What is mochi?
Mochi is/are Japanese rice cakes made from a special sweet rice. It is made by cooking the rice then grinding it either by machine or the old-fashioned way of pounding it with mallets in a granite or wood bowl. The ground/pounded rice is then pinched off into smaller pieces which are formed into individual rice cakes. The process of coming together to make mochi is called Mochi Tsuki. Mochi Tsuki often occurs between Christmas and New Year’s as mochi is used as an ingredient in the New Year’s feast or “Oshogatsu.” Click on the link below to see pictures from the Livingston (CA) 2004 Mochi Tsuki. http://homepage.mac.com/dawnnakashima/mochi_tsuki04/PhotoAlbum5.
