mmmochi!

[Liver_on_a_Stick]

I know there's a recipe in a past issue of GR.

If anyone has some recipes they would like to share....

I bought 4 boxes of mochiko. I'm going to try and make some this weekend.

[shammy718]

i like green tea mochi slightly chilled...Mmm...

[wonki wonki]

Red bean-filled mochi fried to a golden crisp gooeyness, with a generous drizzling of honey.

[kamenriderv3]

i got some butter mochi yesterday

[atomicscissors]

Try making it the old-fashioned way, like the Emperor used to.

A few years ago I visited a friend New Years Day and her family was over and they were making mochi the old-fashioned way in the back yard. They asked me if I wanted to pound the mochi with a mallet. I'm all for hitting shit with hammers so I was like, "Sure." Well apparently you're supposed to hit it a certain way and apparently I wasn't doing it right 'cause they were all like "No! What are you doing?! Ahhh!" Shortly thereafter I left it in the hands of her uncle or somethingorother and got piss drunk.

[Sukebe]

Originally posted by atomicscissors
Try making it the old-fashioned way, like the Emperor used to.

A few years ago I visited a friend New Years Day and her family was over and they were making mochi the old-fashioned way in the back yard. They asked me if I wanted to pound the mochi with a mallet. I'm all for hitting shit with hammers so I was like, "Sure." Well apparently you're supposed to hit it a certain way and apparently I wasn't doing it right 'cause they were all like "No! What are you doing?! Ahhh!" Shortly thereafter I left it in the hands of her uncle or somethingorother and got piss drunk.

As long as you didn't smash the guys hand as he was turning it, you're okay.

If I meet a girl who's family pounds their own mochi, I am going to marry her.

[kamenriderv3]

eh....you betteh marry her before you pound her mochi.

[invictus]

Little Tokyo Community Mochitsuki Committee
c/o Japanese American Cultural and Community Center
244 S. San Pedro St., Suite 505
Los Angeles, CA 90012

For Information: Miles Hamada
(D) (213) 628-2725
E-Mail: hamada@jaccc.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S TRADITION LIVES ON AT
LITTLE TOKYO COMMUNITY MOCHITSUKI


The Japanese American New Year's tradition of making mochi continues in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo with the annual Little Tokyo Community Mochitsuki, scheduled for Saturday, December 18, 2004, at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC) plaza, from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

Since 1977, the Little Tokyo Community Mochitsuki has served as an effort to preserve this part of the Japanese American culture, to educate others about it, and to strengthen the cultural and community ties that all Japanese Americans share.

With the New Year rapidly approaching, the hope is for a better and more productive 2005, and many have begun preparations for the new year. In the Japanese American community, the mochitsuki, which is the making of mochi, a plain rice cake made of Japanese sweet rice, is a long-standing tradition.

Eaten on the first day of the New Year, mochi is prepared days ahead of time. The preparation and effort to make the cakes outweighs their market value, but it is the spirit and unifying strength of what goes into the making of these little balls of pounded rice that makes it all worthwhile. During this time of steaming, mashing, pounding the rice, followed by the forming and eating of the mochi, people have an opportunity to share with others their experiences of the past year and their hopes and plans for the next.

Indeed, from the first immigrants from Japan, to the concentration
camp days and now today, this tradition has continued through the efforts of the temples, churches, kenjin-kai, Boy Scouts or business and social organizations. But this tradition is weakening as the years go by.

Today, many Japanese Americans, who are living farther and farther away from their cultural roots and historic Little Tokyo's, no longer get their New Year's mochi from a traditional mochitsuki. Instead, they buy their mochi, which is made by commercial confectionery shops using machines, from markets or other stores. In fact, many have never been a part of a mochitsuki or know what the significance of mochi is.

At the Little Tokyo Community Mochitsuki, volunteers/participants
will get "hands-on" experience in the process of making mochi, and they will be able to taste the rice cakes. Volunteers are needed for every aspect of the process, from steaming the glutinous rice, to pounding the rice to soften it, and then forming it into rice cakes.

This event, which is co-sponsored by Little Tokyo Community
Mochitsuki Committee and the JACCC, is free and open to the public. Everyone is welcome to come and watch, but only those who volunteer/participate will be allowed to purchase mochi.

The JACCC is located at 244 South San Pedro Street in Little Tokyo
(between 2nd and 3rd Streets). For more information or to volunteer, please call Miles Hamada at (213) 628-2725 or send e-mail to hamada@jaccc.org.

[Eric Nakamura]

mochiko and mochi rice are different, try pounding mochiko and see what happens...

[invictus]

what's the difference?

[Eric Nakamura]

mochiko is a box of rice flour... pound it and you'll have a tornado in your kitchen.

[invictus]

Oh... yeah, I can't imagine that would work out really well....

[Eric Nakamura]

Mochiko is used for mochi ice cream, you can freeze it, and it won't turn into a rock like mochi. It's texture is different, but both make good snacks, when made well. Mochiko is often used in the "manju" that's soft with no red bean in it. At Safe and Save, it's pink and white little cubes...

[invictus]

Oh, yum! I love those. They're a lot squishier.

[Eric Nakamura]

Yes, I think it's cuz the texture of the rice is completely levelled into powder.

[invictus]

I love rice.....in any form.

[Sukebe]

chichidango?

[meemeep]

I tried making the homemade mochi once. The kind where you mash and pound the rice. It wasn't very sucessful, but I enjoyed eating it anyway. lotta love in that lumpy mochi I made.

[lynrei]

A trick I use when I make mochi, (usually Chinese mochi vs. Japanese) is that I cut it with a pizza cutter after it's laid flat after cooling. Also, spraying your hand with oil works really well too - and keeps the form of the mochi balls.

[lynrei]

Also, you're suppose to buy glutinous rice flour, not mochiko.

[Robocon^^]

Originally posted by lynrei
Also, you're suppose to buy glutinous rice flour, not mochiko.

??? I thought they were the same thing...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mochiko+glutinous+rice+flour&spell=1

[Eric Nakamura]

That's wut I thought... ok time to pinch lynrei's nose...

[lynrei]

ohhhh.. I didn't know that. Duh. Is there a difference between japanese and chinese glutinous rice flour?

[Robocon^^]

...dunno...I always pick up this brand though.
http://www.quickspice.com/scstore/images/rice-flour-mochiko_lg.jpg

[kamenriderv3]

mochiko is on sale at longs drugs. check out sunday's ad.

well in hawaii it is....

[misosoupandrice]

It is so good, I love it with ochazuke in the morning. They are the best.