Our turn for the theme dinner rolled around this Feb. and this year we chose Japan. Once a year, each couple chooses a theme, makes the main course and the others bring appetizers, first course, dessert, wine and this time Sake.

We had a wonderful time researching menus, seeking places to purchase ingredients and trying out the preparations in order to have some idea what we were doing the night of the dinner.

Setting the table and choosing dishes for all the various things served at once was a challenge and fun. My Mom has given me dishes that she had bought on Okinawa when we lived there in the early fifties. So, we took liberties with some of their purposes and added others, picked up some bamboo mats and tied our napkins with twine.

Table setting for Japanese Theme Dinner-First Course

Table setting for Japanese Theme Dinner-Main Course

Using the book, Japanese Family-Style Recipes by Hiroko Urakami, our main course was:

Wakame Seaweed Miso Soup (Wakame No Miso-Shiri)
Yellowtail Teriyaki (Buri No Teriyaki—we used Striped Bass)
Simmered Japanese Squash (Kabocha No Nimono)
Braised Daikon with two ground sesame seed sauces—black and white. (Furofuki Daikon)
White Rice with a side of Tsukemono (Pickled Cabbage)

This was the last fun thing we’ve done in a while as this was the night Bob’s leg began acting up and that’s been a very long story, but now he’s on the mend and …