What exactly is mochi?

Question

Everyday I have a Pinkberry with rasberries, strawberries & mochi.......but I'm not quite sure what mochi is made of. I just tried a sample of it & got hooked on its slightly sweet, gummy taste. I've heard it referred to as Japanese rice cake, but it totally doesn't taste like rice to me..........

So.........if you know, please let me know.

Thanks. : )

Answer 1

Mochi, yeah, it's made from rice flour or something like that. It's sticky and sweet, very chewy too. Too sticky for me. Not really my favorite.

Answer 2

Mochi is made from pounded glutinous rice, also known as sweet or sticky rice. Despite being called "glutinous", this rice does not contain gluten and so should not be problematic for people with allergies to it. It is cholesterol free and low in fat.

Bland in flavour, mochi comes in a range of flavours and textures and can be deep-fried, baked, grilled, stuffed, used as dumplings in a soup, or treated as a dessert or sweet.

Answer 3

I have actually had the pleasure of making mochi before, and in the rural areas you use a giant mortar-and-pestle-like contraption to pound a large amount of hot, cooked sticky rice  until it comes together to become a smooth ball, looking quite a lot like dough.  It's a two-person process, as one person is pumping the mortar with their foot (it's truly enormous, can't seem to find a picture online to show you, but think of a teeter totter with a sledgehammer on one end and you pumping it on the other end by pressing your weight down on it with your foot), and the other person is by the pestle, keeping the giant mound of rice together, and slowly helping the ball-shape to form.  

What you'll see more often though is people pounding the rice with what looks like wooden sledgehammers.  

After the hot rice has come together in a large, smooth ball, you take small portions of the pounded glutinous rice and roll them (either by hand or with the assistance of a rolling pin) into small, thick disks.  They're often stuffed with red bean paste, but can be eaten wrapped in seaweed dipped in soy sauce.  You can buy flavored mochi in the store too, like strawberry or green-tea flavor.  

The rice itself though isn't sweet unless you add sugar or some other sweetener to it.

Answer 4

Mochi is actually Japanese rice cake! It's made from glutinous rice that gets pounded into shape.

Traditionally, mochi is made during a mochi ceremony for New Year's.  But its popularity has made it a common confectionary delight.  

Mochi can be filled with strawberries and other sweets.  We more commonly see the ones filled with a ball of ice cream, most widely found in asian markets.

Answer 5

Mochi is a rice cake, pounded down into a paste and formed into a cake, sometimes stuffed with a filling and powdered with something that's like corn starch.

The filling can range from japanese plum (ume) to red bean paste.