Mastering the Art of Mochi!

Today was another class from Dan, this time how to make mochi. Aphrodite felt some excitement on seeing the ad, having enjoyed making dango after the previous lessons in doing so.

However, when Aphrodite arrived in Dan’s Dango, the first thing he noticed was that there were far fewer buns than usual that were attending the class. As he approached the other buns, he felt something pat his shoulder, causing him to whip around.

“Dan!” Aphrodite frowned, flustered for once. “Don’t you know better than to startle a bun?”

“Don’t be so easily startled, then.” Dan paused, then cleared his throat. “I wanted to let you know that this isn’t going to be as easy as making dango, in case you want to leave.”

“Is that all? Well, still nothing to spook a bun over…” Aphrodite smirked. “But I’ll attend. I’m not afraid to get my hooves dirty, dear.”

Dan gave a curt nod, then began to move about, gathering the other buns before herding them into the other room. As Aphrodite passed by the pile of pillows, he spotted Shibani, and gave the sloth bun a quick wave.

When everybunny was gathered around, Dan waited a few moments to allow everybun to settle down. All the supplies were gathered on tables like last time, except there were now mochi hammers alongside them. Instead of rice flour, there was a bag of rice upon the table, and instead of fruit, there were different ingredients on each table. Aphrodite’s own table had a container of what appeared to be sea salt, and…there was a small burner and a pot, oddly.

“All right, you’ve probably noticed a few changes between our previous dango-making endeavors and what you’re going to learn today.” Dan paced in front of the tables, eyeing each bun to ensure they were focused. “Instead of using a mortar to ground our rice into flour, you’ll be steaming it, then pounding it with those hammers until the rice grains lose their shapes.”

Dan pulled out a pot and turned on his own small burner. He poured the rice in, waiting a few minutes for the rice to begin steaming. The rest of the buns began to follow suit, even glancing at the other tables to ensure everybunny was doing it correctly.

“Now, older buns used to split the task of making mochi between two buns: kaeshi-te and tsuki-te.” Dan waited a few moments longer, before bringing out the rice, then using the hammer to pound it. He punctuated each sentence with each strike of the hammer. “Kaeshi-te! The bun who turns the rice! Tsuki-te! The bun who pounds the rice!”

As the other buns began to follow suit one by one, some even began to chant the same words Dan had spoken. Aphrodite didn’t, but he couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the rhythm anyway.

Kaeshi-te! The bun who turns the rice!

Tsuki-te! The bun who pounds the rice!

It was only when Dan ceased pounding the rice that the others began to follow suit, the sound of wooden hammers meeting rice and the tables slowing to a halt. Dan then moved to inspect everybun’s work, occasionally giving a nod or having the bun hit the barely recognizable rice orbs with the hammers another few times.

“Right, now let’s get our toppings in. You’ve probably noticed these are wildly different from the fruit you’ve normally gathered, and that’s because it is.” Dan returned to his table, holding up his own topping: a pepper. “Let’s go ahead and mix them in and watch what happens.”

Each bun began to do just that. As Aphrodite mixed in his sea salt with the mochi, he noticed it seemed to change as he continued to work the sea salt into it. By the time he was done, it had turned a noticeable blue hue, and even had a gooey texture on the inside.

“Good job, ‘Dite.”

Aphrodite jumped, nearly dropping the mochi he made as he whirled around to see Dan. “…I won’t complain this time, but only because of the compliment.”

He could almost swear he saw Dan smirk before he moved on to appraise the next bun’s work.

When Dan circled back to the front of the room once more, he gave a nod. “You all did pretty well. I sell mochi hammers here, and I have a recipe book for you to continue making your own mochi. However, I have one tip.”

Everybun leaned forward, eyes widening as they prepared to hear what sort of wisdom Dan had to share.

“…this is much easier in doll form.” Dan said this with a straight face, his own bun form seeming to look more neutral than usual. “However, teaching you in bun form helps you to face the weight you’re expected to carry when making mochi. I’d recommend making mochi in both forms so you’re not out of practice.”

Turning to the door, Dan opened it with a nod. “And that’s class dismissed. If you need any mochi hammers, or have any questions, you know where to find me.”