June 16, 2014

O-Sekihan/お赤飯

On Father's Day, my wife made o-sekihan for her father, using 1 kg of mochi gome (mochi rice; glutinous rice) and azuki beans. She transferred the o-sekihan to a juubako, and the rest was eaten by my family for supper.
父の日に、妻が実父のために、もち米を1 kgと小豆でお赤飯を作りました。重箱に詰めて、残りは家族で夕飯に食べました。
O-sekihan is usually eaten with toasted sesame seeds and salt, but I had it plain. Later, I had it with Magic Furikake.
普通、お赤飯は煎ったゴマと塩で食べるのですが、私はそのまま食べました。後で、魔法のふりかけと一緒に食べました。 

O-sekihan is a polite way of saying sekihan. The same goes for o-bento, o-chawan (rice bowl), o-kome (rice), and so on. In some cases, the polite connotation of "o" is almost lost, as in o-cha and o-wan. That is, it is more common to say o-cha (tea) and o-wan (soup bowl) than cha and wan. In other cases, "o" can mean "your", as in o-kuruma (your car) and o-tegami (your letter).
お赤飯とは赤飯の丁寧な言い方です。お弁当もお茶碗なども同様です。お茶やお椀などでは、「お」の丁寧さがほとんど失われます。つまり、茶、椀と言うより、お茶、お椀という方が一般的です。また、お車やお手紙など、「お」が「貴方の」という意味になることがあります。

2 comments:

  1. Happy Father's Day! (I think I'm a day late where I'm at.) I was wondering: what is magic furikake?

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  2. Here is a post on my Magic Furikake:
    http://hiro-shio.blogspot.jp/2010/03/magic-furikake.html

    I hope you make it to check if it works for you some day!

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