Sunday Morning Mochi

by Tokyo Terrace on March 17, 2010




Over the past year, I have been pretty honest with everyone about the struggles of living abroad. There are a lot of them. Especially in a country like Japan where, no matter how hard I try, it is impossible to truly “fit in”. While I have certainly been tested in many ways since moving here, I am always amazed at the discoveries we make in our daily activities (like walking to the train station on a Sunday morning). I mean, how many people can say that in their half-mile walk to the train station before church they stumbled upon a festival at a local shrine where fresh mochi was being made?

I haven’t said much about mochi on Tokyo Terrace. There is really only one reason for that: I cannot seem to succeed at making my own. All the elements fail to come together and it ends up being a complete disaster. I get stressed out just thinking about it. There are many, many food bloggers out there who have been extremely successful at making mochi, I just don’t happen to be one of them at this point in time.

Because of my past failures, it was especially wonderful to see this totally random display of mochi-pounding and consuming. First, the pounded rice went through a machine that looked like a meat grinder into a bowl of water. The water keeps the mochi moist, which is very important to achieve the correct texture. After going through the machine, the mochi is pounded with a wooden mallet. Great way to relieve stress, yes? I have to say, if I could do it this way I might have more success…


Since we were the only two gaijin standing around watching, one of the men making the mochi decided we looked desperate enough to deserve a taste of the chewy treat. So, he pulled off two pieces of the white, gummy substance and handed one to me and one to Brad. Let me just say, I now completely understand why there are so many deaths around New Year’s caused by people eating fresh mochi. Yikes!  This stuff is seriously sticky.


We couldn’t stay long. By the time we returned to the shrine just 2 hours later, there was no sign that anything had even happened. The mochi men were gone, the stands where they were serving soup had disappeared, and everything was back to normal. Huh.

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Tagged as: Japanese, Japanese food

  • http://www.sense-serendipity.com Divina

    I haven’t seen the real thing but I saw the mochi pounding on YouTube. I actually haven’t made mochi from real sweet rice but I did cheat by using glutinous powder. :) Mochi pounding would be a great stress reliever.

  • http://www.keeplearningkeepsmiling.com MaryMoh

    Love this post….very interesting. Love the pictures and also that surprised look on Brad’s face…LOL. I love mochi but my advice is not to eat too big mouthful. Also, we never eat it hot cos it’s too sticky. Understand what you are going through. I still don’t feel that I have fitted well into Scotland yet.

  • http://aromasysabores-heidileon.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-vacation.html heidileon

    oh, god. How I love mochi!.

    I don’t want to put some extra pressure on you, but I would love if you can succeed on the mochi making experience so you can share it with us.

    I will be impatiently waiting

    hugs from Macau

  • http://www.dulanotes.com Nicole

    Mochi eating deaths? Wow, I would have never thought that. It would be really cool to walk past a mochi making session.

  • http://sophisticatedgourmet.com kamran siddiqi

    OH MY! Something I haven’t tried before! But now I am scared with the mochi eating deaths! Eeee.

    Anyway, great post, Rachael! 😀

  • http://www.makinggoodchoicesblog.com Nicole @ Making Good Choices

    I can imagine how hard it would be living abroad, but you seem to be taking in all of the amazing things you are seeing! Mochi sounds interesting, I’d like to try!

  • http://japaneats.tv Marcus

    I know Mieko wants to take you up to her parents’ place to watch her mother make soba. Perhaps they’ll throw mochi into the bargain!

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  • http://tanglednoodle.blogspot.com Tracey@Tangled Noodle

    I do love mochi but have never even contemplated trying to make them myself! I think it’s so great that you can be walking to the train station and come across this event. Great photos!

  • http://whiteonricecouple.com white on rice couple

    Love mochi!!! thank you for sharing the awesome photo experience of seeing mochi made right before our eyes! You are in your element and thanks for being our food ambassador in Japan!

  • Rebecca

    Will you someday write about the amazing coffee you make? I miss it. I put cinnamon in my coffee this morning but it wasn’t at all the same.

  • http://wasabiprime.blogspot.com wasabi prime

    What a fantastic post to come home to — this brightened my Friday, to be sure! I know most of the mochi making is done by machines, but seeing the old wooden mochi pounder made me smile. My grandparents used to make mochi the old fashioned way for New Year’s, as is the tradition. I’m amazed more people didn’t greet the new year with crushed fingers or a concussion! The best thing about mochi is that when it’s made, it requires several people, and you always have more than you need, so you end up giving it away and sharing with others, so it makes it such a great communal food!

  • http://www.thescootabaker.blogspot.com Scootabaker

    Back when I was but a smallish child, every Saturday and Sunday morning my stepfather, whom is Japanese, would grill mochi balls and serve them with a dipping sauce of soy sauce and sugar. He used to tell me that if I didn’t chew my mochi well enough, I could choke and die. So mean! It scared the ba-jesus out of me, so I sort of refrained from eating it. He also used to tell me that the bonito shavings he put atop my hot rice was still alive. If you’ve ever put bonito shavings on rice, you’d know what I was talking about. Till this day I’m scared of taking the trash out at night and eating certain japanese foods cause of him. Anyway, that’s my story for the week.

    Love ya!
    Heather

  • http://www.gourmetfury.com Melody Fury

    OoOoOOo! Mochi is one of my favourite foods! I love them grilled with soy, wrapped in nori, wrapped around sweet fillings, dusted with soy powder… you name it.

    gah… I want.

    Thanks so much for sharing. Hope you made it to church on time :)

  • http://www.lafujimama.com Fuji Mama

    I miss finding those random things! Tokyo is so great for that. I miss mochi making–glad you got to enjoy it for me! :)

  • http://www.culinary-quest.com Julia Shanahan

    Even after living in Japan for ten years I couldn’t bring myself to like mochi, but it is fun to see people making it. They do a mochi ceremony every year on Bainbridge Island where I live, near Seattle. Everybody has a great time. It’s a real treat to see your posts and pics of Japan. Thanks!

  • centralcalgal

    That brings back memories!
    When I was younger and lived in central California, we used to pound mochi the old-fashioned way. Just before New Year’s the male relatives, led by my grandpa, would cook the rice and do the pounding, and my grandmother would add water as needed (quickly between pounding strokes) and portion it out for the women to shape it into perfectly round smooth cakes to then be either used for New Year’s ozoni, or to be frozen to be enjoyed throughout the year.

    As we got older and there were fewer men to pound, we used the mochi grinder (seen in the pictures in the top row) to ‘pound’ our mochi before we shaped it (not both as you show above). We had to run it through several times to make it ‘chewier’ and smoother before shaping it.

    Now that the mochi duties for New Year’s is relegated to me and my elderly parents, we have a kitchen appliance that is a combination mochi steamer/”pounder”. My mother does the portioning out and my father and I do the shaping. One nice thing about having a small appliance is that we can more easily make fresh mochi throughout the year – yum yum!!

    Thanks for providing those pictures – I’ll have to show them to my parents!

  • http://www.tinyskillet.blogspot.com Lyndsey

    This is a great post! I love the photos, and I have never seen mochi made or have I tried it. Another thing added to my list! Thanks for sharing!

  • http://jennaswellness.com Jenna @ Healthy. Happy. Well.

    Tokyo looks like such a unique and rewarding place to explore new cuisine! I can’t wait to keep reading. Mochi, soupstands, it’s all so foreign to me!

  • JL

    Where was this? Near Asakusa? Thanks!

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