JAPAN’S PLUM PUDDING

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2675, 22 December 1923, Page 4

JAPAN’S PLUM PUDDING

The mochi is an indispensable on the New Year in Japan, says the Japan Times and Mail, as plum pudding is in Christian families on Christmas Day. It is a paste made of a veriety of rice much richer than the kind of daily consumption. It is first boiled, and then beaten up well in a mortar to make it sufficiently glutinous to be made into a paste. Many such pastes are made in wealthy families to be given away to the poor. In families having several male servants, moelii is generally made at home. In such cases the day of making the nioelii is a great occasion for celebration and felicitations for the family and all who have come together to make the lucky food. Only those who are well circumstanced could have a special gathering for making the mochi for their exclusive use. The work generally begins with dawn. With most of the families it is bought from confectioners. Formerly it was a matter of pride to have the mochi made at home. Families not of very large means or not employing many hands combined for making it. But now this custom is not so widely observed. The making of the mochi at home has the advantage of making it sure that the portion which is to be offered to the gods has been given precedence to others. The first portion that has been sufficiently beaten up in the mortar, and is to be used for the offering to the deities, is made into a. pair of hemispheres to be placed cue upon the other, with the upper one slightly smaller in dimension. The largest pair is placed on the sambo or an elevated tray used only on ceremonial occasion. It is called kagamimoehi, or mirror moehi, and its place is the centre of the tokonoma, or alcove, which is always the place of honour in a room. After the offerings to the gods have been made, the beaten mass of the boiled rice is flattened and made into a paste, to be cut up when cold into convenient sizes to suit personal taste. The making of the mochi is done a few days before New Yeax-’s Day. It is certainly one of the most important prepai*ations for singing in the New Year. No family can go without the mochi on the New Year’s occasion. It is a curse and a disgrace to enter the New Year without it. Even the poorest must have xi piece or two of it. The mochi is an emblem of strength. Its lick and glutinous character, which makes it more indigestible than ordinary rice,, is associated with the power to pi’event hunger, for it actually stays in the stomach much longer than ordinary rice. Its rich- , ness and substantiality is highly appreciated as food.