Saturday, January 10, 2015

Seven Herbs Rice Porridge (Nanakusa-gayu 七草粥)

 (posted; Japanese meal page)

*Jan.7th, is Seven Herbs Rice Porridge eating Day*

Nanakusa-Gayu with side dishes (grilled turban shell)



This is a New Year's Tradition of eating a rice porridge with seven-medicinal herbs to bring good health and longevity. After enjoying New Year food (osechi), this simple vegetarian rice porridge is very refreshing, help digestive system that is stuffed and exhausted.  Okayu (お粥. rice porridge) is the traditional meal to eat when you’re sick; I suppose the Japanese equivalent of chicken soup:-)  picture page

*Seven herbs*
My husband's acquaintance who works at the agricultural high school kindly gave us this package of seven herbs which were grown by the students of the school.
Please enlarge the graph below to know what herbs are used :-)
I remember my late mother memorized the names and saying them like a song.
We can buy the seven traditional greens conveniently packaged together at supermarket.
And I found the one we are given sold at the store we regularly use. (left side)


 Linking this post to, "Our World Tuesday"

Thank you very much for stopping by;


20 comments:

  1. Dearest Miyako,
    Guess one would have a real hard time for finding all seven herbs here in the USA. Turnip and Radish yes...
    Lovely tradition and for sure a very healthy dish!
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  2. Looks so healthy and appetizing dear Miyako :) Hope you are having a great start to the new year!

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  3. Wonderful and so healthy! Anice way to start the New Year! A happy weekend!

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  4. It looks delicious Miyako. This is a meal I know I would enjoy. Sending a hug to you and wishing you all A Very Happy New Year :) From Denise in Northern Virginia

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  5. Hello Miyako, your rice meal looks delicious.. I would love to try it someday.. I have not heard of some of these herbs.. Take care and I wish you a very healthy New Year!

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  6. what a neat tradition! i think we could use that dietary cleanse all across the world! :)

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  7. I love this -I have aziean friends and I taste a lot of this kind of food .I new often not exact the name ,bit I love it all!

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  8. Miyako, I so love your traditions, and how nice that the seven herbs are prepackaged to help out the cook! Hugs from Texas.

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  9. Ohhhh nanakusa-gayu! Yummy! Thank you for the list of herbs. I admit, I didn't really know what herbs were used for this dish. When I'm sick, chicken soup is bit too heavy for me. Maybe because I'm Japanese :-) I prefer simple okayu.
    It's really nice the herbs grown by students are sold in the store. Maybe the sales help run programs at school.

    It's cold here and we are planning to have onabe tonight. Have a wonderful weekend, Miyako san!

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  10. Miyako San!
    You has not will for a month time?
    I can understand to eat very simple food with you...
    But I like Taiyaki ikayaki wa Oisidesune.
    We having most of raining day...
    Otosan to oishi Osakanao oagari kudasai
    mase. Miyako san!

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  11. what a great tradition. i love porridge. it reminds me of my mom because she used to make it for me whenever i was sick :)

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  12. How fun it is to learn the traditions of other countries! I was happy I could open this post, after having trouble seeing the one before it. It's fascinating how we all have our ways of insuring good luck and health for the new year. Good that they package the herbs together so you don't have to track each one down separately. Have a great new year, dear Miyako....great health and happiness to you and your loved ones!

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  13. Looks very good, the Japanese cuisine is fantastic.

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  14. What a healthy way to start a new year.

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  15. Oh I love rice porridge. I haven't tasted the Japanese version, only Chinese and Filipino.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  16. That porridge looks delicious!

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  17. Oh look so yummy. We too have 7 types of vegetables but to be eaten on the 7th day of the Chinese New Year (which is everyone's birthday(ren ri)).

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  18. Hello Mikayo
    That looks so appetizing :) greeting from Belgium
    http://louisette.eklablog.com

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  19. January is certainly a good month for a cleansing diet -- and a simple one. This porridge sounds better to me than chicken soup... rice is a comfort food for me. I'm familiar with turnip and have cooked both greens and root and have eaten daikon radish root and sprouted the seeds to use in salad. I know what chickweed is but did not know it was edible. We enjoy trying new foods and I wish I could try this porridge!

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  20. The rice porridge looks delightful! Perhaps we know some of the herbs by different names. I have chickweed growing wild in my garden, and I love to grow radishes and turnips, so I use them in soup. Hugs from the PNW! Hannah

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