Morikami Gardens Oshogatsu 2012

The Little Nomsters are celebrating the Year of the Dragon at Morikami Gardens!  Located at the Morikami Gardens Museum and Japanese Gardens we knew for sure there was to be great Asian cuisine for the Nomsters to devour.  Sure enough, there was.

Let me begin by saying Morikami Gardens is a beautiful place.  The gardens offer great scenic locations for any occasion and we were blessed with spectacular 75 degree weather.  We witnessed a great Japanese drum session, an authentic style Japanese home, and of course great Asian food.  So let’s stop beating around the bush.

The Oshogatsu menu offered foods from both the vendors or their very own in house cafe the Cornell Cafe, we opted with the cafe cause a) the food would be a little more healthier being its not cooked over greasy portable cook tops b) we wanted sushi c) we didn’t have cash and the cafe took credit cards.

Walking over to the cafe from the fair grounds was a sight for everyone to see.  There are pebbled walkways surrounding the lake with vista views of bridges and green lush islands.  We came across a man made waterfall which emptied out under a bridge and into the lake where koi fish can be seen swimming about.  As we stood in line, and there was a very long line, we could hear a demonstration on preparing rice cakes (takes a lot of pounding), and saw many fans of Oshogatsu dressed up in costumes ranging from geisha to anime characters.

Breezing over the menu while standing in line, we decided to order the egg rolls, the cold sesame noodles, shrimp tempura rolls, and the dumplings.  The egg rolls were lightly fried but the taste wasn’t heavy and not greasy at all.  The shrimp tempura weren’t the best I’ve had, but was tasty nonetheless, the rolls were small but carried a distinct fresh taste and flavor.  The dumplings weren’t steamed like how I would have preferred but again lightly fried and the pork inside was a little bland, however a dunk in the lightly salted soy sauce helped it alot.  Finally, the item which made a home-run in my opinion was the cold sesame noodles.  The noodles were whole wheat, served with mild peanut sauce, with shredded carrots and cucumbers.  They were great.  Eating them was fun as they give you an entire carton box full, I clearly looked like an anime character stuffing and slurping my face with noodles.

At the end of the day we strolled around the gardens more, but what had me hooked was the entertainment, the food, and the gardens themselves.  I can’t say enough about Morikami Gardens and the Oshugatsu Festival.  Highly recommened event and location.