Dreaming of a Japanese Kurisimasu

Kurisimasu Kake and Kentucky Chicken

Celebrate the Holidays Japanese-style right here in Fort Lee

Japanese kitchens have no ovens.  Roasting chickens or baking cakes is a great delight for Japanese who live in Fort Lee.

But in Japan this year,  a National Holiday, marking Emperor Akihito's 80th birthday - is beign celebrated as a 3-day- weekend December 21, 22, 23.

Here in Fort Lee we can get a "taste" of Kurisimasu in Japan, which is usually just an ordinary working day.  On the evening of December 25, if we wish,
we can pick up some Kentucky fried chicken - the usual take-home feast for those ovenless kitchens.

We can also pick up one of the fancy whipped-cream Santa decorated Christmas Cakes available at Parisienne Bakery, Sunmerry, in the Borough -or Hamada-ya at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, to take home the Japanese equivalent of Christmas sweets.

Let me know what you prefer: one of those fancy Japanese cakes - or fruit cake, stollen, rum cake, and our variety of Christmas sweets from Italy, Poland, France, England.

Of course, if you wait until December 26 in Japan anyway, those pricey ($30 and up) Christmas cakes are sold at half-price!*

*Japanese cultural factoid: young women are expected to marry before age 25 - should they pass that milestone un-wed - they are called "Christmas Cake" like the half-price variety sold on December 26.