Toshikoshi soba / 年越し蕎麦

In Japan, there is a tradition of eating soba noodles (buckwheat noodles) before midnight on New Year's Eve. 

The long shape of the noodle symbolises the crossing of one year into the next. Soba noodles are also easy to cut, symbolising the letting-go of the regrets and hardships of the past year and welcoming the journey ahead.

The buckwheat plant is also known to survive severe weather during its growth period, therefore soba represents strength and resilience.

This practice was believed to have started during the Edo period.

This is certainly one way to remain 'soba' for the New Year!

* Post inspired by a New Year's Eve episode from Midnight Diner: Tokyo Diaries *

TV Dinners

Wilhelmina Slater's Favourite Salad

• Endive and arugula
• No dressing
• Extra lemon slices
• Lettuce ripped in bite-sized pieces
• Baby corn de-cobbed

Pigsy's creation

• Slow roasted wood fired quail
• Parsnips three ways
• Wild flowers sauteed in a fennel jus
• Pomegranate and lotus root

Dinner in the Hamptons

Spectacular Clambake:

• Two-and-a-half-pound pre-cracked lobsters
• Clams in lemon butter;
• Mussels steamed in white wine
• Garlic rosemary bliss potatoes
• Corn on the cob sprinkled with cotija cheese
• Baskets of warm, buttery rolls 

Drinks:

• Ice-cold beer with limes
• Glasses of crisp Pinot Grigio
• The saltiest, most delicious Margaritas

Dessert/afters:

• Homemade apple pie and ice cream
• S’mores spread
• Mugs of marshmallow hot chocolate

Chef's Tasting Menu at Fifty Prince Hotel Restaurant

• Sweet corn foam with black truffle jelly and duck foie gras air
• Jellied terrine of brown crab with lambs brains and courgette

What Marc St James orders at Prune

• Parsley and dandelion salad

Himalayan Yak Restaurant, New York City

• Blood sausage
• Broiled yak tongue
• Bean thread noodles
• Fermented yak butter tea

Swim Party at Short Hills, New Jersey

• Crab Fingers
• Marinated mushrooms
• Miniature Pizzas
• Cheese and Spinach Quiche
• Tiny shells filled with Chicken a la King
• Giant Shrimp to hold by the tail
• Sliced Fillets of Beef served on squares of hot Garlic Bread
• French Pastries
• Freshly brewed coffee

Dinner with Isaac and Sabine Gottesman

• Spring pea soup
• John Dory with salsify
• Cheese 
• Poached pears and ginger yoghurt
• Coffee served with petit fours from Bonte
• Krug champagne

Bracebridge 19th Century Dinner

• Soup
• Fish
• Peacock pie
• Baron of Beef
• Salad
• Plum pudding
• Wassail

Michel Gerard's Healthy Breakfasts/Snacks

Pancakes: Low fat, whole wheat, 12 blueberries.

Omelette: Egg whites, tomatoes, mushrooms, chives.

Daily Omega 3: 12 walnuts.

Cat Names

Jennyanydots

Growltiger

Grumbuskin

Tumblebrutus

Griddlebone

Gilbert

Rum Tum Tugger

Mungojerrie

Rumpleteazer

Deuteronomy

Great Rumpuscat

Mr Mistoffelees

Macavity

Asparagus

Firefrorefiddle

Bustopher Jones

Skimbleshanks

Before a Cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend,
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream;
And you might now and then supply
Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie,
Some potted grouse, or salmon paste —
He’s sure to have his personal taste.
(I know a Cat, who makes a habit
Of eating nothing else but rabbit,
And when he’s finished, licks his paws
So’s not to waste the onion sauce.)
A Cat’s entitled to expect
These evidences of respect.
And so in time you reach your aim,
And finally call him by his NAME.

So this is this, and that is that:
And there’s how you AD-DRESS A CAT.

* Cat names taken from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot *