How to make Mochi, the Sticky-Rice Cake! Part 1 Getting the appliance

What is Mochi, the Sticky Rice Cake

Do you know Mochi, or sticky rice cake made from glutinous rice. It has a very smooth and when heated, very sticky texture. Mochi is most often consumed around New Year in Japan as part of tradition; however, it is available in Japan from shops throughout the year (see Wikipedia for more information -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi).

Shown here is the photo of traditional mochi-making from Pixabay!

Traditionally in an event called Mochi-tsuki, you use a wooden heavy bowl/stage called Usu, and a wooden hammer named Kine, to mix and beat steamed glutinous rice to make smooth-textured mochi.

 

I want Sticky Rice Cake for kids, a lot of it and for cheap!

My sons both really love mochi. If I heat it up, they will eat them with a bit of soy sauce and nori seaweed for breakfast, or snack. After all, mochi is simply made from rice and nothing more. So it is fat-free, no added sugar, gluten free….. It is a healthy snack.

But now we are living in NZ, we can only find them at Japan Mart… For a bag of 450g mochi, it cost around 10 dollars. I am grateful for Japan Mart for selling it in the first place, but if I can be a bit fussier, I would love to get fresher mochi, in a more cost-effective way.

Making Mochi with a Bread Maker

Good news is, you don’t need traditional Usu and Kine to make mochi. You can actually have all the work done by a modern bread maker! I used a bread maker back in Japan to make fresh own-made mochi, and they were very delicious!

So first step in making mochi at our new home in NZ, is to get a bread maker that can be used. (And don’t attempt to make it by hand. It is possible, however will be too exhausting….)

For using a bread maker to make mochi, there are two options. First is to get a bread maker that has a mochi making function, or “sticky rice cake” menu. This menu will cook and mix mochi rice at the same time to produce mochi in just one step. Back in Japan, many of bread makers sold there came with this function.

If you don’t have a bread maker with a mochi making function, you will be using the “dough making menu” of the bread maker, in combination with another kitchen appliance to cook rice.

Basically, you will cook rice using rice cooker, and while rice is steaming hot, transfer them to bread maker to “dough”. There are number of success stories using this method on the internet, so if you have a bread maker without mochi making function, you can try this second method.

Purchasing a Bread Maker!!

So I first looked for a bread maker that at least can make bread dough, ideally for cheap price.

I was actually searching around for a good sale for a few months…. Then eventually settled with buying one from the online shop 1day (https://www.1-day.co.nz/) , which was selling a bread maker from Sheffield. This is it!

Sheffield Bread Maker

It seems quite a cheap model to start with, I have seen the same model on Trademe for about 60 dollars. This time they were selling it for 39 dollars +delivery, so I was convinced that this is the bottom price for a new bread maker! Even if it is a bit cheap-built, I will be happy for the price!

Waiting for about a week after purchasing it online, it finally arrived to our home…. I could not find much information about this product prior to purchasing, but I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived….

Does it need to be this bulky and large in size…. Well not that. I was pleasantly surprised to see the menu….

Menu no.17 says “Sticky Rice”! This must be the Mochi-making function I was hoping that a bread maker would have ??

I quickly pulled out the instruction manual and had a read, but in a very short sentence, it says no 17 menu“cook sticky rice without burning”….

It doesn’t say anything about mixing and making sticky rice cake. But there is no need for a bread maker to just “cook” rice (we have rice cooker to do that!), so… this must be mocha making function.

I tried selecting to the menu no.17, and the duration of this program was one hour and 12 minutes, quite similar to the bread maker I was using to make mocha in Japan (mocha function was about one hour and 17 minutes then). I am convinced this is the right program!

So unexpectedly I got a cheap bread maker perfectly suited to make mochi with sticky rice function. Next is getting the right ingredient. Mochi rice….

To be continued… to part 2

Chipmunks visit!

Chipmunks visit!

Earlier in the week, I took my children to a large famous indoor play centre, the Chipmunks!

What is Chipmunks?

Chipmunks is a franchise brand name for large indoor kids play centres. It is a play centre combined with café business, where you pay entry fee for kids to play, and once you enter parents could enjoying a cup of coffee and other café food. It is a great place to be, to entertain kids on those rainy gloomy cold days.

On the left is the play area; right is the café area with purple and yellow chairs.

Where can I find Chipmunks?

According to their website, they have 13 locations in the North island of NZ, and 5 more in the South island (checked in 2017). Out of those, 5 are located in Auckland region. They also have locations in Australia and Indonesia.

You can check on their homepage for more information.

è https://www.chipmunks.co.nz/

On the above website, you can also find administration fee information, and also send enquiries about holding birthday parties there.

The place is busy on Saturday and Sundays…!

For this occasion, we went to the Chipmunks in Tauranga. It was cloudy day looking like it could shower any time, and it was Saturday morning. So we expected that the place would be rather busy, and we were right!

We entered the premise around 10am and at that time, half of the tables were empty; the place did not seem all that busy. However, we noticed that there were reserved table. Later we found out that there were three birthday groups on that day, and the place got busier and busier!

Inside is huge! Enough space for kids to bounce and run!

The kids play area is very spacious. When you enter, straight away you see a large air-filled slide where children could bounce and roll.

Hard to see in this picture, but there is a huge slide at the back! I would love to give it a go but no adult is allowed, sorry!

Main play area has a large slide and three story climbing area too.

Air-pressured sponge shooting gun – super exciting for all boys and girls!

The favorite area for my boys is the shooting arena, where you can use one of air pressure gun to shoot out soft balls made of sponge-type material. The ball is about the size of kids’ fists, and it is soft. You pickup those balls, put it in a air gun, and push a button. Then you hear the “Shhh!!” sound and your ball will get shot out flying.。

The air-gun looks really large for kids and looks really cool!

Balls fall in the area underneath, and there little children are usually running around collecting some balls into a bucket or a bag.

A lot of fun just picking up balls too!

What to watch out for at the Chipmunks

Chipmunks is a café business, and it is not allowed to bring your own food and drinks. Instead, you have to purchase food and drinks there. They sell chips, nuggets, pizza, muffins and other variety of food you could eat for lunch.

They serve coffee too; a mum could probably enjoy a cappuccino while her child is playing in the play area if he/she is old enough to play by him/herself.

On the other hand, if you are bringing a little one, like preschool age, then you probably don’t want your eyes off them as it can be a bit dangerous with larger kids running and playing wild.

They do have an area especially for kids under 5, but even then a close supervision is required as it could still be dangerous if 2 year-old get bumped by a 5 year-old. Staffs are busy at the café and they do not have staff on watch for the play area.

Under 5 play area! They have a ball pool and some more toys inside!

Birthday party at the Chipmunks!

One of those days, I would love to plan a birthday party at the Chipmunks! It requires booking ahead of the time, so you will need to know when you want to hold it, and how many other kids you will invite.

That is a bit difficult for us as we don’t normally know which weekend we want to hold birthday parties, so we haven’t got around to using this service yet. But it would be an awesome party without doubt. You could organize food and gift packs, and even a visit from the famous Chipmunk!

How much does it cost to use Chipmunks?

The administration fee on entry is dependent on the day – e.g. if it is on the weekend, or if it is on school day, and the location (each location seem to have slightly different price plan).

The Tauranga franchise we went to;
1～2 year olds　 $9.90
3～11 year olds　$12.90 for non-school day,

And　1 – 11 year olds  $9.90 for school day

Supervising adult don’t get charged. The entry fee is one-off payment at the start, so it would be more for the money if you come in early and play for the whole day.  

Recommendations about Chipmunks

We have been to three Chipmunk locations, but all are busy on the weekends. Especially on the day with bad weather, all parents seem to think of the same idea….

But even on those days, it is quieter in the early morning, so my recommendation to go first thing in the morning as they open up.

It gets really busy around 11am-12pm, but some families who came early in the morning will leave without having lunch there, so it does calm down a bit in the afternoon compared with the peak time.

This time, we spent good three hours. Kids had chips and hot-dog munch meal sets, and I enjoyed my latte. It seemed though that even that was not long enough for my kids…. They were ready to play more!