Happy New Year and watch out for that mochi
They may not be your idea of a culinary thrill, but mochi cakes are tres popular in Japan, especially at New Years. Made of the aptly named glutinous rice (it’s gluey), they are gluggy globs of gelatinous glup.
I happen to like mochi. I once learned how to make the stuff in a macrobiotic cooking class, and they were very good when coated with roasted sesame seeds. Plus, grinding the rice into paste by hand with a mortar and pestle, the way we did it in class, probably resulted in a net weight loss when we ate the things.
But I had no idea eating mochi could kill. Apparently every New Years there are choking deaths, mostly of the elderly, and this year was no exception:
Sticky rice cakes, or “mochi,” are an essential part of the Japanese New Year’s holiday menu. But the glutinous mochi, grilled or cooked in broth or with sweet beans, can get stuck in people’s throats, blocking breathing.
This year’s fatalities appear to have been higher than usual.
The Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday that at least 128 people were rushed to hospitals after choking on mochi, with nine dying. ..
The department advised people to cut mochi in small pieces, chew slowly and learn first aid.
I have written before of my fondness for Chinese sesame doughnuts filled with bean paste, describing an epic San Francisco quest for them here. In case you’ve never eaten them, here’s a description of these unusual nuggets:
Think of it as a jelly doughnut without jelly, made of sweetened glutinous rice flour, a sticky pully substance that is somewhat gelatinous and yet resistant to the teeth. Inside is a nice dollop of sweetened bean paste, and the whole goopy mess (I say that with affection) is fried in oil till it absorbs enough to be oozing with the stuff.
Mochi is similar, minus the oil and often minus the bean filling too.
I can well imagine that most of you can read these descriptions and not get what the fuss is all about. I’ve been teased about my own predilection for the things. But don’t knock them till you’ve tried them—although I’d suggest going with the small bites.
The homemade kind is best. The internet being the wondrous font of information that it is, I refer you to this recipe for making mochi by hand. You can see what I mean about the work involved, but it’s sort of fun, a bit like kneading bread only with utensils.
Moochi?? I’ve never seen it written as anything other than “mochi”.
Think of it as a jelly doughnut without jelly, made of sweetened glutinous rice flour, a sticky pully substance that is somewhat gelatinous and yet resistant to the teeth. Inside is a nice dollop of sweetened bean paste
A chinese friend of mine after college convinced me and another friend to eat something like that one time. I was not as fond as you apparently were! How is that a desert?
Ripple:
I’ve seen it written the other way, but I notice now that the article uses “mochi.” I’ll fix it.
My wife makes bibingka two or three times per year. She and her relatives love it. I can tolerate it if I sprinkle some cinnamon or brown sugar on it. Otherwise it taste just flat and pasty to me.
neo was expounding on how “they are gluggy globs of gelatinous glup.”
Within the past couple of days, one of our esteemed commenters was accused of channeling Spiro Agnew’s speechwriter, or something like that. I think the Agnew speechwriter has been reborn as a mochi-clogged neo!
Neo,
No need to reconcile your passion for this otherwise inexplicable melange of muchly mushy mochi.
I share similar satisfactions.
Mine is with an attested affection for the concentrated concoction of confections combined with a corollary confluence of gelatinous German grinning bears.
Opening a 5 ounce bag of, Haribo Gummi Bears, getting them all to squeeze swimmingly between my teeth and gums is out of this world. A nearly stratospheric “happening” by all 1960’s standards.
And knowing that they are unique in a product line that is NOT, “Made In China”, only adds to the experience.
There’s even a theme song when consuming this totally titillating teddy treat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsP1-sF9XOs
M J R,
I understand that Agnew’s speechwriter was actually Pat Buchanan, who isn’t dead. Perhaps this is his blog– we can’t really see the face behind that apple. The alliteration is similar, and the politics…well, I guess not.
“Sticky rice” is a staple in Thailand and Vietnamese cuisine. Probably considered as more of a dessert rice.
One little factoid about this food.
Vietnamese soldiers would put sticky rice in their mouths and hold it similarly to a chewing tobacco; between teeth and gums. They could satisfy their hunger pangs all day on this as they were out in the jungles battling Americans. They relied upon it much the way American troopers relied on “K-rations”.
Japanese cuisine is one of my favorites; except for mochi, sake, and those blood pressure popping plums loaded with salt. I find the texture of mochi off putting, it is what I imagine its like to eat a jelly fish. As far as my tastes go, I’ll leave that to the squids.
Wait till the food nannies hear about those killer mochi cakes. They sound as deadly as hotdogs. Chocking on hotdogs is fairly common. I’m surprised the FDA doesn’t require a warning label on hotdog packages.
I hate to say this, but that sounds too much like a potential geriatricide to me. If I am going to go into the dark side of food, I will choose blowfish skin soup, first, then live squid on a stick. If I am still kicking, then I might go for mochi. I’m not the type to tempt… well, okay, I am. I mean I won’t tempt fate unless I really like something. I’m not lucky enough to die from it, but I could choke on something for a while. I might not die well, but I suffer well, hard, and long. Oh, and I already learned how to dislodge things stuck in my throat by myself, so… :p
Hmm… might take down the recipe anyway. You never know when Zero might pass through. Not the brightest though, he might take it for a golf ball.
I heard from Bookworm that SF has horrible Chinese town restaurants, with a few rare exceptions.
I’m surprised you liked these certain types of food.
Like most desserts and other foods, I can only tolerate them for so long in a row, before a break (of several weeks/months) is taken.
The center stuff is sweet enough to qualify as a dessert.
The Japanese also have natto, fermented beans, or a kind of cucumber like vegetable, layered over with a kind of oil or soy sauce.
For me, my tongue automatically changes the taste of various things when my limit has been maxed out on them. Including sweet things.
I’ve never had the holiday cakes. I did get hooked on mochi encased ice cream bites while living in Hawaii.
I did see a news report on the making of mochi at Christmas as a family exercise. They showed two men beating the rice in a bowl of a stump with two long-handled mallets.
roc scssrs
I believe that the alliterative phrases for which Agnew was famous, such as “nattering nabobs of negativism,” came from William Safire’s pen.
At least a search engine query of safire “nattering nabobs” turned up a Wiki article on William Safire.
Pat Buchanan wrote speeches for both Nixon and Agnew, and according to Wiki, came up with “silent majority.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Safire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan
As for Chinese or Japanese sweets or baked goods, I will stick with pork buns and coconut rolls/buns. Especially the coconut buns/rolls.
A good way to describe mochi to folks who haven’t had them is they are sort of like a heavy, sweet, marshmallow; only stickier.
They are among my favorite foods – I especially love the ones that I used to get with finely chopped peanuts inside and coated on the outside with a fine peanut powder.
And, sadly, it does not surprise me that some elderly folks choke on them – they are big blobs and biting off more than one can chew could be a choking hazard; or worse sticking the whole thing in one’s mouth without biting any of it off is very much a choking hazard for the very young or very old.
Never been to a rice pounding? Every year my kendo club used to go and pound rice for the new year. You’ve never lived until you’ve seen a first-class kendo club prepare mochi.
The members stand in a circle around a large mortar, armed with mallets. Each member in turn takes a shot at the rice in the mortar with his or her mallet at the rate of about seventy hits a minute. Pretty exciting. The mochi turns out pretty well, too.
i like mochi… though i like the indonesian versions of it, never had the japanese version
but dont forget the newest most important cause women are fighting – and its not mochi!!!!
Why farting is a feminist issue
To exhibit any kind of bodily function in public — whether it’s pissing against a wall, spitting in the street, picking and flicking earwax while one waits in a queue — is still seen as a male thing to do.
http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2014/12/why-bodily-functions-are-feminist-issue
No major news outlet [including NEO] other than a handful of alternative news sites like Canada Free Press (CFP) are warning American citizens that Communists, fomenting for Revolution, have now brought the Revolution out onto the streets.
see: Bob Avakian / redcom.us
or you may miss the Change and lose Hope…
“America, through a branch of the Michigan State Department of Natural Resources, now boldly and openly celebrates the ideal of communism. (Canada Free Press, Jan. 1, 2015)
“Two days before the countdown to midnight celebrating 2015, the Michigan Historical Commission, a branch of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, announced it would be placing an official historical marker, which in essence honors unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for giving an unwitting world the “Port Huron Statement”.
“The historical marker will be placed at a United Auto Workers camp outside of Port Huron in St. Clair County where SDS radicals wrote their pro-communism manifesto that came to be known as the “Port Huron Statement” in June 1962.
“The document was written by Thomas Hayden — a 1960s counterculture radical and former husband of Jane Fonda — as well as other SDS members like Ayers, who later founded the Weather Underground before turning to academia to become an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.(EAGNews.org, Dec. 31, 2014)
happy new year!!
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