I like mochi (rice cake), ozouni, oshiruko (ah! I hope somebody change the photo! We don't eat oshiruko with such blue plastic spoons. I don't think that is Japanese oshiruko), isobe maki. My favorite style is kinako mochi ( soybean powder). Boil water and put a rice cake until it gets soft and eat with soybean powder mixed with sugar. It's very easy to cook but yummy and tasty. However, aged people need to be careful when eating mochi. Like I wrote, it's deadly! This year over 11 people went to hospital and 5 people died from asphyxia already. Don't forget, when mochi sticks in your throat, use a vacuum cleaner. I am serious!
By the way, they say osechi for pets is booming. Look at this, beautiful osechi. It was sold at Seven Eleven. Without saying it, who can tell this is for a pet?
The Wikipedia article is for red beans in general, which is eaten in many Asian countries (not only Japan) so the spoon may not be "Japanese style" but the article is not Japan specific, so nothing to get worked up over.
Ken
Posted by: Ken | Thursday, January 06, 2011 at 11:57 AM
:) those osechi for pets would certainly put me in real difficulty... if I would go to Japan I`ll always eat only what my host will eat :D
The BAD part about that photo on Wikipedia is that it has been used without consent!... It is possible to sent a message on Flickr to get the owner`s consent, so I consider the person`s gesture that wrote the article very rude (I see now the photo has mentioned its true author)
Posted by: Misha | Sunday, January 07, 2007 at 02:36 AM
The mochi and vacuum cleaner reference is to the movie Tampopo. A hilarious movie.
Posted by: Daniel Kim | Saturday, January 06, 2007 at 10:03 PM
Wow It is very interesting! Amy san you upload the picture! I won't say all Japanese or we never eat oshiruko by spoon. Maybe some would eat with spoon at home. But since we know "the risk" to eat mochi. We usually don't try swallowing down mochi or eat it by one bite, it means we need chopsticks to control it. When it is served at shop, I think it would come with chopsticks.
here is the result of google image.
http://images.google.co.jp/images?q=%E3%81%8A%E3%81%97%E3%82%8B%E3%81%93&ndsp=20&svnum=10&hl=ja&lr=&start=80&sa=N
Anyway, I am very glad to know you tell me you upload it. Thanks!
Posted by: Mari | Saturday, January 06, 2007 at 12:33 AM
Ouch! That oshiruko picture is mine.
When you wrote "we" don't eat shiruko that way, were you actually trying to say that all Japanese people eat it in exactly the same way? Are you really qualified to represent your entire country?
I am just as surprised as you that my photo is being used by Wikipedia, considering there must be hundreds of better pictures available. I would be very happy if they changed the picture, as I agree that it is a poor representation of oshiruko. But it is indeed real Japanese oshiruko, made by a real Japanese person who happens to be a fantastic cook.
I've found that in real Japanese homes, oshiruko (and all other Japanese foods) are made and served according to personal and family preferences rather than a single national standard. And they are served on whatever dishes are available. Not every household has complete sets of every type of traditional dishes, a fact I discovered years ago when I ate expensive take-out sushi from a pink Hello Kitty plate at a relative's house.
Anyway, the oshiruko was served that way because I like to let dishes that have been used for serving mochi soak in water, since mochi is hard to wash off. And since I don't want to subject my good lacquerware bowls and chopsticks to to a long soak I used an easy-to-wash Chinese soup bowl and porcelain-- not plastic-- spoon. It may not have been traditional but it looked pretty and tasted great and I highly doubt this was the first time in Japan that oshiruko had been served in a non-traditional bowl.
So while the picture is not a good choice for the Wikipedia entry, you are way out of line suggesting that the oshiruko isn't Japanese because "we" Japanese would never eat oshiruko that way.
Posted by: Amy | Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 11:04 AM
'Don't forget, when mochi stick in throat, use vacuum cleaner' まじで?
Posted by: clarence | Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at 08:36 AM