Lazy Rice Cake - Poisonous Food Journal #3

Ok, this entry is a little complicated. The ingredient I am working with this time is Japanese Rice Cake.

It is very much like mochi in texture after it is cooked. And there are many ways to eat it. What you see above, is the more popular way I would say...You put the cooked rice cake in soy bean powder, which is not seasoned but smells great with a soy bean aroma. And you drizzle black sugar syrup over it to eat it sweet. You can buy all these ingredients in a Japanese supermarket, or if you are in Taiwan, normal supermarket.

Japanese prepares the rice cake in an interesting way during festive seasons - pan fry. The cake starts off hard like a plastic. And once it is heated, it softens to mochi texture. When pan fry, it crisps up on the outside, and expands like a balloon during heating, and collapses after removal from heat. And it tastes fluffy and crispy at the same time.

My way and most lazy people's way, is to just boil them in hot water. Or even better, to microwave it for no more than 1 minute and it is served.

So why is it complicated for this entry?

First, to qualify into the Poisonous Food Journal, it has to be strange. This is not strange.
Second, it has to be cooked in a lazy way and the microwave treatment is not especially lazy for this particular type of food.

So my Japanese friend introduced me to a unique way of eating the rice cake. Salty.

Apparently, you can wrap the rice cake in Kraft Singles and seaweed, eat it warm and gooey with melting cheese. It is kinda like a sushi for lazy and strange people...Ok, she protests.  But let me just say, if that is not strange enough, I don't know what is.

Well, I thought I'll introduce you a Chinese way of eating a salty rice cake to complete this journal entry. You can replace the Kraft cheese with Taiwanese dried shredded pork (the kind that you usually eat with congee or bread in Taiwan). It absorbs the moisture from the microwaved rice cake, so when you wrap it with seaweed, the exterior remains crunchy and your fingers clean and dry.

I know, another dish worth dying for. 1 min (rice cake cooking time) + 1 min (wrapping time) + 10 mins (eating time) = about 3 hours of satisfaction. Great bargain.

As usual, eat at your own risk!