantly, receiving such a gargantuan platter of luxurious items creates an unparalleled Insta-worthy opportunity with a "wow" factor which will surely make it a special memory to cherish with your friends for years to come.

If you're still not convinced it's worth it, look at everything you'll get:

Complete list of contents

  • Sweet boiled black beans decorated with gold foil
  • Date-maki seasoned omelet
  • Salmon and ikura marinated in salted rice malt
  • Ikura marinated in soy sauce
  • Fugu (blowfish) sashimi and kombu
  • Red and white kamaboko (fish cakes)
  • Salmon and squid marinated in salted rice malt
  • Herring roe wrapped in kombu
  • Matsumaezuke (a pickled dish containing kazunoko, surume, kombu and carrots)
  • Konowata (sea cucumber tripe)
  • Smoked salmon trout
  • Amaebi (sweet shrimp) and masago (capelin roe)
  • Apple dango (dumplings)
  • Chestnuts in heavy syrup
  • Salmon trout roasted in Saikyo miso
  • Matsukasa (pineapple cut) roasted cuttlefish
  • Matsukasa roasted cuttlefish and uni
  • Crepes filled with mousse in three colors
  • Fugu wrapped in Kinshi omelet
  • Sea cucumber seasoned in ponzu
  • Cod rolled in kombu
  • Unagi (eel) grilled Shirakaba style, seasoned with sansho (Japanese peppercorn)
  • Atlantic salmon wrapped in Kinshi omelet
  • Sockeye salmon wrapped in kombu
  • Mentaiko (marinated pollock roe) cured kombujime style
  • Cod cooked Umani style
  • Cream cheese and nuts
  • Assorted kurikinton (candied chestnuts with sweet potatoes)
  • Assorted matcha-flavored kurikinton
  • Sawara (Spanish mackerel) roasted in Saikyo miso
  • Steamed crab meat arranged in its shell
  • Buri (Japanese amberjack) teriyaki
  • Fukusayaki (soft layered omelet) with shrimp
  • Vinegared lotus root slices
  • Sea bream sushi
  • Shrimp temarizushi (ball-shaped decorated sushi)
  • Caviar
  • Lobster
  • Red and white namasu (daikon salad)
  • Sawara cured kombujime style
  • Snow crab seasoned with yuzu
  • Chicken thighs Kimiyaki style (salted and seasoned with egg yolk and other condiments)
  • Roasted duck with mustard
  • Poached and lightly sweetened apricots
  • Iwaitai (sea bream grilled and presented in celebratory decorations)
  • Red and white Mochitama chirashi sushi
  • Roast beef
  • Foie gras terrine
  • Bamboo skewers with uni and shrimp dumplings
  • Karasumi
  • Sweet marinated kumquats
  • Tataki gobo (sesame-seasoned burdock root)
  • Braided konjac (devil's root)
  • Roasted yuba rolls (tofu skin)
  • Steamed uni arranged in shells
  • Tazukuri (small dried sardines) Yamato-ni style
  • Sweet marinated lilly bulb
  • Layered shrimp cake
  • Smoked scallops
  • Sweet marinated ume plum
  • Uncured ham and cheese skewers
  • Shiitake mushrooms simmered in seasoned broth Koya-Fukumeni style
  • Seasoned shiitake mushrooms
  • Skewers of simmered yomogi-fu (mugwort gluten)
  • Sasagaki Shinoda-maki (rolls filled with meat, tofu and burdock root)
  • Soft-boiled seasoned octopus
  • Seasoned buri
  • Wheat gluten pockets wrapped in bamboo leaves
  • Soft-boiled abalone
  • Kazunoko seasoned in soy sauce
  • Red and white candy cubes
  • Sweetfish with its own roe seasoned in soy sauce
  • Skewers of sweetened yuzu peel
  • Skewers of conch and uni
  • Tilefish grilled Tsuma-ori style
  • Sweetened walnuts
  • Shrimp Tsuya-ni (sweetened and glazed)
  • Temari mochi rice cake balls
  • Kanzashi hairpin motif plums
  • "Plum flower" wagashi sweets
  • Plum shaped sweet boiled carrots
  • 50 pairs of disposable chopsticks in special New Year's celebratory paper wrappers

How to order

Obviously, this is not something you'll be able to send outside of Japanese territory, but as long as you have an address in Japan, nothing prevents you from ordering it in advance right now.

Just click here, and place your order.


By - Ben K.