Beware the rice cake
Mar. 2nd, 2006 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarasusaI have fallen in love with mochi--that sticky-rice substance which can variously be toasted, put in soup, shaped into coats around balls of ice cream, and more. This warning label amused me: "Children (especially under three years of age) and elderly people should be cautious. Please chew thoroughly before swallowing."
Apparently, though, the warning is very much in earnest:
Mochi (rice cake)
"Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded into a paste, and shaped into cakes. ...They are one of the essential Japanese foods, and having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them."
Fear the goo. o_O
(But I gotta say--the Mochi*Mochi manga scanslation site redeems the food's image for me! Mochi makes for some very cute credit pages.)
Apparently, though, the warning is very much in earnest:
Mochi (rice cake)
"Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded into a paste, and shaped into cakes. ...They are one of the essential Japanese foods, and having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them."
Fear the goo. o_O
(But I gotta say--the Mochi*Mochi manga scanslation site redeems the food's image for me! Mochi makes for some very cute credit pages.)
