welcome, year of the tiger

Yesterday some friends hosted a big lunar new year's eve party at our house. The food was the main event. Tomo rented a traditional mortar and wooden mallets to make mochi, a Japanese rice cake traditionally eaten at the new year.

Mochi is made by soaking glutinous rice overnight, cooking it, and then pounding it in the mortar until it becomes a sticky mass. I caught the tail end of the process on video:


The next step is to roll the rice into small balls dusted with flour, as these lovely ladies are doing (with a batch of mochi made of rice and green leaves - hence the color).

Ta-da! Ready to eat.


We also had hand-made dumplings, spring rolls, and hot pot.




Happy New Year!