This weekend my Kendo dojo celebrated
Kagami biraki, which is to mark the opening of the dojo for the new year.
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Part of the celebration involves making and eating
Mochi. OUr sensei is a trained chef (he owns a couple of restaurants). He makes mochi in the traditional way, by pounding the sweet rice into a sort of dough.
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The ones I ate were filled with a sweet bean mixture...
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Traditionally this sort of thing would be eaten before going into battle... because the rice is compressed you can fit a lot more rice into a very small package... when combined with a filling, they can give you a good dose of carbs and protien... sort of like a power bar.
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