This past Saturday was my 30th birthday celebration—sumo-style! I had so much fun sumoing (rental from Party Moonwalks) and sake bombing with friends. 30 years old, celebrating with 30 friends, decorating with 30 origami flowers and 30 kirigami flowers, and making 30 tempura shrimp. So I like staying within theme. 🙂

Below are some highlights of the party:

I really stretched in making the food this time since it was my 30th (it took about 11-12 hours of food prep and cooking, mostly because I went it alone, but C-Man pitched in with food prep in the last couple hours). Some think it’s weird to throw your own party, but if you want something, I say go for it! 🙂

Food I Made and links to the recipes:

1. Spicy Tuna with Crispy Rice from The Ravenous Couple – I used six cups uncooked rice which made about 10 cups of cooked rice to form 50 pieces. I went light on the sushi-su (seasoned vinegar) using about 1 cup, but use as much as you prefer, although it doesn’t matter too much since you fry the rice. Also, 1.25 lbs of sushi-grade tuna from Asahi Imports was more than enough to cover 50 rice cuboids.

2. Japanese Mushroom Flatbread from Steamy Kitchen. I made four of these using one 7 oz container of basil pesto sauce, three bundles of Japanese brown beech mushrooms, and one bag of shredded mozzarella cheese.

3. Mixed Tempura – I used slices of one small zucchini, florets from half a broccoli head, slices of one small sweet potato, half a box of white mushrooms, and 30 large shrimp with three slits in the inner curve for the tempura. The batter was from a 10 oz box of Kikkoman tempura batter mix and a bottle of Kirin beer.

4. Proscuitto-wrapped Persimmon – Martha Stewart had previously featured persimmons wrapped with duck proscuitto. I couldn’t find duck proscuitto at my local market plus it sounded expensive. My mom sent me persimmons from her backyard in California. I peeled, cored, and cut each persimmon into eighths. I switched off cutting each proscuitto slice into halves and quarters, then wrapped a piece around the persimmon. A yummy fall alternative to proscuitto-wrapped cantaloupe.

Food I Bought:

1. Mochi ice cream in green tea, coffee, strawberry, and mango – I halved each mochi so people could try different flavors. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of them looking all cute on my cupcake stand.

2. Fruit – I bought Costco strawberries, blueberries, and pre-cut mango.

3. Edamame – also from Costco. C-Man was in charge of microwaving and salting them.

4. Hello Panda Cookies – these were very popular. The sports-themed panda prints also went well with the sumo-style theme.

All the food was gone by the end of the party—that’s always a good sign.