AnnaTheRed's Bento Factory » setsubun & eho-maki

setsubun & eho-maki
February 7, 2010

Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else

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Not a bento blog, but I wanted to do this quick post before I do another bento blog since it’s kind of a seasonal thing. (I should’ve done this a couple of days ago, but I’ve been busy playing a video game lately… )

Last week I made Setsubun Totoro bento for Setsubun to scare off evil spirits. On the night of February 3rd, we got roasted soybeans to throw and I made Eho-maki (a type of sushi roll) for dinner.

I got these roasted soybeans in a fake wooden box ("masu") for Setsubun.

Setsubun - oni-mask and roasted soybeans

It came with a small Oni mask. His hair was trees with "eco" (as in ecological) written on it, his beard was leaves, and he's got a recycling logo for his nose. Definitely not the scary oni I remember... Who would want to throw beans at such an environmentally friendly oni??

In some areas of Japan, people eat Eho-maki on the day of Setsubun for good luck. Traditional Eho-maki contains seven ingredients because seven is a lucky number. People used to put specific ingredients before, but nowadays the recipe is pretty flexible, and you can put anything in it.

I’m from Kyushu and I had never done this before. But this year I wanted to experience this bizarre tradition. Well, eating a certain food on a certain day isn’t bizarre at all, but “how” you eat Eho-maki is far from normal.

1. First you have to face a certain direction. (This is different each year. It was west-southwest this year.)
2, Hold the entire roll in your hands. (You cannot cut a roll because it’s considered “cutting luck”)
3. Begin eating it in complete silence while wishing for good luck and do not take the roll out of your mouth until you finish it. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, you have to eat it in all at once. (In some areas, they say you have to close your eyes while you eat.)

Just imagine people facing the same direction, eating an entire roll of sushi for 5~10 minutes, without talking. My friend told me that she used to do this with her family when she was little. She said that she and her sister could never do it right. The main reason was that it was just a lot of food for kids, and also once you realized how silly you look, you’d lose it and start giggling.

I tried to make the roll as skinny as possible but it was still pretty big with 7 ingredients inside.
When we began eating, it wasn’t too bad. Then for some reason, I started eating faster. My boyfriend was taking his time which was probably a wise thing to do, but I just couldn’t eat it so slow. I finished when my boyfriend still had 1/3 of his roll. Without breathing from the mouth, you can’t taste the roll that much. You just feel the texture. We felt like it made us feel fuller than we actually were… or maybe we weren’t full at all. We didn’t have any other food eating experience to compare how full we’re supposed to feel after jamming an entire roll of sushi into your mouth in one go.

I made ours with avocado, shredded egg sheet, scallion, lettuce, fake crab meat, corns and roe (cooked).