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Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 02 Apr 2010 05:31 and updated at 02 Apr 2010 05:31
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Section 72
LXXIII Bhishma said, The king, with an eye to both religious merit and profit whose considerations are often very intricate, should, without delay, appoint a priest possessed of learning and intimate acquaintance with the Vedas and the other scriptures. Those kings that have priests possessed of virtuous souls and conversant with policy, and that are themselves possessed of such attributes, enjoy prosperity in every direction.
Both the priest and the king should have such qualities as are worthy of regard and should be observant of vows and penances. They would then succeed in supporting and aggrandising the subjects and the deities, the Pitris and the children It is laid down that they should be possessed of similar hearts and should be each other's friends. In consequence of such friendship between Brahmana and Kshatriya, the subjects become happy. If they do not regard each other, destruction would overtake the people. The Brahmana and the Kshatriya are said to be the progenitors of all men. In this connection is cited the old story about the discourse between Aila's son and Kasyapa. Listen to it, O Yudhishthira' Aila said, When the Brahmana forsakes the Kshatriya or the Kshatriya forsakes the Brahmana, who amongst them should be regarded superior and upon whom do the other orders rely and maintain themselves' Kasyapa said, Ruin overtakes the kingdom of the Kshatriya when the Brahmana and Kshatriya contend with each other.
Robbers infest that kingdom in which confusion prevails, and all good men regard the ruler to be a Mlechcha. Their oxen do not thrive, nor their children. Their pots of milk are not churned, and no sacrifices are performed there. The children do not study the Vedas in kingdoms where Brahmanas abandon Kshatriyas. In their houses wealth does not increase. Their children do not become good and do not study the scriptures and perform sacrifices. Those Kshatriyas that abandon Brahmanas become impure in blood and assume the nature of robbers. The Brahmana and the Kshatriya are connected with each other naturally, and each protects the other. The Kshatriya is the cause of the Brahmana's growth and the Brahmana is the cause of the Kshatriya's growth. When each helps the other, both attain to great prosperity.
If their friendship, existing from days of old, breaks, a confusion sets over everything. No person desirous of crossing the ocean of life succeeds in his task even as a small boat floating on the bosom of the sea. The four orders of men become confounded and destruction overtakes all. If the Brahmana. who is like a tree is protected, gold and honey are showered. If, on the other hand, he is not protected, it then tears and sins are showered, When Brahmanas fall away from the Vedas and in the absence of a Kshatriya ruler seek protection from the scriptures, then Indra does not pour rain seasonably and diverse kinds of calamities ceaselessly afflict the kingdom. When a sinful wretch having slain a woman or a Brahmana does not incur obloquy in assemblies of fellowmen and has not to stand in fear of the king, then danger threatens the Kshatriya ruler. In consequence of the sins perpetrated by sinful men, the god Rudra appears in the kingdom. Indeed, the sinful by their sins bring upon them that god of vengeance. He then destroys all, the honest and the wicked alike without making any distinction'
Aila said, Whence does Rudra spring? What also is his form? Creatures are seen to be destroyed by creatures. Tell me all this, O Kasyapa! Whence does the god Rudra spring' Kasyapa said, Rudra exists in the hearts of men. He destroys the bodies themselves in which he dwells as also the bodies of others. Rudra has been said to be like atmospheric visitations and his form is like that of the wind-gods' Aila said, The Wind does not, by blowing, visibly destroy men on all occasions, nor does the deity of the clouds do so by pouring rain. On the other hand, it is seen among men that they lose their senses and are slain through lust and malice'
Kasyapa said, Fire, blazing forth in one house, burneth a whole quarter or an entire village. Similarly, this deity stupefies the senses of some one and then that stupefaction touches all, the honest and the wicked alike, without any distinction' Aila said, If chastisement touches all viz, the honest and the wicked alike, in consequence of the sins perpetrated by the sinful, why should men, in that case, do acts that are good? Indeed, why should they not perform wicked acts' Kasyapa said, By avoiding all connection with the sinful, one becomes pure and stainless. In consequence, however, of their being mixed with the sinful, the sinless are overtaken by chastisement. Wood that is wet, if mixed with wood that is dry, is consumed by fire in consequence of such co-existence. The sinless, therefore, should never mingle with the sinful' Aila said, The earth holds the honest and the wicked. The sun warms the honest and the wicked.
The wind blows equally for them. Water cleanses them equally' Kasyapa said, Such, indeed, is the course of this world, O prince! It is not so, however, hereafter. In the other world, there is great difference of condition between the person that acts righteously and him that acts sinfully. The regions that meritorious men acquire are full of honey and possessed of the splendour of gold or of a fire upon which clarified butter has been poured. Those regions also are likened to the navel of ambrosia. The meritorious person enjoys great felicity there. Death, decrepitude, and sorrow, are not there. The region for the sinful is hell.
Darkness and ceaseless pain are there, and it is full of sorrow. Sinking in infamy, the man of sinful deeds wrung with remorse there for many years. In consequence of a disunion between Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, unbearable griefs afflict the people. Knowing this, a king should appoint a Brahmana priest possessed of experience and wide knowledge. A king should first install the priest in his office, and then cause his own coronation. This has been laid down in the ordinance. The ordinances declare that the Brahmana is the foremost of all creatures. Men acquainted with the Vedas say that the Brahmana was created first. In consequence of the precedence of his birth, all things that are good in this world are vested in him. The rightful owner of all the best things that have flowed from the Creator, the Brahmana is also, for such precedence, worthy of the respect and the worship of all creatures.
A king, however powerful, should, according to the dictates of the scriptures, bestow upon the Brahmana whatever is best and distinguished above others. The Brahmana contributes to the aggrandisement of the Kshatriya, and the Kshatriya to the aggrandisement of the Brahmana. Brahmanas should, therefore, be especially and always worshipped by kings
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Top Sellerie seat cover set (does not include base or foam).
Optional Rider Comfort Gel Pad (50€):
Must be professionally installed into the original rider seat foam.
Manufacturer: Top Sellerie France.
- Replaces the original cover.
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FAQ : All the materials are intrinsically waterproof. Any possible water seepage can therefore only occur around the stitching and embroidery. Nevertheless, all the seats undergo a waterproofing treatment beneath the cover through the application of a waterproof film so that the foam of your seat will never turn into a sponge. The threads used in the stitching and embroidery are made of anti-UV and anti-mold nylon.
We have been Top Sellerie distributors since 2006 and carry the full line. Please check our store for their matching Tank Covers.
We may use generic images for visual presentation, items may differ from photos.
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*By purchasing this custom made cover you are acknowledging it may take about 2-3 weeks to produce*
If you think we can improve this description or have comments, please feel free contact us now.

subset: commoncrawl


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Regular Board Meeting Today 03/28/2024
Here's your chance to #participate! We welcome feedback from the community during our Board of Directors meetings. Join us in person or online tonight at 6:00 p.m. Visit https://bcvwd.gov/documents/2024-board-meeting-agendas for the agenda. #BCVWD
Online via Zoom –
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Enter Meeting ID: 843 1855 9070
Enter Passcode: 113552
For public comment, use the "Raise Hand" feature on the video call when prompted. If dialing in, please dial *9 to "Raise Hand" when prompted. #BCVWD


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Home > Bankruptcy Guide > Uncategorized
Is Filing For Bankruptcy The Solution?
Bankruptcy may seem to be an easy solution for major financial problems. But it is always better to avoid filing bankruptcy at all cost and to turn to it only as a last resort.
Once you file for bankruptcy, this point will remain on your credit record for ten years. This will make it difficult for you to receive loans and credit. Some lenders may allow for limited credit with bankrupt; but only after extensive explanations, and at a higher interest rate and with added credit fees. Another reason for avoiding bankruptcy is that some types of bankruptcy call for repossession of assets. Once the bank finds that there is something with you that is not necessary for living, the item may be seized to pay for debts and bankruptcy expenses.
With bankruptcy, financial difficulty will not be solved and your life becomes an open book as the court pries into all aspects of life wherein you will have to provide all financial information like savings, investments and assets. Though bankruptcy may seem to suggest some freedom from financial debts, there may be other debts that will have to be paid like alimony, court judgment costs or child support.
So keeping these points in mind, it is always better to avoid bankruptcy. Debt consolidation is one of the best means of avoiding bankruptcy. These companies help you by examining your current loans and come up with a program that incorporates all these debts. The company handles the payment to all the creditors; you just have to make a single payment to them every month. They will also get you a lower rate of interest and a longer time period to repay the loans, thus making you save some money.
Easy access to credit cards and credit accounts at department stores has now made it rather easy to fall into debt. It is better to pay bills with cash, and not use credit when money runs low. So cancel the credit card account! If you fall in debt, instead of hiding from the debt companies, it is better to talk to them as they may be able to negotiate and help you solve your debt. It is always better to plan a budget calculating debt ratio to income when in debt. Just write all the bills and expenditure that you have. Then you can determine how much has to be paid for bills, and how much is left for other spending. If required, you can also sell your home and downsize to avoid bankruptcy.
The only benefits of filing for bankruptcy are that the stress of dealing with numerous creditors is relieved. Once bankruptcy is discharged, as most of the debts get written off, creditors cannot pursue them. However, the disadvantages to bankruptcy are many. Businesses can be sold and employees dismissed with bankruptcy. Equity in a home is most likely to be sold as with bankruptcy, reliable assets of value are lost.
Bankruptcy is a costly process where all the fees for courts and trustee are drawn from the debtor's assets. On filing for bankruptcy, it is not possible to hold certain public offices like MP, magistrate or even practice as an accountant or a solicitor. Moreover, with the new bankruptcy reform law, it is difficult to use Chapter 7 bankruptcy to get a new start in one's financial lives.
Under the old law, one could file for bankruptcy through Chapter 7 or 13. In Chapter 7, you can keep your exempt property like the equity in your home. Here most of the debts are discharged. However, in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you have to agree to pay off all your debts over a period of three to five years. So according to the new bankruptcy law, most of the bankruptcies are forced to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Moreover, according to the new law, you have to meet with a credit counselor for six months before applying for bankruptcy. However, as there are insufficient credit counselors, it is rather hard to accomplish this. It is also required that you attend money management courses at your expense before discharging your debts. However, it is always better to approach a good bankruptcy lawyer before taking any steps!
For more information on chapter 7 bankruptcy visit our online debt consolidation blog.


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BEIJING — As a mysterious new virus enveloped central China's Wuhan early this year, Liu Zhiming mobilized all the resources of his hospital in the city's Wuchang district to deal with the thousands of sick people arriving daily, threatening to overwhelm the local health care system.
That dedication appears to have cost him his life, with Wuhan's health bureau announcing Tuesday that he became infected and died despite "all-out" attempts to save him.
Liu is at least the seventh health worker to die of the COVID-19 disease among the more than 1,700 doctors and nurses who have become sick. His death comes as authorities are cautiously cheering a reduction in the number of new daily cases and deaths, along with the results of a study showing most people who contracted the virus experienced only mild symptoms.
China on Tuesday reported 1,886 new cases and 98 more deaths. That raised the number of deaths in mainland China to 1,868 and the total number of confirmed cases to 72,436.
"Now the prevention and control work is at a critical time," President Xi Jinping told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call Tuesday, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Japan, meanwhile, announced that 88 more cases of the virus were confirmed aboard a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 542 among the 3,700 initially on board.
The U.N. secretary general told The Associated Press that the virus outbreak "is not out of control but it is a very dangerous situation."
Antonio Guterres said in an interview in Lahore, Pakistan, that "the risks are enormous and we need to be prepared worldwide for that."
The outbreak has caused massive disruptions and China may postpone its biggest political meeting of the year to avoid having people travel to Beijing while the virus is still spreading. One of the automotive industry's biggest events, China's biannual auto show, also is being postponed, and many sports and entertainment events have been delayed or canceled.
Despite strict rules on use of masks and safety suits, medical workers have been prominent among the victims, particularly in the early stage of the outbreak.
In announcing Liu's death, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said he had taken part in the battle against the virus from the start and had made "important contributions in the work of fighting and controlling" the virus.
During that process, "unfortunately he became infected and passed away at 10:54 Tuesday morning at the age of 51 after all-out efforts to save him failed," the commission said.
The Hubei native had graduated from Wuhan University's School of Medicine in 1991 and went on to a career as a chief physician, neurosurgeon and administrator.
Earlier this month, public outrage was stirred by the death from the virus of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who had been threatened by police after releasing word of an outbreak of an unusual respiratory illness in December before it had spread widely and the city was placed under quarantine.
Wuhan and its surrounding cities in Hubei province have accounted for the vast majority of infections and deaths, prompting the government to enforce a travel ban that has spread to other parts of the country and now includes a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine period for anyone traveling outside their home district. Two new prefabricated hospitals have been built to deal with the overflow in Wuhan and thousands of medical staff have been brought in from other parts of the country to help.
A study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found more than 80% of the cases studied were mild and the number of new infections seemed to be falling since early this month. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was too early to know if the reported decline would continue, however. "Every scenario is still on the table," he said at a news conference.
The seeming drop in the number of new cases follows a large spike last week after Hubei province began counting cases by doctors' diagnoses without waiting for laboratory test results. Health authorities there said the change was meant to get patients treated faster.
The Chinese study examined 44,672 cases of the disease that were confirmed in the mainland as of Feb. 11. Severe symptoms such as pneumonia occurred in 14% of them and critical illness in 5%. The fatality rate was 2.3% — 2.8% for males versus 1.7% for females.
The death rate is lower than for SARS and MERS, diseases caused by coronaviruses related to the one that causes COVID-19. But the new virus ultimately could prove more deadly if it spreads to far more people than the others did. The COVID-19 cases include relatively few children, and the risk of death rises with age or other health problems and was higher in Hubei province versus elsewhere in China.
The study warned that while cases seem to have been declining since Feb. 1, that could change as people return to work and school after the Lunar New Year holidays, typically the biggest travel period for Chinese travelers. Beijing and other governments have sought to forestall that by extending the holiday break, encouraging telecommuting and self-quarantines and conducting health checks on travelers.
Travel to and from the worst-hit central China region was associated with the initial cases of COVID-19 confirmed abroad. But Japan, Singapore and South Korea have identified new cases without clear ties to China or previously known patients, raising concern of the virus spreading locally.
The largest number of cases outside China is the 542 among passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined at a port near Tokyo. The infections have led to heavy criticism of the decision to quarantine passengers on the vessel.
The U.S. evacuated 328 American passengers, with most of them placed in a 14-day quarantine at military bases in California and Texas. Thirteen who tested positive for the virus were taken to a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said any more passengers who show symptoms will be taken to hospitals.
Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in London and Marilynn Marchione, David Pitt, Olga R. Rodriguez and Ken Miller in the U.S. contributed to this report.


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Mordechai Vanunu — my friend, my hero, my brother — has
again been arrested in Israel on "suspicion" of the "crime" of "meeting
with foreigners." I myself have been complicit in this offense,
traveling twice to Israel for the express purpose of meeting with him,
openly, and expressing support for the actions for which he was
imprisoned for over eighteen years. His offense has been to defy, openly
and repeatedly, conditions put on his freedom of movement and
associations and speech after he had served his full sentence,
restrictions on his human rights which were a direct carry-over from
the British Mandate, colonial regulations in clear violation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such restrictions have no place
in a nation evincing respect for a rule of law and fundamental human
rights. His arrest and confinement are outrages and should be ended
perspective on Mordechai and his behavior was expressed as well as I
could do it today in the following op-ed published in 2004 on the day
of his release from prison. I can only say that I would be proud to be
known as the American Vanunu: though my own possible sentence of 115
years for revealing state secrets was averted by disclosure of
government misconduct against me which pales next to the Israeli
misconduct in assaulting, drugging and kidnapping Vanunu in the process
of bringing him to trial, let alone the eleven years of solitary
confinement he was forced to endure.
From the Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2004:
Vanunu is the preeminent hero of the nuclear era. He consciously risked
all he had in life to warn his own country and the world of the true
extent of the nuclear danger facing us. And he paid the full price, a
burden in many ways worse than death, for his heroic act — for doing
exactly what he should have done and what others should be doing.
"crime" was committed in 1986, when he gave the London Sunday Times a
series of photos he had taken within the Israeli nuclear weapons
facility at Dimona, where he had worked as a technician.
that act — revealing that his country's program and stockpile were much
larger than the CIA or others had estimated — Vanunu was kidnapped from
the Rome airport by agents of the Israeli Mossad and secretly
transported back for a closed trial in which he was sentenced to 18
years in prison.
spent the first 11 1/2 years in solitary confinement in a 6-by-9-foot
cell, an unprecedented term of solitary under conditions that Amnesty
International called "cruel, inhuman and degrading."
after serving his full term, he is due to be released today. But his
"unfreedom" is to be continued by restrictions on his movements and his
contacts: He cannot leave Israel, he will be confined to a single town,
he cannot communicate with foreigners face to face or by phone, fax or
e-mail (purely punitive conditions because any classified information
that he may have possessed is by now nearly two decades old).
irony of all this is that no country in the world has a stronger stake
than Israel in preventing nuclear proliferation, above all in the
Middle East. Yet Israel's secret nuclear policies — to this day it does
not acknowledge that it possesses such weapons — are shortsighted and
self-destructive. They promote rather than block proliferation by
encouraging the country's neighbors to develop their own, comparable
will not change without public mobilization and democratic pressure,
which in turn demand public awareness and discussion. It was precisely
this that Vanunu sought to stimulate.
in Israel or in any other case — not that of the U.S., Russia, England,
France, China, India or Pakistan — has the decision to become a nuclear
weapons state ever been made democratically or even with the knowledge
of the full Cabinet. It is likely that in an open discussion not one of
these states could convince its own people or the rest of the world
that it had a legitimate reason for possessing as many warheads as the
several hundred that Israel allegedly has (far beyond any plausible
requirement for deterrence).
Vanunus are urgently needed. That is true not only in Israel but in
every nuclear weapons state, declared and undeclared. Can anyone fail
to recognize the value to world security of a heroic Pakistani, Indian,
Iraqi, Iranian or North Korean Vanunu making comparable revelations?
the world's need for such secret-telling is not limited to citizens of
what nuclear weapons states presumptuously call rogue nations. Every
nuclear weapons state has secret policies, aims, programs and plans
that contradict its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty and the 1995 Declaration of Principles agreed to at the NPT
Renewal Conference. Every official with knowledge of these violations
could and should consider doing what Vanunu did.
is what I should have done in the early '60s based on what I knew about
the secret nuclear planning and practices of the United States when I
consulted at the Defense Department, on loan from the Rand Corp., on
problems of nuclear command and control. I drafted the Secretary of
Defense Guidance to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the general nuclear
war plans, and the extreme dangers of our practices and plan were apparent to me.
now feel derelict for wrongfully keeping secret the documents in my
safe revealing this catastrophically reckless posture. But I did not
then have Vanunu's example to guide me.
I finally did have an example in front of me — that of young Americans
who were choosing to go to prison rather than participate in what I too
knew was a hopeless, immoral war — I was inspired in 1971 to turn over
a top-secret history of presidential lies about the war in Vietnam to
19 newspapers. I regret only that I didn't do it earlier, before the
bombs started falling.
should long since have been released from solitary and from prison, not
because he has "suffered enough" but because what he did was the
correct and courageous thing to do in the face of the foreseeable
efforts to silence and punish him.
outrageous and illegal restrictions proposed to be inflicted on him
when he finally steps out of prison after 18 years should be widely
protested and rejected, not only because they violate his fundamental
human rights but because the world needs to hear this man's voice.
The cult and culture of secrecy in every nuclear weapons state
have endangered humanity and continues to threaten its survival.
Vanunu's challenge to that wrongful and dangerous secrecy must be
joined worldwide.


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The book of Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament. It's named after the prophet Obadiah, whose name signifies "servant of Jehovah." Obadiah was a common name among the Jews of Old Testament times.
The book is directed to the people of Edom. Obadiah predicts that God will punish them for their cruel attitude toward Judah at a time when Judah needed help. The Edomites not only rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem but apparently aided the invader and took advantage of Judah's plight to help themselves.
The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. The hostility between these two groups was bitter and probably stemmed from the conflict between Jacob and Esau over the family birthright.
Obadiah ends with a series of promises for Judah:
"But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their [own] possessions" (Obadiah 1:17).


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I have just returned to London, where I have lived since I was 11. I have been away for four years, living as an ethnic minority in a monocultural part of the world, amassing a host of stories to tell to disbelieving friends. On the whole, I am glad to return. I shan't miss some locals' assumptions that, being a white woman, if I was outside after dark, as I occasionally was, usually to walk the few metres between my house and the church, I must be a prostitute eager to give them a blow job. I shan't miss the abuse my priest husband received: the daubing of "Dirty white dogs" in red paint on the church door, the barrage of stones thrown at him by children shouting "Satan". He was called a "f***ing white bastard" more than once, though, notably, never when in a cassock. I will also not miss the way our garden acted as the local rubbish dump, with items ranging from duvets and TV sets, to rats (dead or twitching) glued to cardboard strips, a popular local method of vermin control to stem the large numbers of them which scuttled between the rubbish piled in gardens and on pavements. Yes, I am very glad to have left Britain's second city.
Brum Deal: Everyday life in Britain's second city (Photograph by Julian Anderson)
For four years, we lived in inner-city Birmingham, in what has been a police no-go area for 20 years. We know that because some plain-clothed cops told us when they asked to use our vicarage as a stake-out to bust drugs rings that pervade the area. Having heard a parishioner's tales of what his neighbours did to him when he was wrongfully suspected of having grassed up a cock-fighting ring, we refused, explaining that we had to live here, they didn't. Even during this time we saw the area change. When we arrived, the population was predominantly Pakistani. Now Somalis are there in equal number. Most of the run-down Irish pubs were turned into mosques during our time.
As a woman, it was difficult for me to gain many first-hand impressions of the Muslims. I was generally ignored by both men and women, and on the rare occasion that I had to interact, when for example a car was parked illegally and blocking my gate, I was addressed as if inconsequential. My husband, however, faithfully reported conversations which you may find somewhat alarming. One of our favourite dinner-party pieces is this: opposite our vicarage there is a "library" which has some computers, some burkas and occasionally tracts that say offensive things about Jews and Christians. My husband did his photo-copying there, and got on rather well with everybody. One day he was chatting to a man with a passing resemblance to Lawrence of Arabia, who had just arrived from Antwerp — one of an increasing number of Muslims who are arriving here with EU passports. He asked him why he had come to Birmingham. He was surprised at the question: "Everybody know. Birmingham — best place in Europe to be pure Muslim." Well, there must be many places in Europe where Muslims are entirely free to practise their faith, but I suspect there are few places in which they can have so little contact with the civic and legal structure of a Western state if they choose. It seems to be particularly easy to "disappear" if that is their intention. A parishioner once described a lorry pulling up outside his house, the side opening to reveal stacked mattresses full of sleepy, and presumably illegal, immigrants, who staggered out into broad Brummie daylight. We heard tales of how houses are exchanged for cash payments in our area. An untaxed car was once clamped by a frightened-looking official at 8am, but within hours the owner of the vehicle had organised the clamps to be sawn off, and he sped away.
Another instance of separation from the Western world is revealed in the following: my husband frequently chatted to a neighbour who could be described as one of the more questioning Muslims, and who has often provided an insight into the locals' mindset. Even this man, however, believes what the whole community thinks: the 9/11 planes were organised by Jews. Everybody knows there were no Jewish people in the World Trade Centre that day, as they had been tipped off. Oh, and the Mumbai terrorists had been kidnapped and brainwashed by Indian people. The tendency towards denial is strong. When my husband mentioned the "dirty white dogs" graffiti to a local Muslim, the response was, "One of your people did it." I have to say that the police's response was no better when the local Methodists complained about the same thing. They chose not to believe it had happened, since we had removed all sign of it with the buckets of anti-graffiti chemicals we had stocked since we arrived. They asked, somewhat pathetically: "Are you sure it was racist?"
To a London reader, born and bred with multiculturalism, I know that my stories may come across as outlandish and exaggerated, and that I must surely be a BNP voter — I have observed people's expressions as they have listened to my tales of life in Brum. When I recently told a friend how a large Taliban flag fluttered gaily on a house near St Andrew's football stadium for some months, her cry of "Can't you tell the police?" made me reflect how far many of our inner cities have been abandoned by our key workers: our doctors and nurses drive in from afar, the police, as mentioned before, have shut down their stations and never venture in unless in extremis — they and ambulance crews have been known to be attacked — even the local Imam lives in a leafier area.
Only the priest remains, if you can get one — the thriving but clerically-vacant church down the road has had no applicant in two years. In their absence, we get stabbings that never make the news, dog- and cock-fighting rings, cars torched as pranks and cars used for peddling heroin. (One of the more amusing moments of our time came when a local lad provided one reason people often gave us stares when we drove past such deals: "Two white people wearing seatbelts — you've got to be cops.") In their absence, we simply have the witness of those who are unlikely to be heard, who, through a variety of unfortunate circumstances, have not been able to move out: the elderly, the infirm, the illiterate, the chronically poor. Indeed, some of the Muslim residents deeply regret the flight of the non-Muslim population. It is they who now have to live in a crime-ridden ghetto.
On holiday in Germany recently, we watched a TV documentary about how schools were coping with Essen's growing Muslim community, and how the community itself felt. When it was over, we turned to each other, and said simultaneously (a drawback of having been married for a while), "This could not have been made in Britain." At the moment, also in Germany, the whole country is debating Thilo Sarrazin's controversial book Deutschland schafft sich ab ("Germany abolishes itself"), in which the author — a former member of the board of the Bundesbank and the German Social Democrats — examines research about immigrant communities and then makes specific recommendations about the integration of the Muslim community. I have only seen scant reference to this in the British press, which usually dismisses it, wrongly and lazily in my view, as good old German racism. This has nothing whatsoever to do with race. The Muslim community in Birmingham, for instance, is made up of people from many continents and races, including Afghans, Yemenis, Pakistanis, Indians and Somalis.
There is no doubt in my mind that we need to have the same openness in discussing what is happening to many cities in Britain. If current demographic trends continue over the next few decades, the West Midlands, as well as other parts of the country, will become a predominantly Muslim area. Much more needs to be done to integrate the communities among whom I lived, and we need to be much less negligent of our own values too. Frankly, if we happened to walk down Broad Street on a Friday night, where mobs of identically undressed and mostly aesthetically unpleasing gals and lads were on the piss and pull, it was almost a relief to drive back to our ghetto enclave.
It is time to rub the rime from our eyes and to look clearly at the shape of Britain today. Everyone living here needs to be able to talk about what they see, without the lazy or fearful, but certainly paralysing, accusation of racism. Only then will we be able to discern what is best for the future.
Tuesday 18 January 2011
1 comment:
- extant said...
This may seem a long story, but let me tell you she has only given us a snippit of it.
What will happen, when there is no where else for us to move to !?
We need a Pied Piper !! - 18 January 2011 at 09:11
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Matthew Miller - Testimonial
Playing trumpet has always been difficult for me. No matter how much time I put in, no matter how clear my concept of sound, no matter what I tried, playing never became "easy" or "natural." After joining the Army as a musician, I started studying with Jeff. After less than a year of study, my playing has become radically different. My high range isn't higher, but it's more controlled, and it is no longer forced. My sound has improved leaps and bounds. My overall technical prowess has improved to the point that old solos that used to give me fits are easy. Finally, though I don't have the practice time that I did as a performance major, my playing continues to improve. If Jeff's teachings have made such a difference in my playing, then anyone else will easily be able to become a great player following his instruction. I wouldn't be able to do my job without studying with Jeff!


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Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Every year around this time, I get a yearning for mochi, that bland, sticky dough made by pounding glutionous or sweet rice into a paste. Mochi (or omochi) is traditionally eaten instead of rice during the New Year holidays (which lasts until the 7th in Japan traditionally), since it can be dried into long-keeping cakes that can be reconstituted easily. Although commercial dried mochi cakes are available at any Japanese grocery store and can't be beat for convenience, freshly made mochi is a very different thing - softer, stickier, with the natural sweetness of the rice coming through.
I have thought off and on about getting a mochi tsuki ki or mochi making machine, for years. These things are available in Japan nowadays for around 10,000 to 25,000 yen. But it would be expensive and heavy to haul one over from Japan, and here in Europe, where rice cookers have only now started to become widely available, mochi machines are not not going to be stocked at my local kitchen-appliance store any time soon. And talk about a single-purpose appliance! A mochi making machine works similarly to a bread machine - in fact, the first bread machines (called "home bakeries" in Japan) were developed based on the kneading action of mochi making machines. But, I don't own a bread machine either, and I am not that eager to get one. Besides, I am not sure of the motor of an average bread machine is strong enough to deal with the strong stickiness of pounded rice. There are combination bread and mochi making machines available in Japan, but they are either expensive or have mediocre reputations. Plus, there's that problem of hauling one over from Japan.
I've tried making mochi in a food processor - once. That didn't work out well. The mochi didn't have time to turn into a sticky, smooth mass before the motor of the food processor overheated. The sticky mass had a tendency to want to climb into the middle of the food processor too.
I even tried making mochi by pounding the grains in a mortar and pestle. That took so long to make a tiny amount, that it wasn't worth it. And again, it was very hard to get the mochi smooth yet sticky/strong enough for my liking.
Sure, I could make a mochi of sorts from mochiko or rice powder. That yields mochi that is very smooth - but, for me, lacking in body, not to mention that freshly cooked sweet-rice taste. Also mochi dango (see mitarashi dango) have a different texture from fresh mochi. Yes, I'm particular.
So my homemade fresh mochi plans lay dormant for years...until recently, when I finally got a KitchenAid stand mixer. I am not anti-appliance per se, but I tend to really procrastinate a lot about introducing new machinery into my kitchen. I was never sure that I could justify the space a stand mixer would take up - could I not knead dough by hand, mix cookie dough in the food processor, beat eggs with my handheld beater? Besides, here in Europe KitchenAid, the brand I wanted, is way more expensive than they are in the U.S. But a couple of months ago, one of my local electronics stores had the KitchenAid Artisan models on sale. I couldn't resist. And so, a sexy white model entered my life. Why did I wait so long? I've named my KitchenAid Agatha, and when my still-in-development kitchen is finally in place, she will occupy pride of place there.
The beauty of a KitchenAid mixer is its super sturdy motor. You can leave it on to mix and knead for far longer than you can a food processor, and it won't overheat. This, I sensed, would be the key to making mochi that was sticky and smooth. And so it was. Making fresh mochi is now so easy that I barely have to think about it. It's easier than kneading bread, almost as easy as mixing up a batch of cookie dough.
Besides a mixer, having a rice cooker will make the whole process even easier. (I always thought that mochi rice had to be steamed, so discovering that it could be made in a rice cooker with no fuss was a revelation too.) If you do, and you have some sweet or glutinous rice on hand, you could have freshly made mochi in 2 hours from now.
Recipe: Fresh mochi with a food processor and rice cooker
This makes enough fresh mochi to feed at least 4 people, if not more.
- 3 rice-cooker cups short grain, sweet or glutinous rice or mochi rice. To make this as clear as possible: You cannot use regular Japanese rice (aka 'sushi' rice), long grain rice, basmati rice, arborio rice, etc. You must use short grain or mochi rice. (See Looking At Rice.)
- 3 rice-cooker cups water
- Toppings of your choice - see below
Equipment suggested: A food/stand mixer such as a KitchenAid with a sturdy motor, a rice cooker, a fine-mesh sieve or colander
Wash the rice a few times (see Japanese rice basics for the method) in several changes of water. Leave to drain for at least half an hour in a sieve or colander.
Put the rice in the bowl of a rice cooker with the 3 cups of water. (Note that the rice to water ratio is 1:1, which differs from the ratio recommended for regular Japonica rice.) Set your rice cooker to cook the rice in one hour, if it has a timer. If it doesn't have a timer, let the rice soak in the water for about half an hour before switching the cooker on.
When the rice is cooked, put it in the bowl of your mixer while it's still hot with the dough hook attached. It's important to start the kneading/beating while the rice is still hot for maximum stickiness and smoothness. Cool grains turn a bit hard.
Keep kneading. I start out at the low speed, switch up to the high speed for a minute or two, then drop it down to mid-speed Most of the kneading is done at mid-speed, with a few bursts of high-speed thrown in.
Here is how it looks about 10 minutes in. It's already pretty smooth, though there is still some graininess.
After 20 minutes, the mochi is almost totally smooth. At this point the mochi has cooled down quite a bit, and kneading further doesn't really get rid of the residual slight graininess. But no matter - when you eat it you will barely notice the grains. (I suppose that re-heating the mochi and re-kneading it might work, but it's not worth the bother for me.)
Wet your clean hands and pull small bits off the mochi mass to make balls. Here are a few mochi balls made from the freshly kneaded mochi. Smooth enough I think!
If you want to keep the mochi for later use, put the mochi dough on a large piece of plastic wrap (just pouring it out stickily from the bowl should work). Wrap the mochi up with the wrap if you want to keep it soft. Alternatively, put the mochi dough on a surface covered with cornstarch or potato starch, cover with a dusting of more of the same, and leave to dry out a bit - a day should do it. Cut it into portions with a sharp knife, and wrap each portion with plastic wrap.
If you want to use fresh mochi in your New Years ozoni or ozouni soup, just drop the soft balls into the soup a couple of minutes before serving, so that they heat through. Don't cook them longer than that or they will just melt into the soup!
Fresh mochi can also be used to make moffles - just plop the dough onto the waffle iron. When the surface cooks and crisps, the dough won't stick to the iron.
Alternate way of cooking the rice, if you don't have a rice cooker: steaming
Steaming mochi rice is the traditional way of cooking it, but it takes a lot longer. After rinsing the rice, put it in a bowl with plenty of water, and leave for several hours or over night. When you're ready to cook it, drain off the water, line your steamer with a clean piece of cheesecloth or a cotton or linen kitchen towel, and spread the rice on it evenly. Steam the rice for 40 minutes until the grains are cooked through.
My favorite ways of eating freshly made mochi
I don't try to make more mochi than will be consumed in one sitting, since it's really best when it's fresh. The best way to deal with fresh mochi is to make whatever you plan to mix with the mochi beforehand ready in a bowl or plate, and to dump the mochi balls you pull off the dough mass with wet hands directly onto that.
Here's one of my favorite ways to eat fresh mochi: with mounds of grated daikon radish and a little soy sauce. The sharp freshness of the daikon radish counteracts the stickiness of the mochi perfectly, and also makes it easier to digest (or so they say).
Here's my other favorite way: with natto! I chop up some green onion, mix with natto and soy sauce, and drop the mochi balls on that and mix. The sliminess of the natto goes so well with the slimy-stickiness of the mochi.
Here's my third favorite way to eat fresh mochi: with kinako (roasted soy bean flour) and sugar. The ratio of kinako to sugar is entirely up to you - I prefer a 2:1 kinako to sugar mix, some prefer a 1:1 ratio. Alternatively, try unsweetened kinako and molasses - or if you're in the UK, black treacle. Either sugar syrup is a good stand in for kuromitsu, which is a syrup made from dark brown unrefined sugar.
You can also mix in things into fresh mochi dough itself. Just add whatever you want to mix in during the final minutes of the kneading process. Some things to try: ground up sesame seed, ground up toasted walnuts or other nuts. A traditional additive to mochi is yomogi, a kind of bitter green wild herb. In Japan you can even get dessicated yomogi powder. The mochi in the kinako mochi photo above has some yomogi powder mixed in.
Pounding mochi in harmony
When I was little, and the whole clan gathered at my grandparents' house in Saitama for New Years, I remember my Aunt Chieko and Uncle Isao hauling out the usu (large wooden mortar) and kine (wooden hammer-shaped pestle) for mochitsuki - pounding mochi. My uncle would beat down on the rice with the kine, and in between his poundings my aunt, crouched next to the usu, would deftly turn the rice over with her bare hands. If she hesitated or lost the rhythm, her hands could have been crushed by the heavy hammerhead of the kine. But nothing ever went wrong - they worked together in perfect harmony.
Looking back, my aunt and uncle's mochitsuki concert seems like a reflection of their marriage. Neither of them had an easy life - my aunt was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by relatives, and my uncle had to take over the family business when his older brother bailed. Yet, I never ever saw them fight or even have tension between them, even when I lived with them for a couple of months when I was 16. This was such a refreshing contrast from the constant strife my parents had at home, leading to divorce a couple of years later. I guess it helped that my uncle was a man of few words, who let my strong-willed, hard working and always upbeat aunt run the household as she wished. And she did just that, especially after my grandparents passed away.
This New Year will be the first one they will be apart in decades, since Uncle Isao passed away this earlier this year. I rather like to think of him sitting wherever he now, relaxing in his long underwear, with a haramaki (knitted tummy warmer) around his middle, chuckling quietly while sipping on a cool beer.
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Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Wonderful :D After managing to find short grain sweet rice at a specialty store here in Georgia, I tried the mortar and pestle method of mashing it and, like you, found the effort was not worth the results. I'll definitely have to give it a try with our mixer. I certainly never would have thought of to use it till reading this.
I do have have one question about it though; do you think sweet brown rice will work as well as the white in the mixer?
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you so much for this recipe! I am very excited to try this at home! It will remind me of the time when I was the one trying to not get my hand crushed. ^__^
On an unrelated note, I have been sitting at work all day reading both of your food blogs and rejoicing inside! When I left Japan, I had to leave my stack of Orange Page / Lettuce Club there, and sadly, a lot of the websides I find don't compare to the stacks upon stacks I had collected! Thank you once again Maki!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I know Ifound orange page online and use microsoft translator for it for me(Iwish Icould speak japanese but grew up in the states with english only *-*) heres the link :) http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?ref=SERP&br=ro&mkt=en-US&dl=e... I really hope this helps and you can easily turn off the translator. I know I already love the site as is XD the recipes look so good. http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?ref=SERP&br=ro&mkt=en-US&dl=e... and heres the online lettuce club I found. I do hope they are the right ones for you :3
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Hi Maki, Thank you for posting this. I've been hunting down recipes for fresh mochi that doesn't need the strong man with hammer. :)
I like mochiko-made dango, but the pounded fresh mochi from grain is tastier. And with natto...swoon.
Happy New Year!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
My future husband has a KitchenAid mixer and the first thing I thought of, while reading your intro, was that dough hook!! It's amazing! Just goes to show that paying for quality is worth ten times the price! :)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you so much for this! It is hard to get traditional mochi here in the south in the U.S. We do have a few Asian stores which do carry sweet glutinous rice but no method of making actual mochi. I have recipes for using mochiko, which is a rice flour. I could possibly make mochi with it but haven't tried. Since I have a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook, this would be perfect. Do you know if you have to add water while it is mixing. I recall when my relatives would pound mochi, they would add a little water for turning it over in the usu so it wouldn't stick. Do you think it would help to smooth out the mochi though I don't mind a few grains?
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Oh my. Thank you!!! I've never had savory mochi, but I LOVE the texture. I'm excited to try this!!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Maki, I also tried to make mochi many times(same reason here, miss the rice taste)with my food processor(it didn't work), even with my bread baking machine(didn't work either...)
I would love to try your recipe for fresh mochi, but I'm afraid, my kitchen-mixer(a German Bosch brand) doesn't have enough power and I don't have a kitchen aid(these are very expensive in Germany).
But, I will get a Japanese mochi-tsuki machine soon, do you have any tips how to use it, so far I know, I need a transformer(hope this is right word, there is an difference between Japanese and European voltage).
I already asked in a japanese forum in Germany but I got rather "strange" answers. Right now I don't know which transformer I should get, any ideas? Thank you!
I also found a rather nice way to make mochi from selfmade mochi-ko flour, you can process small amounts of sweet rice in a food processor(in blender for milkshakes), then sieve it very fine. Also a old coffee grinder works fine, but only for small amounts.
I mixed my mochiko flour 1:1 with water to make kagami mochi, and more water for smoother ones. There is a recipe on my blog, but it is in German( I'm sorry). I dind't have a "real" recipe for kagami mochi, I still don't know how to make it the "right" way.;-)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
The Japanese voltage and power plugs are compatible to the US systems. There are two aspects when buying appliances in Japan (or the US) to be used in Europe: Voltage and Frequency. For the voltage, you will need a transformer. For the Frequency, you have a look at the technical label (or the technical specifications/data sheet of the appliance and check if it says 50-60 Hz or 60 Hz only. in the first case, you have no problems; in the second case, it depends. If no motors are built in the appliance, you should have no problems; if motors are built in, there is a small risk that it won't work at all, and a greater risk that it will have less power. It does depend on the type of the motor, and it is not possible to say whether it works just so. The instructions will also not say what kind of motors are used.
So, you would need a transformer from 230V to 115 V (well, 110…120 V). The wattage depends on the appliance you want to hook up; a representative mochi maker is rated at 600 W. In this case, you should do well with a 800 to 1000 VA transformer. If you also intend to buy other appliances, such as a rice cooker, you may better get a 2000 VA model (you may also take into consideration your power installation; if you have 6A fuses, you can't go much over 1000 W for the appliance.
Such transformers should be available at a well-stocked electronic store (you might look at Conrad or so, if that fails, you might check distributors for the industry, and ask whether they do retail).
You might also look at the prices before you make your investments…
BTW, when you have had real mochi, you will throw your mochi powder in the garbage...
Hope this can help.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I love mochi! Great post, I cant wait to try out this recipe!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Maki, I can't wait to try this! I love my KitchenAid - I use it at least once a day and I am so excited to have a new use for it. I have been dying to try moffles since you first wrote about them, but for one reason or another I always forget mochi at the market (unless it's mochi ice cream ... I always remember that!)
When reading that you can add things to the mochi, my thoughts immediately turned to macha - any guidelines on how much to add or should I just add until the color looks about right?
Also, I was touched by your memory of your Aunt and Uncle pounding mochi together - what a beautiful picture you paint of them!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Wow, thank you for such a creative way to make homemade mochi! My mom is visitting us in the US this year so I will definitely try it with her!!! My 5 year old daughter loves kinako with omochi and I am sure it will be special to make your recipe with the three generations gathered around our red Kitchen Aid!!! Your blog is the best!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Wow. thanks for the great recipie.
with a bit of history, fun, informative and easy to understand as usual.
(the one with soybean flour or the buttery seems so good!)
love to hear that little story about your uncle.
Happy holidays!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you!!! My husband gave me a kitchen-aid and my seven year old boy loooves mochi. This will be the very fresh mochi New Year for us.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
--------I rather like to think of him sitting wherever he now, relaxing in his long underwear, with a haramaki (knitted tummy warmer) around his middle, chuckling quietly while sipping on a cool beer.-------
I have to admit, lately my favorite part about your blog are these tiny touches of your life you add to it -- this is why I read your twitter too. Of course, I love Japanese food and look forward to your recipes, but this is really it for me. :)
Homemade mochi - my bread machine version
Thanks for the inspiration Maki! Our own omochitsuki has been a success. I don't have an industrial strength mixer but I do have a basic bread machine (a cast off from my parents).
As I didn't expect success with just the bread maker paddle I combined it with some old school technology - a large granite pestle & mortar.
Step 1 - steam the prepared mochi rice and keep it hot; I used 2 cups.
Step 2 - pre heat the granite mortar and the bread maker 'bin' using boiled water (both are then emptied and dried)
Step 3 - taking a quarter of the steamed mochi rice at a time, pound the rice with the pestle in the mortar. Have a small bowl of warm water to wet your hands so you can manipulate and turn the mochi rice. Once pounded into rudimentary mochi drop it into the bread machine and have it start to knead. Repeat until all the rice is pounded and in the bread maker.
As Maki mentioned with her Kitchenaid method, you can stop the breads maker and reheat the mochi and add it back to the machine for extra smooth mochi.
Thanks again Maki, I doubt I would have been brave enough to try this without your blog entry. We're all very happy we have fresh mochi to eat with our toshi koshi soba tonight.
my bread machine version - update
I ended up acquiring a fresh mochi addiction so made it several more times (and cutting more and more corners with each attempt!)
Turned out I didn't need to spend the minute pre-pounding the mochi rice in a mortar after all. The step where I heated the bread maker bin with boiling water seemed to be enough to let the breadmachine paddle work its magic on the rice and convert it to mochi, takes about 20 minutes.
Must stress that I have a very basic model with no sophisticated functions and just one tough kneading blade - Hinari HB164. Perhaps this is why it works so well.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I've been pining for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for years, and now that I've read your post, I pine for one-- with attachments-- even more. I'll keep this post in mind if I ever get one.
Wishing you health and happiness in 2011!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you, Maki! I grew up in Hawaii, my mother was from Saitama (she passed away last year), and I now live in an area of Texas where the closest Japanese grocery store is two hours away. The last time I went there, they were out of mochi (grrr!). With my mother gone, I no longer receive her care packages lovingly packed full of the Japanese foodstuffs I can't easily get here. My first batch is now kneading away in my Kitchenaid, and I cannot wait to have fresh mochi in my ozoni (but a pale imitation of my mother's...ah, I miss her dearly). Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Maki, thanks for your recipe. I already tried it with success. It's really easy to make and so yummy!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
This is amazing, thank you so much for this. I just got a KitchenAid stand mixer myself (its name is Sheldon, if you were interested) and I am so excited to make some homemade fresh mochi with it.
Now, I have to run to the local Asian market to get some mochi rice. =)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thanks for the inspiration. Turned our great; my Nagoya-born husband gave it his seal of approval and my daughter kept coming back for more.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
You said that you haven't tried it with a bread machine, but do you think it will work?
This is quite an exciting recipe since for some odd reason they do carry sweet rice at my local grocery store (while lacking many other crucial asian cooking ingredients...)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Do you think it could work with a high power blender instead of the Kitchen-Aid?
I have a Vitamix, which has a 2 horsepower motor; it will pulverize just about anything.
Thanks to anyone who might have input,
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Maki, thank you for your post. I have previously made mochi using breadmaker, but it turned out to be a total failure. I have to try this dough-hook method.
I have been fascinated with Gopan: the new rice bread machine from Sanyo. They have a mochi function!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thanks for the recipe, Maki! I have thought about buying mochiko from the market once or twice, but the price has always scared me off. This is great to know, and the last serving suggestion sounds absolutely scrumptious.
I do wonder, though - until I can afford a Kitchen-Aid, all I have is an electric handheld mixer, the kind with the steel whisks. How far could I get with one of these?
Thanks again! -Ani
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Hi, Maki. You've received lots of comments on the mochi method itself but I wanted to thank you for the charming vignette of your family life. It is this sort of extra dimension that makes your blogs so special and helps set them apart for many of the other excellent food and cooking blogs out there. Wherever he is I hope your uncle's tummy is indeed warm and that his beer is nice and cold.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thanks for this. I found your article when I was finding out how long it will take to dry!
I made it and with my bread machine...and mortle/pestle (but Korean big stone bowl...so it made MUCH more) I will post more details on my blog soon.
(we just made it today)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
So happy to find this information. I have a KitchenAid so will try it. How fun this will be since it's been over 50 years since we had our last mochitsuki with my now deceased parents and grandparents. Many thanks!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I made a batch the day before New Year's Day, and it turned out fantastic! I immediately toasted a piece and ate it with shoyu [I was out of nori :( but it was still scrumptious]. I cut the rest up and let it sit out to dry for a day dusted with potato starch per your instructions, then ate a couple in ozoni on New Year's Day (yummy!). I wrapped the remaining pieces individually in plastic wrap, put them in a ziptop freezer bag, and placed the bag in the freezer. Yesterday, I took a piece out, unwrapped it, and set it to thaw out of harm's way. I promptly forgot about it until the next day. When I remembered, I decided to try toasting it since I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was just as good as the first piece I toasted! Knowing I can keep a stash in the freezer is such a plus. I thought others might like to know this can be successfully frozen.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you! I am Japanese American, from CA, living in NJ for the past 15 years.... I miss CA and all the Japanese foods I grew up with and Mochitsuki. I crave mochi all the time and am so grateful for your site. I am going to try making mochi with my 3 girls today...
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Japanese groceries are so difficult to find in NJ. I used the rice we eat every day, brown mixed with white and the dough hook just pushed the rice to the sides of my kitchen aid and it never came together after 15 minutes so I abandoned the batch. I'm so disappointed. What did I do wrong? I have sushi rice, can I use that? Or must I go to find mochi rice? When we had mochitsuki I was never involved in the details of buying the supplies, I always assumed it was the rice we eat every day... My job was making the individual mochi and eating it with oroshi, kinako and the special batch my Oji-san made with nori mixed in. Help! I want to eat mochi!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Hi Maki! Thank you! I found sweet rice at our local Wegmans, so surprised! But happy. We made mochi last weekend! Soooo good! My girls were so excited... they want to make more this weekend. I have a question. I don't have one, so I can't try it, but I'm wondering. What do you think about the grinder attachment to the kitchen aid? Would it work for mochi??!!
Thank you also for the list of grocery stores. We found Maido last year and made one trip to Edgeweater but it is so far. I'm happy to know we did not miss any grocery stores closer.
I am so happy for your site! Always looking for fun bento boxes for my girls too, love the bento site!
Fresh Mochi Properties
I get the idea that fresh mochi is a lot different from mochi made from mochiko. How can you use it? Does it still work for dango or not? What are all the things you can do with it?
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I live in Los Angeles where it is easy to buy mochi but I have to agree that there is nothing like freshly made mochi. My family is lucky enough to have an older-model mochi maker. The relatives that live locally get together sometime between Christmas and New Years to make multiple batches. My mom has one of those vacuum sealers, which we use to package the mochi as soon as it has cooled. We store what we plan to eat soon at room temperature and freeze the rest to enjoy as long as it lasts.
I have some ideas for keeping your mochi warm as you use your KitchenAid mixer:
- Wrap a heating pad around the bowl. I think I saw this done on a cooking site but I can't remember what site nor for what recipe.
- Wrap a hot towel (if you have a clothes dryer) around the bowl.
- Run a hair blowdryer on the side of the bowl.
Thanks for your great blog and Happy New Year!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I am going to try this tonight. I have sushi rice at home and already have the KitchenAid, so I'm set! I'm going to experiment with making mochi cakes filled with sweet red bean paste.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sharing this! We are from Hawai`i, living in Okinawa right now and will be moving to Germany in a couple months...I never thought I'd find a website that gave me information on where to find Japanese grocery stores in Europe (including a place to buy my favorite Okinawan sugar), bento info, a make-at-home mochi recipe I can do by myself AND bring a tear to my eye with poignant family stories...amazing.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I am a Japanese-Brazilian living in Japan.
I can buy mochi easily here, but I love homemade things.
Thank you so much for the recipe. I will buy the mochi rice and try to make it with my Kitchen Aid.
I loved what you wrote about your uncle and aunt.
Thank you!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thanks so much for this post! I knew there was a reason I wanted a stand mixer :D
Mochi~~ When I was studying at a Japanese school in Fukuoka a year ago, on Christmas we took a school trip to a shrine and made mochi. The students and teachers each got a turn with the giant hammer, and we all formed the little balls afterwards. A lot of it got eaten there at the shrine -- they had the soy sauce & daikon, plus the kinako, and anko. The leftovers went home with the students who were doing homestays as a gift to the families, and some was saved for the soup we had during the New Year's celebration at school.
Mochi is awesome :D Hmm, I wonder how feasible it would be to recreate the mochi ice cream I used to get (way too often) at the combini...
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I've wanted a KitchenAid stand mixer for the longest time, and this article made me want one even more! Well, I finally got my red-hot Kitchenaid last Friday and, after testing a few easy things to make sure I knew was I was doing, this was the first recipe I made. I've grown up loving "plain" mochi and always have a stock of mochi cakes at my house that I buy at our local Japanese grocery store. However, I'm on the eternal quest to try make things myself.
My grandma was born and raised in Japan and came over to the US with my grandpa after the war. As she gets older, we're finding that she's only really happy with Japanese food, mostly the things she grew up with. Unfortunately, she never taught me how to make anything and my mom only took interest in a few dishes so I look to your site to find the things she talks about or that we've had in restaurants. Since she's increadibly honest, it's very easy to tell if I've gotten it right or not.
When she had the first bite of fresh mochi, she instantly lit up and said "this is *just* like Japan!". I later found out that she stole the remaining mochi that I had wrapped up :) I guess I'll have to make this again! Thank you soooooooo much for sharing this!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I just found your blog today while in search of some good Japanese recipes. Thanks for posting about Mochi, I love it. I just learned a new way that maybe you can try, it's just a small adjustment to yours, but we didn't have any of the graininess. We made this at a my friends Japanese preschool in the U.S.
After soaking the rice overnight (before cooking the rice). We put the water & rice into a blender. Amazingly it comes out very runny. We put it into a bowl, and covered it with saran wrap and cooked it in the microwave (I believe about 3 min, stir a little then 3 more minutes). When it came out we let the kids pound it for just a few minutes with pestels (be sure to wet them with water first so they don't stick). It really only needed a minute of pounding, if even at all. The mochi came about great!
I want to try your method as well.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Maki, thanks for this post. Every New Year while we were stationed in Japan, we would go to my friend Kumiko's house and pound mochi. Her husband, Mr. Ito, was like your Uncle Isao, a strong, quiet man. They had that same rhythm pounding the mochi and the best part was filling them with sweet bean and ripe strawberries. Reading your blogs and recipes makes me miss Japan so much more. I'd return in a heartbeat! Keep up the wonderful work!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
wow, this looks almost do-able! I don't eat mochi enough to merit a mochi maker, but do have a stand mixer, never thought of using that. Your preparations look fabulous and so interesting, especially the natto. I grew up toasting it in the toaster oven and dipping it in soy sauce and sugar...
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I had to get rid of our bread machine and was worried that the unit I replaced it with wouldn't be able to make mochi. No problems!
I made mochi today using the Swedish built Ankarsrum Assistent. Poured in just boiled water then drained and dried the bowl so that it started off hot, threw in the hot rice and let it go with the mixing wheel and scraper. It took less than ten minutes to turn the rice to good smooth mochi. You can use the square spatula that comes with the unit to get the mochi out but I found that a breadmaker's dough scraper works best.
Since it's the bowl that turns on the Assistent mixer and not any hook or paddle I wasn't sure it would work. But it does. Beautifully.
Was lucky to be able to buy an as new red Assistent on EBay at half the retail price, so cheaper than a Kitchenaid for me. It truly is the stand mixer of my dreams.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Can I do this with regular white rice
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
[quote=Renia]Can I do this with regular white rice[/quote]
Hi Renia (sorry for the long delay in responding). Maki already answered this question but I thought I'd elaborate as I now make mochi with mochi rice AND gohei mochi with Akita komachi 'regular' rice.
You cannot make the mochi described in Maki's article with regular rice - but there are other things you can make. If by 'regular' rice you mean the short grained Japanese kind - not American long grained or basmatic etc. - you can make the rustic damako mochi with a Kitchen Aid (or a suribachi pestle and mortar if you have a LOT of patience). This kind of mochi doesn't have the elasticity or toothsome bite of regular mochi. It does make very nice gluten free dumplings that can be a welcome addition to a savoury soup or stew. Alternatively, you make rudimentary gohei mochi by forming flat 'Popsicles' out of regular rice mochi, make a paste with nuts, sugar, soy sauce, perhaps some mirin and miso and grill or BBQ them until they are golden on both sides. Brown rice can be substituted but the results are less toothsome still. I've found that brown rice with some mochi rice added to the mix makes a good compromise.
I've posted more information here:
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I'm very excited to fine this article. I am now living in Germany and will spend my first winter without making mochi with my family! Now I can at least enjoy the few pieces of mochi I NEED to start the new year right. Unfortunately, I'll miss the family making fun of each other while burning our hands on hot melted rice.
Now to find a recipe for mushroom base ozoni. Do you know which mushroom is considered the "golden" mushroom? I once had the most amazing ozoni made by a Buddhist minister's wife. It was very clear, light in flavor - delicate - would be the word to describe it. I was told it was a very expensive type of mushroom that was used and I can't for the life of me remember the name! Any thoughts?
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I really want to make healthy mochi for my family. I was wondering if sweet brown rice or glutinous black rice would work? It should as long as it's glutinous, right? Thank you so much! :)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thanks so much for this post! This has answered so many of the questions I've been wondering about mochi making!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
You have such beautiful memories of mochi. :) I'll definitely try out this method soon. But with a blender, because I don't have a stand mixer.
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
How would I adapt this recipe using sweet rice flour instead of rice? Would I still need to steam the rice flour, and how would I do this? Thanks
How powerful stand mixer do you use?
Hi, what model stand mixer do you use? Do we need need powerful mixer like ksm300-500ps?
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Now i'm very excited to fine this short article. I was now coping with Germany and may spend my first winter without making mochi with my loved ones! Now I could at least take pleasure in the few items of mochi I have to start the new year suitable. Unfortunately, I'll miss the household making fun of each other whilst burning our practical hot melted rice.
Read more about:http://www.funrecipeblog.com/
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Fantastic: Deb Right after controlling to find limited grain nice hemp at a specialised retail store in Atlanta, My spouse and i tried the actual mortar and also pestle method of mashing this and also, as you, identified your time was not worth the final results. I'll undoubtedly need to test it out for with this mixing machine. My spouse and i undoubtedly never ever can have looked at to make use of this until eventually reading this article.
Read more about:http://www.funrecipeblog.com/
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It looks yummy. And the images are mouth watering too! :)
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thanks so much for this recipe. My question may have already been asked in your many comments. If so, I apologize. I was wondering if this is the same type of mochi you could fill with the sweet red bean paste. Thank you again!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
hello. I tried to browse through the comments but don't think I saw the answer to my question and if it was already asked, apologies as there are lots of comments!
My question is this: For the Rice Cooker part, do you cook the mochi rice on the "Sweet" rice setting or the "White" rice setting. It says "cook the rice for 1 hour", but not which rice setting to select. I have a Zojiurishi rice cooker which has most of the usual options.
Many thanks!
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Hello , I want to make a Mochi pounded rice in modern way but i am confuse which stand mixer is best to use for it.? I want to know any 3D stand mixer
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
I can't wait to try this! Just a tip for my fellow U.S. residents, you can find both sweet rice and mochiko in wegmans' asian section. I have the Nishiki brand sweet rice and the Kids Farms Mochiko at mine
Re: Homemade mochi (pounded rice) the modern way
Thank you very much for sharing your recipe for homemade mochi (without using a mochi machine)! Our local Japanese grocery store (where I usually buy fresh mochi at New Year's) closed this year, so I was thinking we would have to go without our traditional New Year's treat (since I don't want to buy a mochi-making machine). But I found your recipe, and it worked out very well! In fact, it was great to be able to have mochi that was even more delicious, fresher, and softer than what I could buy at the store (and much cheaper, too). The clean-up of the sticky bowl and utensils is a bit of a pain, but that should keep me from making more mochi than is good for me :-)
Being able to write English only has left me lost and disconnected with authentic Japanese cuisine - I like to learn to cook authentic Japanese food. Thank you for writing in English and I can't wait to try this authentic method of yours. I have a TM31 thermomix and a very decent rice cooker. I can't wait to tell you the results. I love your cookbook too. Do you have a YouTube channel? Xx
It worked!
Dear Maki,
My mother has the Kitchenaid stand mixer, so when I found your post, I was very excited at the idea of making mochi. I live in a small city in the Midwest of the United States, and it's hard for me to find mochi in the tiny Asian markets we have here in town. We do, however, have the 餅米, so the trick was finding a machine to do the hard work. We tried your method last night with the dough hook, and it was successful! Now we'll have fresh, homemade mochi to enjoy in the New Year! Thank you so much for your lovely tutorial!
I have a KitchenAid Classic Plus model which is slightly less powerful than the Artisan - 275 W vs 325 W - but the mochi I made yesterday for the new year turned out beautifully. They were easily as tasty as the ones I used to get from Daruma Market, soft, smooth, and not at all grainy. I rolled them in toasted sesame seeds as the kinako seems to be in hiding somewhere in the recesses of my cupboards. My rice cooker is a $12 model I bought at CVS and has only 2 settings - cook or warm - but it does its job well for all types of rice, as well as quinoa and wild rice.


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Heavenly parties like few others. After skiing a full day, the party crowd heads to the Tamarack Lodge for a proper après hour at Unbuckle, and from there it's time to hit the casinos on the Nevada side. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. You can sleep when you're dead, right? It can be a hard act to follow day in and day out, but the incredible memories you'll make are worth it. If rowdy bar scenes, playing craps late into the night, chic lounges and world-class performances sound like the perfect add-on to your ski vacation, then Heavenly nightlife will undeniably please any party animal.
Harvey's Lake Tahoe is the area's original hotel-casino. Lovers of tequila and classic rock will have a ball at the legendary Cabo Wabo Cantina. Harvey's is the place to go for big, sell-out performances., so be sure to check the concert schedule ahead of time. Gamblers can take their chances on a game of blackjack, keno, poker, slots or table games.
Heavenly casinos exist only on the Nevada side of South Lake Tahoe, so that's where the night hawks head. Each of Lake Tahoe's five casinos offers a unique experience and vibe. Harrah's Lake Tahoe is considered the "chill" casino, because it's gambling and concerts are more low-key, with smaller acts, and the choice between roulette and slots. If it's possible to have a more quiet gambling experience, Harrah's is it.
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The new Tamarack Lodge has changed the après game at Heavenly. After a hard day of skiing Heavenly's iconic slopes it's time to party even harder at Unbuckle at Tamarack. This après hotspot not only features incredible happy hour specials−at half price drinks−but it also features live DJs, and best of all the Heavenly Angels: super sexy go-go dancers that really get the party going. After one of the best après scenes you'll ever have, you get to enjoy moonlit views of Lake Tahoe on the gondola ride back down to the base area.
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