Goodbye taste

Survival in Japan Tips, #57: When eating hot udon noodles with mochi (sticky rice balls), remember two things. One, mochi is very likely to have been scientifically proven to be the stickiest substance in existence. Two, the outside of a mochi ball is significantly cooler than its molten lava/fiery inferno-like interior. Remembering these two simple things can save you from some extremely embarassing situations.

A person I know (yeah, ok, it was me) was eating Udon last night and managed to stick a wad of boiling mochi to the roof of his mouth where it stuck with quite impressive tenacity. I failed around with my chopsticks trying to dislodge it and making quite undignified snorting/”oh fuck, the flesh on the roof of my mouth is coming off in chunks, oh the pain the pain the pain” sounds. It didn’t help that I had a mouthful of soup with the mochi and that went up my nose at the same time, or that it was (was!) an extremely quiet restaurant. Mochi: Hot, sticky, delicious, dangerous, painful.

Permalink Posted in Japan on Wednesday October 20, 2004.