I hope
you're having a good start to the New Year, whether you're shooting off
fireworks, pounding mochi, watching a ball or something else drop, or whatever.
We're doing well. I hoped to bake mochi (Japanese rice flour pastries) tonight,
but I'll just have to do that tomorrow. No, baking it isn't traditional, but
I'm not Japanese. {wink, Smile}
Anne
Elizabeth Baldwin
I've never heard of mochi before. :) I learned ( a year or two ago while visiting relatives in PA) that some people consider sauerkraut a traditional New Year food. I also learned that sauerkraut tastes better than it smells. (Not difficult! The smell is why I hadn't tried eating it before.)
ReplyDeleteMochi is very popular in Hawai'i, thanks to a large Japanese population. Most of the Japanese around here insist on traditional steamed mochi. Some families even still pound it by hand for New Year's. But like I said, I'm not Japanese, so baked mochi is close enough. It has a soft springy texture surprisingly close to almost-cooked wheat pastries. Steamed comes out even softer and more like wheat dough. If you can accept that texture, tho, I think both are tasty. I am particularly fond of Mom's blueberry baked mochi. {SMILE}
ReplyDeleteI never heard of sauerkraut for New Year's. That's interesting.I know what you mean about the flavor. Sauerkraut smells like it won't be as tasty as it is, somehow. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Mochi sounds delicious. No wonder it's popular. :)
ReplyDeleteMochi really is popular in Hawai'i, as well as Japan. I've seen at least two cookbooks dedicated strictly to mocha and its close relatives. We have at least one of them, ourselves, but we've never really explored beyond the blueberry mochi. {SMILE}
DeleteAnne Elizabeth Baldwin