Eating New Year's Food in August: Ryuji Taste-Tests "Osechi for People Who Hate Osechi" with SUSURU

At the start, Ryuji greets viewers with "Happy New Year" and explains that in past years the announcement was done in kimono, but that got old, so this time Ryuji became a sheep. Because 2027 is the Year of the Sheep, a matching headpiece had been prepared for SUSURU as well. The shoot actually took place in August, and Ryuji laughs about "eating osechi smack in the middle of August," explaining that it won't sell without promotion, so this is done at this time every year.

As for why a tasting partner was brought in, Ryuji says the tasting is always done alone and had never been done with two people, so this doubled as that. SUSURU prefaced their remarks by saying they don't know much about anything other than ramen, but mentioned that osechi was served at their family home.

When SUSURU says their favorite osechi item is datemaki, Ryuji immediately replies, "There's no datemaki," because Ryuji isn't much of a fan of it. According to Ryuji, the concept of this osechi is "osechi that even people who hate osechi will love," and the contents are the result of trying to make something that Ryuji, who never ate osechi growing up, would enjoy. SUSURU agreed that traditional osechi includes "things that, honestly, you could do without."

Opening the box, the first thing inside is a generous amount of mentaiko as a purchase bonus, which Ryuji says buyers are very happy about. The tiered boxes come in a box labeled "Buzz Recipe," along with a menu card. The portions are designed so that a family of three or four can share them. Ryuji says drinking alongside this osechi is something to look forward to every year, and explains that it includes many items rarely seen in traditional osechi.

As for sales, Ryuji states that it has sold about 900 million yen in total, adding that this figure is from four years of running it. SUSURU was surprised that it exceeds their own company's annual revenue.

The first drink is a sake from Ishikawa Prefecture, and the first item Ryuji pairs with it is chicken gizzard. It's very popular, has been included since the beginning, and is an item that can't be left out. SUSURU noted that it retains its crunch and springiness. Here Ryuji emphasizes that, although this osechi is frozen, the freezing technology is impressive, and once thawed there's no sense that it was frozen.

Next is abalone sautéed in butter. It's topped with something like garlic butter, and SUSURU says the butter flavor comes through in the aftertaste, adding that just having abalone in there is a treat, since it's not something they eat day to day. When Ryuji asks, "Don't you eat abalone ramen or anything?", SUSURU replies that there may have been a ramen that used abalone paste.

The third item is salmon baked with mascarpone, a particular favorite of Ryuji's. When SUSURU calls it "straight-up Western food," Ryuji responds that it goes really well with sake. To the explanation that the saltiness is designed to pair with alcohol, SUSURU replied, "That's what I like—food that gets right to the point, where the flavor hits immediately."

While eating, Ryuji asks what the definition of ramen actually is. According to SUSURU, if it uses Chinese-style noodles made with kansui, it falls within the definition of ramen, but then the question becomes what about champon or yakisoba. Champon and yakisoba aren't generally called ramen, but under a broad definition they would probably count as ramen—that was SUSURU's view.

When Ryuji suggests, "Isn't it about time you tried udon or something?", SUSURU says they like udon too, and when they went to Kagawa they barely glanced at ramen and ate udon instead. SUSURU was careful to stress that this doesn't mean ramen in Kagawa isn't good—there just aren't many ramen shops.

Of the next item, with sesame sauce, SUSURU said it was rich and tasted like dandan noodles, and that it was impressive how, despite the large number of items, each one tasted different and was delicious. Ryuji says the reason this osechi sells every year is simply that it's tasty.

From here the drink switches to beer. What's been prepared is Egashira 2:50's beer, which SUSURU says they actually bought. Following this thread, Ryuji grumbles that when Ryuji trashes convenience store food it causes an uproar online, but when Egashira does it there's no uproar. Ryuji joked that after more or less trashing SUSURU's "Hiyashi Buta Musō" in the past, the comments section fired back with "Your ramen was pretty bad too," and there was even a comment saying "Ryuji and SUSURU can't be trusted."

The item paired with beer is chicken with tomato cream cheese, newly added this year. The fried octopus that follows has aurora sauce spread underneath, and SUSURU says they love fried octopus so much they always order it at izakaya. When Ryuji asks, "You go to izakaya?", SUSURU shoots back, "Of course I do, I'm human," and Ryuji teased, "This channel is the only place you can see SUSURU eating this much non-ramen food."

Of the Iberico pork meatballs, SUSURU said they have a real meaty texture, and the two agree that simple, kid-friendly flavors are the tastiest. Ryuji says traditional osechi is hard to appreciate, and that Ryuji doesn't get what's good about black beans; SUSURU agreed that they weren't a fan of black beans either. Edamame was included in place of those black beans, and according to Ryuji it's so well received that viewers ask for the recipe.

Ryuji also says that osechi in this price range don't usually sell all that well, but this one sells on taste—when it's announced, people react by saying they need to reserve it quickly, and the repeat rate is very high. Ryuji also explained that the meat item was refined starting around last year, and that the lineup is reviewed and items are swapped out every year.

The drink moves on to wine. Of the wine in a slender bottle, Ryuji says it's something that gets sent for some reason, probably related to "Reiwa no Tora" (Ryuji almost says "Tsūhan no Tora").

It's paired with an oyster item in a Western-style sauce, and SUSURU says the oyster flavor comes through while the sauce complements it, adding that if they had this over the New Year's holiday, they wouldn't leave the house.

Here Ryuji explains how the frozen osechi is made. People probably have the impression that freezing makes food taste worse, but it doesn't if it's delicious. This cooking is very difficult, because it has to be frozen with seasoning that tastes best once thawed. Ryuji isn't a professional at creating flavors that taste best after thawing, so Ryuji thought it better to leave it to a specialist chef, and in fact entrusts it entirely to a professional head chef. Ryuji's own tastes are incorporated, and Ryuji communicates what is wanted, then checks every flavor and decides "this one's OK" before it's finalized—that is Ryuji's explanation. On top of that, Ryuji joked that because Ryuji makes a lot of demands every time, the other side probably doesn't want to work with Ryuji, and is likely thinking, "Here comes that time of year again."

One item Ryuji singled out as a particular favorite is the herring roe with mentaiko cream cheese, introduced as an item that "has an osechi element." SUSURU said they could eat it forever.

Ryuji says this osechi gets taken back to Ryuji's family home every year. The whole family are drinkers, and they won't get together without alcohol. Ryuji said Ryuji's grandmother is 85 or 86 but still drinks beer until morning.

Amid a run of headline-worthy items, one that Ryuji is surprisingly fond of is the spinach, done namul-style so you don't notice spinach's grassy smell. SUSURU said having this in there feels like a palate reset. SUSURU said that, after leaving home, they've had no opportunity to eat osechi, and since they visit their hometown of Aomori while avoiding the crowded New Year's and Obon periods, they hadn't had osechi in a long time.

Asked by Ryuji, "Are you team MSG-free ramen or team MSG ramen?", SUSURU replies that they're the type who's fine with anything as long as it's tasty, and that they like ramen loaded with MSG too. SUSURU also shared that a ramen shop owner they know apparently carries Ajinomoto around and adds it themselves at shops where it would definitely taste better with it. Ryuji agreed that there are many times with MSG-free ramen where Ryuji thinks "it'd be tastier if they added some," and laughed, wondering whether Ryuji should carry some around too—though getting caught would mean getting scolded.

Next is an item with salmon mousse spread under salmon roe. SUSURU said that because the salmon flesh is made into a mousse, it feels light and fluffy in the mouth.

As the drinks flow, the conversation turns to the two's relationship. Ryuji says that when they actually drink together, all they talk about is business, and SUSURU confirms it. According to SUSURU, Ryuji tells them things like "YouTubers are getting lowballed too much" and "You shouldn't be satisfied with that amount," so drinking together gets them motivated. Ryuji described SUSURU as a serious person, saying Ryuji doesn't like anyone who isn't serious and doesn't get along with careless people.

After eating an item of cod rillettes paired with Genovese, SUSURU says they'd like to eat it on toasted baguette, and wonders whether it could be used in ramen too. Pasta has elements of soupless ramen and abura soba, yet flavors that are ordinary for pasta aren't used much in ramen or abura soba; Genovese or carbonara could perhaps be adapted—that is SUSURU's thinking.

In response, Ryuji says that in ramen you never see anyone succeed with flavors other than shio, miso, shoyu and tonkotsu, and asks why, with ramen having evolved so much in Japan, another genre can't emerge. SUSURU acknowledged that iekei is tonkotsu-shoyu and Jiro-style also has shoyu at its base, so there's a sense of being unable to escape the grip of these flavors, and said it seems difficult for such flavors to become standard, and the price would probably go up too. Ryuji countered that a 2,000-yen ramen might work. The two did not reach a conclusion on this question.

Ryuji also says that when traveling to other regions, Ryuji wants to go to shops SUSURU hasn't been to, and SUSURU replies that they want there to be no shops they haven't eaten at. There are about 35,000 ramen shops nationwide, and there's a rotation where if 60 open, 60 close, so they can't eat at all of them before they die and have no choice but to pick up the pace—that was SUSURU's explanation. Ryuji's hometown shop "Fūfu Ramen" also came up as an example of a shop where you add salt and such yourself afterward.

Toward the end, they move on to sweeter items like fruit cream cheese and sweet-and-savory walnuts. Ryuji introduces the fruit cream cheese as something Ryuji's grandmother loves, and says that when mellowness and sweetness come in amid the saltiness, the drinks go down even more easily. Ryuji then said they'd like people to gather around it, chatting about this and that, and eat it with all kinds of drinks, such as wine.

Ryuji shares something Ryuji's grandfather said: how good alcohol tastes changes depending on who you drink with. SUSURU agreed, saying they had felt that the pace of their drinking changes depending on whether they're mostly talking or mostly listening to the other person, and that they enjoy drinking most when it's balanced. Ryuji also added that SUSURU surprisingly listens to what they have to say, which Ryuji is happy about.

In the chatter while snacking on mentaiko, Ryuji asks SUSURU, "Do you even have friends?", and SUSURU replies that there may not be many people they could name right away. Ryuji teases SUSURU for doing a lot of collaborations with women, while saying that because Ryuji's channel's audience is stiff, like a parents' generation, collaborations with those kinds of people aren't possible. It also comes up that when a collab with SUSURU is posted, people show up who only ever comment on SUSURU's collabs.

Ryuji says what's most discouraging is when views don't grow on a collab partner's channel. When Ryuji says that Ryuji doesn't care about Ryuji's own channel but feels the need to make a mark on the other side, SUSURU agreed that they also feel they have to do their job. According to Ryuji, Ryuji tries harder on collab partners' channels than on Ryuji's own, but sometimes people say they don't seem close—though with SUSURU, the fact that they're on good terms probably comes across.

Finally, Ryuji makes a dish for SUSURU to "slurp," using the mentaiko recipe Ryuji puts out every time as a cooking channel. Pasta is also noodles in a broad sense, and SUSURU replied that "pasta is the real abura soba, the real soupless noodles."

The ingredients are just one sac of the bonus mentaiko, salt, 100g of thin pasta, olive oil and pasta water. The mentaiko is broken up, and the skin can also be eaten if you chop it. The salt in the boiling water should be slightly on the light side, around 0.8%. In a bowl, combine the mentaiko with about one and a half tablespoons of olive oil, and transfer the cooked pasta directly from the pot without draining it, because the pasta water becomes part of the flavor. When mixing, it's better to use a rubber spatula if you want a smooth finish. Finally, adjust by adding about one and a half tablespoons of pasta water.

Ryuji says that when you get your hands on good mentaiko, this simple method is the tastiest. Thin noodles are recommended because they pick up the mentaiko easily and coat well. Ryuji says it's fine to add a little garlic aroma too. Ryuji explained that the key to its deliciousness is that adding pasta water turns the olive oil into something like a dressing, creating a sauce that's coated with moisture, and that it won't turn out this way without the pasta water.

Ryuji says Italian cooking is subtractive, not adding much flavor. When SUSURU says peperoncino is also subtractive, with just garlic, salt and olive oil, Ryuji explains that peperoncino at a good restaurant tastes great because you eat it while the umami from the other courses is still lingering. Japanese people eat ramen and noodles as a finisher, but at a proper Italian restaurant, a small portion comes out as the second or third plate, almost like a palate cleanser. SUSURU laughed that they'd just like a regular 300g serving.

Upon tasting it, SUSURU is amazed, wondering how it can have such richness when it's only oil and mentaiko, and says there's a flavor beyond just the mentaiko. Adding a bit of lemon for a change of flavor gives it a refreshing quality, and when garlic powder is added on top of that, SUSURU was delighted that it had become a flavor that "gets right to the point."

On the subject of garlic powder, Ryuji says the red can of "ramen pepper" commonly found at ramen shops is a blend of white pepper and garlic. S&B's pepper is a mix of black and white, but Ryuji thinks shops that put out only white pepper are particular about their craft, and Ryuji also prefers white pepper. SUSURU also passionately argued that white pepper absolutely goes well with ramen, especially tonkotsu or pork-based ramen, bringing out the pork flavor, prompting Ryuji to quip, "You're talking a whole lot."

At the very end, Ryuji reveals that this episode had a hidden theme decided in advance. The plan was to have SUSURU create a delicious New Year's Eve ramen that people would want to eat to finish off the osechi, and they had actually tasted it before the shoot.

According to Ryuji, the shoyu was very good, but the miso wasn't that good. SUSURU corrects this, saying, "I didn't go that far—it was more like so-so, average," but Ryuji responds that if SUSURU, who supervised it, says it's average, then that's what it is. The original storyline for the collaboration was "both the shoyu and the miso are delicious, so let's release them," and SUSURU came intending to finish it that day, but because the miso was underwhelming, the video on SUSURU's side was shelved, they explained.

SUSURU says they'll keep tasting, add a bit more if new elements can be added, and want Ryuji to try it again. Ryuji joked, "You could release it as is—then I'll review it, say it's not good, and rack up views," but SUSURU replied that this time they'll finish it with a final perspective in mind. The video closes with the New Year's Eve ramen project unfinished, to be announced again once it's done.