Samの英語チャンネル

Ehomaki sushi rolls are supposed to ensure good luck for the year, and it’s hard to think of having a luckier life than one that lets you eat this.

Setsubun, which takes place on February 3, is one of Japan’s more unusual holidays. The celebration is all about ensuring good luck, and while that’s a pretty universally desirable thing, it’s the way in which you’re supposed to go about it that makes Setsubun unique. For instance, part of the festivities is throwing beans, which is supposed to scare off demons that are apparently powerful enough to influence your overall prosperity, but also weak enough to be intimidated by flying legumes.

But what many people enjoy more is the Setsubun tradition of ehomaki: luxurious sushi rolls that you eat while facing in whatever the lucky direction for the year is (west-southwest for 2020, by the way).

Because Setsubun is a special, celebratory occasion, most people splurge on extra-thick sushi rolls packed with all kinds of seafood, like these examples.

However, if you’re particularly indecisive, or just really, really hungry, this year Japanese supermarket chain Ito-Yokado is happy to provide you with its Goka Kenran (“Opulent Luxury”) ehomaki, which promises a whopping 25 ingredients inside. But how can chefs fit so many different delectables into a single roll? They can’t, which is why the Goka Kenran is actually a sushi roll made out of nine other sushi rolls!

The Goka Kenran is 18 centimeters (7.1 inches) long and nine centimeters square. It’s so huge that Ito-Yokado has to provide a map to show you all that’s in it.

The ingredients in the interior rolls are:
1. Minced tuna and young yellowtail
2. Octopus, sea bream, sweet shrimp, sea urchin
3. Salmon belly, squid, shrimp
4. Sardines, spicy cod roe, flounder, surf clam
5. Crab, mussels, perch
6. Herring roe, scallops
7. Saltwater eel, salmon
8. Tuna, salmon roe, scallops
9. Core: Tuna, egg, flying fish roe

For good measure, there’s also cucumber and shiso (Japanese basil) within the expansive confines of the Goka Kenran as well.

All of that luxury doesn’t come cheap, but the price of 5,378 yen (US$49) doesn’t seem at al unreasonable considering how much food you’re getting. There’s also a half-size Goka Kenran, which is only crazy-big instead of ultra-crazy-big, and available for 2,700 yen.

▼ However, some quick math shows us that the half-size Goka Kenran still costs 50.2 percent of the price of the full-size version, so if you ask us you’d have to be a serious sucker not to opt for the whole thing.

Given the massive size of the Goka Kenran, Ito-Yokado obviously doesn’t want to end up with unsold leftovers, and so they’re available by preorder only. Orders can be placed online here through January 30, but if you miss out, we suppose you can console yourself with an eho pizza or something.

Source: PR Times
Top image: Ito-Yokado
Insert images: PR Times, Ito-Yokado
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Source: SORA NEWS24