Each New Year, dozens of Japanese (usually elderly) are hospitalized from choking on glutinous mochi. Last January, the Japan Times reported the deaths of four men. Sixteen other people were taken to the hospital.
It’s all too tempting to sink one’s teeth into a soft, round pillow of mochi floating in a warm, fragrant liquid, or to bite into a crisp, hot rectangle of mochi right off the grill, freshly dipped in kinako. But some mochi enthusiasts forget that after that initial mouthful, they need to pay attention to what they’re eating in order to safely get the sticky mass down.
Japanese food writer Emi Kazuko recommends a cautious approach. “Just bite a small piece at a time, and don’t chew it much,” advises Kazuko, author of the award-winning Japanese Food and Cooking. “Just once or twice, then swallow.”
And if your appetite overrules good sense? Your Health Encyclopedia (Japanese-language only), a leading Japanese online medical reference, says that sucking out stuck mochi using a vacuum cleaner (as seen famously in Tampopo) is actually an effective way to remove the offending rice cake. Because mochi is so sticky, the Heimlich maneuver doesn’t work very well. —Tara Shioya
I'm a little confused by the first paragraph under "What's Mochi?" I have always been under the impression that glutinous RICE, not flour, is what's used in the traditional usu and kine method, pounding and turning the rice by hand into a sticky, soft dough. Mochiko is considered to be a shortcut, from what I gather. Did CH fact check this article?
I've seen mochi made by hand in rural Japan and, yes, glutinous rice not flour is the base. I'm thinking there was a typo.
amyzan: mochi is indeed made with glutinous rice and not the flour of that rice. it was a typo on my part and thanks for catching it. we've updated the story accordingly.
Mmmmmmm.......mochi...... I consider it a huge win that I turned on my niece and nephew (aged 8 and 12) to Mochi filled with bean paste while in Japan last year. Now they beg for it here at Japanese restaurants. I have a can of adzuki bean paste in my pantry - guess I just have to start pounding rice.
3 cheers to folks for picking up on what we on this side of the pacific have known since time immemorial (or, in my case, since my first encounter with japan almost exactly 20 years ago): japanese new year's ROCKS! i often use comparison of japanese new year's (osechi-ryori; seeing first sunrise of the year; first shrine visit of the year) and the u.s. approach (get drunk; get hung over; watch a lot of football) as one example of why my students in japan should be proud of their culture. even ozoni getting its props!?! i'm pleasantly surprised. keep up the good work!
(from nagaoka, japan, the heart of snow country!)
incidentally, about that youtube video of mochitsuki, did you get the gist of it? turning and pounding the mochi 65 times in 30 seconds?!? that was the point of pride in the clip, apparently: the fastest mochi-making in japan (or at least that was the goal)... and the guy on the left looked like a famous japanese tv personality, though i couldn't really tell from the clip...
The truly modern young Japanese family has a mochi maker, sort of the result of an unholy liaison beween a rice cooker and a Cuisinart. Cooks the rice and then whirls/pounds it into a gooey mass.
Most westerners are more excited about New Year's cuisine than the Japanese. Most of the people I've spoken with are largely unimpressed by o-sechi ryori because it's not fresh and is generally prepared ahead of time to save the mother of the family from having to do so much cooking during the holiday.
If anyone is interested in seeing what Japanese people tend to do during the New Year's holiday in Japan, I did a 4-part (picture-heavy) piece on it last year. The first part starts here: http://tinyurl.com/2w84r4
Subsequent parts can be accessed by clicking "newer post" at the end of each section.
Also, I take issue with the notion that o-sechi ryori is "shared with friends" as stated in this article. Japanese people rarely invite non-family members into their homes for entertaining and it's even rarer around New Year's holidays when people traditionally travel to their home towns to visit family.
The trend in Japan is more and more people buy osechi at a store. Based on some survey, only 50% make it at home (48% of 50 and older know how to make it while only 2% of 20+ do). For younger people, osechi is something you buy at a store, not something you make at home.
Also, gourmet/luxury osechi from upscale ryotei and hotels is gaining popularity.
http://depart.livedoor.com/special/fe...
yes, definitely not a "shared-with-friends" deal... and, for the record, my (japanese) wife is going to prepare o-sechi this year for the first time--and i am most definitely going to eat it gladly!
My dad was born in the US but raised in Japan, my mother is from Japan, and my wife is from Japan (I'm basically 3rd generation(or maybe nissei-han). It's a family thing, I think. As a child on New Year's Eve, the family would gather and watch this singing competition (Kohaku?)....then, at 12 midnight, we'd have toshikoshi soba. No champagne or parties. It's a family thing. Then, on New Year's day, we'd visit family and family friends. Also, family and family friends visit us, too. I love the osechi and ozoni foods for New Year's day! The ozoni soup is awesome. For us, there's lots of seafood in the soup with the mochi. Where my wife is from, they use chicken. My dad is used to the seafood in his soup (buri, clams, shrimp........). I am looking forward to tomorrow.
My mother bought a mochi machine (probably in San Francisco) some years ago. Every Christmas we gather around the mochi machine and watch it twirl and and thump the rice into submission. (It's like watching a monster forming.) Then the very hot mass gets dumped onto a rice-floured baking sheet. Mom and I grab off pieces (yowch!), roll them into balls. pat them into small disks and leave them to cool. The mochi gets packed into freezer bags for all of us to take home. The ones she adds seaweed powder to are particulary flavorful.
Happy New Year to all.
This article seems poorly researched. I would not say a cask of sake and mochi are the two things that 'anchor the celebration' of Oshogatsu.
Here is a link to a pdf from the Japanese Consulate General of San Francisco that gives more accurate information about Oshogatsu:
http://tinyurl.com/7ywmhh
And here are some other links that describe some of the wide array of symbolic dishes served as part of osechi ryori ( New Years Cooking ):
http://www.bento.com/fexp-osechi.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osechi
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyofooddrin...