Mochi Festival

[Taylor]

Today we went to one of Julie’s elementary schools for a mochi festival. What is mochi? It’s basically rice that’s been pounded with a wooden mallet until it becomes one solid, sticky block of glucose. You can put the finished product in soup, rub it in powder, eat it plain, put sweet paste inside of it, or drizzle a sweet sauce on top.

Finished product with azuki (red bean) sauce.

Now that you know what it looks like when it’s done, let’s start from the beginning. First, start with a bunch of cooked rice.

Knead it together.

Smash it.

Roll it, cut it, fill it with sweets.

Dessert.

Mochi was incorporated into every dish they served us for lunch.

The festival concluded with a photo slide show and a few presentations from the students. As always it was a pleasure to meet the people Julie works with.

Here’s a video:

And, as always, click here to view the rest of the photos from today.

Tags: mochi matsuri