Mochitsuki

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Pounded rice today- mochitsuki at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple. For the uninitiated, mochi is the gooey substance, usually served as a dessert, made from a sweet rice pounded into a solid, uniform mass. Very yummy.

Damn I’m sore.

Mochi is a traditional New Year’s treat. Traditionally everyone gathers together and pounds the rice with giant wooden mallets and a stone mortar… there are songs that go with this process and it’s a lot of fun. Next weekend I plan to go to the mochitsuki put on by San Francisco Taiko, where they play the songs while little kids pound the rice and eat it afterwards.

This however was a JACL benefit, so it was a little more utilitarian- the focus is more on producing the mochi for everyone. As with all events at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple it is surrounded by 30+ years of organization and half a dozen committees.

  1. Everyone brings in their sweet rice, which they have soaked in water since the previous night.
  2. The batches are numbered on a first-come, first-serve basis

  3. Each batch is drained and stacked in an enormous tower over a custom-built steamer made out of 55-gallon drums welded to gas lines made out of lead pipes. The batches are stacked top-down so the hotter steam finishes up the batches ready to go.
  4. When a batch is ready, it is removed from the bottom of the stack and placed in a converted meat grinder to start mashing the rice together into a single mass. Historically this part would normally be accomplished by five of six people walking around with wood rods the size of broom handles, mashing the rice against the other rods as the participants sing and walk around the mortar. However this takes more people and more time than we have… Every so often the grinder is lubricated with “Pam.”
  5. The mass is placed in the mortar, which has been kept warm and wet with boiling water. Some sake is added for flavor and texture. Now the pounding starts…
  6. Three or four hammers are used at a time, the weilders alternating in a rhythm. This is definitely where the taiko drums would have helped… A brave person wearing a glove to prevent sticking turns the mochi mass over and moves it to the center of the mortar in time. If the mallet-weilders mess up, the person’s hand is crushed.
  7. When the mochi is almost ready, one of the mallet strikers “finishes up” with the glove-man.
  8. The result is very smooth mochi. The giant mass is shuttled into the kitchen, where a gauntlet of ladies is waiting…
  9. The table is covered with mochiko, a flour to prevent sticking.
  10. The woman at the head (lately it’s been Kazi Taga) twists off a ball of dough and throws it down the line to the first person without a mochi to work with
  11. The person pinches the “scar” where the ball was separated and gathers it to be the bottom of the mochi ball- making it nice and smooth and pretty
  12. some of the mochi will get an balls put inside them- a sweet bean paste filling
  13. Note that the farther down the table you are, the less likely you will get to form any mochi… so the pros tend to crowd the head of the table!

Note that if the mallet people are sloppy, the mochi sufffers… the texture may be too grainy, for example. The mallets work water into the mochi.

Mortar-pounded mochi tastes better than store-bought or machine-produced mochi. This is because of the longer cooking time, and the smoother texture… although there are other possible considerations:

  • Sake is added for texture, as well as let’s say a social lubricant
  • Wood chips will invariably be worked into the mochi… little splinters which come off the mallets, which are used for decades. Mmm, fiber!

  • Rain, if it happens to be raining

  • Possibly a little blood if the glove-guy isn’t quite fast enough!

There are also machines for making mochi– soak the rice over night, and then dump the drained rice into a machine. Turn the dial to “cook” and the rice is steamed- when the alarm goes off in 30 minutes, turn it to “knead” and the impeller in the bottom mashes the rice. In 5 more minutes the rice is a single ball, which thrashes violently in its bowl when it is close to being the right consistency.

However, given the volume of our mochitsuki operation, you would need about fifteen of these machines working in parallel to produce the number of mochi we go through!

ShaColby and Monica came with and the three of us pounded about a third of all the batches. I was afraid we would be it (last year it rained and the only pounders were me, my brother, and Bob Kameda), so I was prepared for another ordeal- however this year we had more like ten or so pounders, including some giggly teenaged girls, so it was a lot less work.

Of course we gorged on mochi– I ate five or six in the first few hours, and each mochi is the equivalent of two bowls of rice. We had:

  • mochi with an
  • mochi in ozoni, a broth with mushrooms and cabbage
  • mochi with grated daikon radish and soy sauce
  • mochi with soy sauce and sugar
  • last year we had mochi with kinako, a sweet toasted soy bean powder
  • last year we also had some walnut butter, and natto, which is kind of an acquired taste

I hear in Hawaii there is a new trend of putting peanut butter inside the mochi. Those crazy guys… it’s the next Spam musubi!

SHAC: so when is the temple’s wet t-shirt contest?
SHAC: i know if i volunteer for these hard ones i will get invited to the REALLY COOL stuff too right?
BRIAN: definitely
BRIAN: there’s the bukkake festival in april
BRIAN: and the flogging koreans marathon
SHAC: when is the festival w/ the flaming hello kitty?
SHAC: thats like japanese burning man right?
BRIAN: totally

Oxygen

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No not the “women’s network”…

They were just showing this 1999 movie with Maura Tierney (who played “Lisa” on the sitcom NewsRadio).

It’s a cop thriller… One of the plot motivators is the bad guy buries someone alive. They show her screaming and begging for mercy, knowing she will be awake and trapped as she slowly suffocates over the course of a day. To be nailed into a little wooden box is bad enough, but to be buried alive, and to hear the shovelfuls of dirt piled on top of the lid… It’s pretty horrific.

But not as horrific as it could have been.

Granted, it’s the beginning of the movie, which may be too early to make the audience throw up, but hey… since it’s a cop movie you know the odds are she will be saved by the end.

A movie along a similar theme which makes this prospect much much scarier is The Vanishing, in which Jeff Bridges has abducted Kiefer Sutherland‘s girlfriend (played briefly and heart-rendingly by Sandra Bullock). Jeff buries her alive… she does not get out. Ick. Much creepier.

Incidentally, The Vanishing was a remake of a Dutch movie. Although if it’s as sadistic as the remake, I’m not sure I want to see it- the combination of shock theater and subtitles doesn’t always work for me.

For example, I couldn’t sit through Funny Games because it was just too slow. However I am always up for a Takashi Miike movie. Go figure.

Jagun Fighters

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little irregular toy dice with symbols on them- they have “eyes” which are the values on each die face. There are complex rules regarding the different “eyes”… they dice “fight” by which values end up on top.
Web link of note: Jagun Fighters
(At http://www.jagunfighters.com)

Mighty Beanz

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It’s a toy… looks like you use them to play “marbles” and other games.

They all have different faces on them, and they are “Collectable” in the sense that when you buy them, you don’t know which one you are getting.
Web link of note: Mighty Beanz
(At http://www.mightybeanz.com/)

McCafe

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I remember in 1995 (1994? somewhere around there) I joked that there should be a McSpresso. After an abortive test in the Chicago area in 2001, McCafé has made a landing (two landings) in the Silicon
Valley.

They seem to be pitched at people intimidated by Starbucks. Seriously.

When grabbing chashu bau from Hong Kong Bakery in Mountain View, we saw these two young guys dressed like Mormons handing out flyers. One of them had a huge tank strapped to his back which made him look like a supervillain. He dispensed coffee from a hose that ran along his arm… They were very cool, and we did some guerilla counter-meta-marketing by convincing them they needed pork buns for lunch. We got pamphlets and coupons for free coffee.

Anyway… went to McCafé today. It’s a McD’s with half of the space converted into a cafe, with a second counter just for coffee and espresso drinks, and cakes and sweets. They do have real dishes for “for here” orders, which is nice… this particular installation didn’t have much in the way of comfy chairs though.

The coffee was pretty good. The “medium” is about 10 ounces. The coffee is not as strong as Starbucks, and obviously nowhere near as full of drugs as Peet’s… so yeah, it is less threatening certainly. There aren’t any flavorings that I could see, and the menu is very simple.

I bantered with an older lady who was pounding some chocolate cake and apparently feeling a little guilty about it… there were a lot of old people there trying out the new restaurant. Early adopters! Everyone was friendly from being full of drugs and being at a palce they felt they knew, McDonald’s.

The day had kind of a dot-com feel to it… new toys, free stuff, and caffeine. Yay!

And of course there is WiFi at McCafé. Haven’t tried it yet… although I have to admit that now the prospect of having “Wayport” internet in McD’s is a lot less silly than it was before. Wifi in McD’s, silly. Wifi in McCafé, less silly. Who knew? They are tricky, those guys at McD’s.

Because I am a psychotic, and McCafé has no online presence as of yet, I’ve typed in the entire suite of marketing materials, minus the menu portion:

The mailer:

McCafé

Sit back in a comfy chair with a great cup of specialty coffee you actually ordered in three words or less

This easygoing experience is all about you, whether you stop awhile or get yours to go

So stop rushing and start Relaxing. Come in to McCafé.

The pamphlet:

finally, a coffeehouse without a superiority complex

Welcome

At last, a relaxing, friendly place for delicious specialty coffee. The more comfortable we can make your experience at McCafé, the better. The only thing you do is decide which coffee drink you want. Then sit back and enjoy.

User-friendly baristas

“Barista” is just another name for the friendly person behind the counter ready to take your order. Baristas make the espresso drinks, too. If you have questions, ask! They’ll be happy to offer questions so you get exactly the coffee drink you want.

Rich, delicious cofffee

The McCafé espresso is full-bodied, slightly woody, smooth, rich, and light with a vibrant character. The bean make-up is an Arabic bean that delivers the taste profile.

[Menu]

Back of pamphlet:

McCafé

Have a delicious day at McCafé

What makes a rich cup of coffee taste even better? Something delicious on the side. You’ll find an incredible variety of muffins, cakes, cookies, sweet treats, and gourmet sandwiches at McCafé. Fresh every day, we’ve always got something new that’s sure to tempt you.

Read on for a small sample of the wonderful things you’ll McCafé.

Muffins & Treats

At McCafé, you’ll find just the taste you were craving. Try a Dulce de Leche Muffin exuding a tempting combination of sweet cream and caramel flavors for an out of the ordinary taste treat. Or an irresistable Cinnamon Dream Roll with a generous topping of cream cheese frosting. Let chocolate infused with espresso flavor melt in your mouth with an Espresso Brownie.

Cakes

McCafé is a cake lover’s paradise. Sample that incredible incredible mouthful of chocolate pudding tucked between two layers of moist, dark chocolate cake, and you’ll know it’s true. Or try Apple Caramel Cake, moist sponge cake layered with tart apples, creamy caramel apple grammies, and walnuts. A Mocha Cheesecake, delicious swirled coffee and mocha flavors on a chocolate crust, is perfect for cheesecake fans.

Cookies

Everybody loves a good cookie. At McCafé, you’ll find just the one you wanted whether it’s a wonderful, cinnamon and gingery sweet classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie or a classic Chocolate Chip Cookie that’s big, thick, and chunky, loaded with rich chocolate chips in every bite. Crisp Italians Biscotti offer the the perfect combination of taste and texture in Traditional and Decadent dipped in chocolate flavors.

Gourmet Sandwiches

Delicious gourmet sandwiches use fresh ingredients to create amazing, unexpected taste combinations like Turkey with Roasted Red Pepper & Gorgonzola on Tomato Focaccia. Or try a Smoked Chicken Salad Spinach Wrap with premium lettuce blnd & sliced tomato. And Smoked Ham & Swiss on Rosemary Panini with spring mix, sliced tomato & Swiss cheese sauce is sure to please!

Went to McCafé today. It’s a McD’s with half of the space converted into a cafe. The coffee was pretty good.