Last year our friends Skip and Rei Bennett invited us to go on a Mystery Tour on New Years Day. This year our new friends the Nagatsuka's gave us mochi made by one of their family members. David and I were very appreciative of this gesture, the only problem was was that we hadn't a clue how to prepare or eat the blocks of mochi given us. This mochi looked like hard white bricks, and the mochi I was familiar with was supposed to be chewy and it's shaped like an orange with a bean inside. Why didn't we ask them how to prepare you wonder? Well, you see the Nagatsuka's do not speak ANY english - AT. ALL. Eriko san and I do all our conversations by charades. I did have her over once for tea and Rei as our translator, and we had a lovely time but I digress...! Thankfully, our friends Kae and Nobu Matsuzawa, were more than happy to teach us.
What is Mochi? Mochi is made by pounding rice over and over again. The pounding of the rice makes it quite gummy and pliable. Last Fall, David and I were able to see how mochi is made and it's a very long and physically drawn out process along with a large dose of trust. The tools used to make mochi is a very large mallet and pestle. As one person used the mallet, the other person turns the lump of rice in a very quick and rhythmic pattern. I found out that its then shaped and dried.
On New Years Day, Kae and Nobu san came over for lunch and then for dessert we had mochi. I wasn't sure how these hard blocks of rice would turn gummy. To me they looked like dried out indian corn bread and I was very tempted to heat it up, butter and salt then eat! Instead, Kae gave me a pan that allowed me to toast on top of the stove, which can also be doubled as a toaster. This process was quite easy to do, the moc hi is simply heated until it starts getting puffy. Once it poofs, you poke it with a chopstick, if its oozes it's done! Of course it must be done on a very low heat or it could burn, like the one in the picture. Once heated it can be eaten several different ways; soy sauce and seaweed, crushed soybeans with sugar, or with soy sauce and sugar. Each one is quite tasty, but the soy sauce and seaweed was our favorite!! Oishiikatta!!
Last year our friends Skip and Rei Bennett invited us to go on a Mystery Tour on New Years Day. This year our new friends the Nagatsuka's gave us mochi made by one of their family members. David and I were very appreciative of this gesture, the only problem was was that we hadn't a clue how to prepare or eat the blocks of mochi given us. This mochi looked like hard white bricks, and the mochi I was familiar with was supposed to be chewy and it's shaped like an orange with a bean inside. Why didn't we ask them how to prepare you wonder? Well, you see the Nagatsuka's do not speak ANY english - AT. ALL. Eriko san and I do all our conversations by charades. I did have her over once for tea and Rei as our translator, and we had a lovely time but I digress...! Thankfully, our friends Kae and Nobu Matsuzawa, were more than happy to teach us. 
What is Mochi? Mochi is made by pounding rice over and over again. The pounding of the rice makes it quite gummy and pliable. Last Fall, David and I were able to see how mochi is made and it's a very long and physically drawn out process along with a large dose of trust. The tools used to make mochi is a very large mallet and pestle. As one person used the mallet, the other person turns the lump of rice in a very quick and rhythmic pattern. I found out that its then shaped and dried.
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