There’s a whole complicated process around making mochi that I can’t explain properly. I remember something about a mallet and a lot of pounding, and how it’s some unfortunate person’s role to flip the mochi between swings of the mallet. There’s a lot of pounding and the end result is something that’s a lot like playdough only much more edible. That stuff, the result of the pounding and flipping, is the actual mochi (rice paste?), the wrapper, the last layer of this traditional Japanese treat.… continued…
I have been very sad lately.
First there was the seemingly unnecessary departure from Hawaii just when it was starting to get good. I lie. It was good from the day we arrived and it wasn’t totally unnecessary to return to the mainland, after all, a person has to earn money, not just spend it. I was blue on the plane on the way home and it did not help that we returned to perfectly awful weather.… continued…
I blame living in Austria for my obsession — it’s more of an illness, really. After all, a nation that comes up with a cake that involves first baking a cake, grinding it into crumbs and then cooking the crumbs in whole milk and butter is a nation that takes cake seriously. Austria is home to the masters, the Leonardos of baking, the Demel, the Gersnter, the Zauner. It was in these classrooms of cake that I studied, partaking, in one 10 day immersion course, of no less than 27 different varieties of cake.… continued…
