1/3/07 | A New Cheap Eats Year
[ Currently Eating: Shredded Wheat ]
Happy New Year. Wow. So, I’m still recovering from the overindulgence of food from the holidays. Some of the food was cheap, some of it was not. In any case, I’ve got a backlog of Cheap Eats items to write about. But until I get back into the swing of things again, here’s a few pics from the food on New Year’s Eve which is normally a big deal at my parent’s house. This time we had a lot less food than normal (if that can be believed).
A lot of the stuff is Japanese or Hawaiian cuisine. I’ve been meaning to also make a post about making Mochi which has been a tradition in our family for a long time, but for now I’ll just show a pic of the finished products. And yes, we use a mochi-making MACHINE not hammers… we’re not insane!
Mochi is basically cakes made out of pounded or kneaded sweet rice. The larger ones are generally ornamental (called Okasane)… you make a mochi snowman out of a large mochi, a smaller one on top of that and a tangerine or orange on top of that. Also, these aren’t “filled”… we also make some that have sweet beans on the inside.
Spam Musubi made by my wife. I think we made 3 batches of it this holiday season…
This is sort of weird, but we had an Antipasto platter with dry salami, prosciutto, moz cheese balls, tomatoes, olives and artichokes. My mom didn’t cook as many appetizers herself this year and we didn’t have as many guests bringing stuff, so she supplemented it with this tray.
Here’s a standard traditional store-bought platter of colorful sushi. Again, bought because this year we made less stuff than usual.
It’s traditional to eat noodles at New Year’s… something about the length of the noodles representing longevity. On that note, a lot of the foods served on New Year’s day have some sort of symbolic significance. I don’t know too many of them, though. But I’ll try post the New Year’s Day food pics later.
This is soba noodles with dipping sauce. You pick up the noodles dry and dunk them in the cup. Also, on the side is Kakiage which is like a mixed variety Tempura. I believe it’s often made with scallops and carrots, but my mom’s uses shrimp, carrots, green onion and green beans.
Here’s a closeup of the fried kakiage:
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:57 am
WOW. that looks great. I have never had spam musubi before!
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:35 am
Mmm. I moved from Hawaii 10 years ago last month, and I grew up on spam musubi & mochi. When I tell mainlanders I miss a food containing Spam (or when I try to describe mochi), I get weird looks. This is making me want to go try to make some… but my musubi mold is certainly lost. I’ll have to improvise.
January 3rd, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I’m looking forward to hearing more about making mochi!
I doubt I’d ever make it, I’m happy to buy it at Mitsuwa or Little Tokyo (I like the combo of lemon/orange & red bean).
January 3rd, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Mochi-making machine. Tsk. Tsk.
::lowers and shakes head::
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
airfull - try some! if they have a hawaiian bbq place near you (and if they don’t yet, it will arrive soon) they serve it. but it tastes much better if you make it yourself… the rice they use isn’t the greatest.
joanna - if you don’t have the mold, you can try using part of the Spam can. Using tin snips, you can cut out a ring of the can that is approx the height of a spam musubi. Only thing, the sharp edge of the can is kinda dangerous… and there’s nothing to “push” down on the mold. the ones i made before with this method were a little sloppy…
cybele - the lemon/orange one sounds good. I usually go for the savory variety, however. i like to toast plain mochi until the outside is crunchy, then wrap it around a piece of cheddar cheese(!), roll it in some soy sauce and then wrap it in some nori.
marvo - heh… yeah, this is what a lot of J people say to me as well. “What do you mean, a mochi-machine??!” In our defense, we are a regular mochi making factory. We used to have 5, yes FIVE machines going at once, and about 30 relatives and friends making it. We sent a plate of about 12 mochi home with each person, plus the Okasane. All in one night. So, it’d be too crazy to pound away at the rice. Anyhow, the most fun is in the shaping… at least I think so! Actually, it is a lot of work anyhow to wash and soak the rice, clean the machine after each batch (super difficult) and make the bean innards for the filling… so I don’t miss the pounding of the rice at all.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Great post. The food looks amazing! Out of curiosity, how much are the cheapest mochi machines these days? I did a quick search and found most to be over $200. Is there a cheaper option? (Besides the big wooden mallet…) Are they multitaskers?
January 4th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
OMG!!!! All of this looks so good!!!! Reminds me of the big parties down at the beach in Kona!
We welcomed in the New Year with Kalua Pig, rice, wontons, fruit salad, salmon and other goodies!
March 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Mochi, holy hell I love the stuff. Being part Japanese I ate this stuff every morning with my grandmother. I need to pick some up.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
a mochi making machine!? what brand and where did you get yours?