Naomi's birthday, a full on Japanese meal.

There is no doubt my mother-in-law is a great cook. She never fails to whip up anything less than amazing every time we have dinner at her place. If I can describe her style of cooking and her food, it will be fresh, clean and light. It is also visually appealing, with tons of colors and textures. You know how you get that feeling as though a truck has just ran you over after you over indulge? I don't feel that way with her food even though I consciously know I ate a lot. Hmm, I wonder if that is still a bad thing? :P 

She prepares her meal with tons of vegetables and they are always delicious. I have tried making the same dishes and they never quite tasted the same. Now that I'm married to a Japanese man, I feel that it is important to find a balance and continue the ways and tradition of two different cultures and hopefully pass them on to my kids (if I have them). As you continue reading and admiring the food, you will notice I have much to learn. 

We decided to have dinner at home with the family to celebrate Naomi's 2X birthday. It's been a while since we had dinner together at home. We usually celebrate birthdays at a restaurant, but wanted to do something more intimate this time.

A snapshot of our spread for the evening. 

A salad with shishito peppers and dried baby anchovies. This one packs quite a punch.

I love DIY sushi. My MIL will prepare sushi rice and we get to choose the types of fish we want to wrap with seaweed. It is not only tasty, but a lot of fun too.

Eggplant salad with picked vegetables.

 Spinach salad with sesame.

 Kinpira- made with carrots and burdock root.

 Salad with a mixture of celery, cucumber, red onion, red bell pepper and chicken.

 Since it also happened to be St. Patty's Day, she made a Japanese spinoff of corned beef and cabbage. Hers is minced pork wrapped in cabbage and stewed in sake, dashi and soy sauce. This is one of my favorites for the night.

Steamed dumplings.

My contribution for the evening is a chocolate cake with hazelnut swiss meringue buttercream per the birthday girl's request. Since I can't cook like my MIL, the least I can do is try to bake a cake. 

Happy birthday Naomi-chan and thanks mama, for cooking such a delicious meal!