We hopped in Mami’s little pink car and took a drive out to Gujo city with our friend, Mr. H, for some traditional new year mochi making. Mochi can be described as “steamed rice pounded into a glutinous cake and used as a staple ingredient in a variety of dishes, including desserts”. This seasonal activity is a Japanese custom I hadn’t experienced until today, so I was quick with my camera to snap some pictures of, and take part in the rice-cake-making ceremony, mochitsuki.
Below is a short video of our mochi-making, which you can also see here on YouTube. Actually, there are some really amazing videos of people making rice cakes on YouTube (especially here and here) which I urge you to watch.
Looks good. Last year we made motchi at home with an automated machine that beat the mix until it was soft.
While it tasted quite good, the amount of work involved turned me off participating this year (or in the future…)
Of course you’d know to chew carefully! 😉
hmm.. you got me interested in the little pink car. where’s a photo?
Ah, Mami’s little pink “Rapan”. I must remember to write about that, but here’s a picture from Google images to tide you over!