I keep seeing reports from across the nation on 'Why you eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day' or 'why you eat black eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's Day' but do we even have a tradition like that in the Pacific Northwest? I don't think we do. Maybe we should start one.

Usually, my New Year's Day meal consists of day-old pizza and Chinese food or whatever we happen to have had the night before. That's not bad.

You can never go wrong with soup or something warm. In Japan, the traditional New Year's Day soup is called ozoni which is a rice cake (mochi) soup. I've never had it, but it looks awesome.

Being we have all of these great, authentic Mexican establishments in our area it might make sense that the New Year's Day meal be menudo as it's an age-old cure for a hangover. Is it really a cure? I've never tested it out, personally, but many say it is.

So, for lack of any better excuse, I hereby state that menudo is Yakima's official New Year's Day meal! Go out and enjoy a big bowl of red chili based beef-parts soup. Don't question what's in it, just enjoy it. It'll warm you right up.

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