Mochi Injures 5

This wants to murder you.

Of course every year people die from choking on mochi, or rice cakes, but now the treat is finding new ways to hunt human prey. At a festival in the South Village of Okayama, three women and two elementary school students were hit in the head by mochi and taken to the hospital.

According to the fire department (because apparently they're in charge of not only cats in trees, but mochi related head injuries as well) at 3:30pm an event was held where mochi was thrown from a stage into a crowd. This is a common event. Often the mochi has paper connected to it saying you won a prize. The fire department went on to explain that the mochi was round as well as pink and white. Good to know.

The festival organizers said they froze the mochi beforehand to prevent molding, and they admit that they may not have properly thawed the mochi.  They said, "We apologize that we injured people during an event that should have been fun. We will examine how to improve things like our preparation method." One would expect the investigation to take at least a few months. One solution could be to first touch the mochi to determine if it's as hard as a rock. If it is, you could ask yourself if you would like to be hit in the head with it. If not, think twice about throwing it at others.

Source: Yomiuri Online

Caramel Pudding Yukimi Daifuku

Japanese Food Review #73

Yukimi Daifuku is a brand of ice cream mochi. One of their special flavors is custard ice cream with a caramel center (that's what the standard pudding is in Japan). Another fun fact: The Japanese word for pudding is purin. There's you Japanese lesson for the day. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Yukimi Daifuku and find eating it to be a nearly erotic experience (at least part of that wasn't a secret). This flavor was good, but I still prefer the standard vanilla and last year's cheesecake flavor to this.

Ratings:
Gaybot: 6.5 It was kind of fun, but I don't need to eat it again.
Girlbot: 10 First off, Girlbot is super into this type of pudding. Secondly, this was better than she was expecting because the caramel was quite bitter and not really sweet. If it had been sweet, it would have ruined the mochi. Just to point out, she gave the cheesecake flavor a 10 as well.
Overall: 8.25

Japanese Food Review #34: Cheesecake Ice Cream Mochi

 The standard mochi ice cream is called Yukimi Daifuku. It's usually about 100 yen for two pieces. It's excellent and you should try it if you haven't. This is one of their limited edition flavors. The ice cream and mochi apparently have some cream cheese in them and a triple berry sauce is in the middle. It tastes surprisingly like cheese cake.

Ratings: 
Gaybot: 8  I wouldn't want it all the time, but if it would came out once a year, I would definitely buy it.
Girlbot: 10  This was her initial rating. I've bought it twice this month. I found it at another store and asked her if she wanted me to buy it, but she's already sick of it, so...
Overall: 9

Killer Mochi

People eat mochi all year round, but it's a special treat during the New Year's Week. Every year, several people die from choking on it. They're almost always children or elderly people. Yesterday in Tokyo alone, seven people went to the hospital (one man died) because of mochi. Anyway, please remember to chew your mochi.


I think it's embarrassing enough dying from a holiday treat, but now it's become national news.

Ultraman Assists Mochi Makers

Ultraman came to the mall today to make mochi. I thought he was actually going to make it, but apparently he can't see what he's doing, so he just did some punches in the air to sound effects, and two other dudes made the mochi. You could get your picture with him after they finished, but I seemed to be the only person over they age of eight without a child there, so I opted out.

Japanese Food Review #31: Akafuku

Akafuku is a famous treat you can buy when visiting Ise Shrine. Its name means "red happiness." The bottom is mochi (mashed up rice) and the top is a red bean paste. There is much more red bean paste than in a normal mochi, and the paste is sweeter as well. Akafuku was actually written about in The New York Times five years ago because of a scandal. I guess they were recycling ingredients and saying that they were fresh. That scandal was marketing genius, because the treat became extra popular when it came back new and improved (no recycled ingredients).

Ratings:
Gaybot: 3  Too many beans.
Girlbot: 2  Though she probably eats it every year, she would never purchase it herself.
Overall: 2.5