Mochitsuki

Yesterday my father-in-law, an active member in the local community, took me to a local rice cake making event. The rice cake is called mochi, the traditional way of making it is called mochitsuki. About 80 people had turned up for this year's event, which took place outside a community center a few blocks away from our house. Mochitsuki involves pounding rice into paste using large wooden mallets, so it's fun for the whole family.

The rice is first steamed (not boiled) above fires. It is then put into a mortar, where it is first kneaded and subsequently pounded into a thick paste using big wooden mallets. The rice is kneaned first to stop the rice from flying about when it is pounded. While the rice is being pounded, another person wets and turns the rice between each hit. Although you're encouraged to keep a fairly high rhythm to this, I found it quite difficult to do so with the kind old lady sticking her hand in the mortar every time!

After the pounding it is cut and molded into shapes and is eaten with either sweet or savoury flavourings. I tried two sweet varieties (one in red bean sauce, the other with toasted soybean flour) and one savoury (mochi with fine chopped radish). Mochi is incredibly chewy so it took me ages to finish the portion I'd been given. I much preferred the sweet variety.

Traditionally mochi is food for the Japanese New Year. Because it can be kept for a very long time, it would be made just prior to the new year and could be consumed throughout the winter. It can be further prepared in many different ways. For example, it can be added to soup or small pieces of dried mochi can be deep fried to make a crispy snack.

After the mochitsuki, I was invited to join the organisers in a lunch with beer and shōchū, which is a kind of Japanese vodka that's quite nice to drink with hot water.

Later that (birth)day, I took the family out for dinner at an Izakaya (Japanese "tapas-bar").

Read more about Mochi on wikipedia.