Delicious desserts don't come from the best ingredients or cooking secrets alone. But what makes the dessert delicious to the heart of the eater is because the maker carefully creates each piece with her heart. Let's meet the sweet story of Sasa-Mochi, or traditional Japanese sweets wrapped in bamboo leaves, which is a classic. A dessert that can't be found anywhere else in the world, it's a dessert made with the heart of a 92-year-old woman, Misao Kuwata. who put her heart and meticulousness in every step until it is a mochi wrapped in bamboo leaves that is soft, smooth, delicious, mellow flour that she made meticulously from both hands with every strength that there is still a woman with a beautiful smile This beautiful, 92-year-old girl, let's go eat Mochi from Grandma.

In Kanagi, a small rural town in Aomori Prefecture, Japan's northernmost city. with about 8 thousand inhabitants. Every summer week, Grandma Misao rides her bike up the mountain to pick bamboo leaves to make traditional mochi. She said with a smile on her face. “I love that it's shady. greenery of trees and the sound of birds singing to me.” She would collect 2-3 thousand bamboo leaves at a time by herself alone. She picked the best quality bamboo leaves of the year and kept them all year long, choosing only the leaves of the right size and the best condition. Because when winter comes here it will be very cold and no plants can grow at all. Therefore, the people of the city have a way to maintain the quality of vegetables for eating all year round.

Grandma's mochi is famous for its soft texture that almost melts in your mouth. She said that making this ancient recipe of mochi takes a lot of time and effort, she uses both hands to make it herself from start to finish, making it a mochi that residents have been waiting to taste. The process of making her special mochi dessert starts with lifting a 30 kg bag of glutinous rice flour and mixing it with milk. The mixture consists of glutinous rice flour, red bean paste, sugar, and milk. She stirred the glutinous rice powder with the ingredients for an hour. until it is soft and smooth like silk After that, sift the powder with a sieve again to make the texture finer. Her method of blending the powder made it come out soft and velvety. Mixing the flour takes a long time until the mochi batter is soft and smooth at the corners. She said she doesn't use gloves to touch the surface of the powder to see if it's quality or not. “Just by touching it with my hands, I can tell right away if the powder has finished or not,” said Grandma.

Bringing mochi to the elderly at the nursing home inspired her to make this special dessert. She says, “That day two old women at the nursing home started crying when they tasted her mochi. My heart swelled. It was speechless if my baking was so valuable to others. I want to do it forever.” For her, no matter how detailed the process of making this ancient mochi dessert recipe requires, how much physical effort is required? But she felt it was worth it to make everyone who was eating happy.

The next step in mochi making is that the mochi batter is steamed. She goes on to say that the process of getting these ancient mochi desserts was very meticulous. The dough is steamed for about an hour. Before the batter is too hard, the hot mochi batter will be molded by the hands of an old woman. After that, she carefully wrapped the mochi dough with bamboo leaves that had to be washed and wiped one by one. She said that besides being fragrant, bamboo leaves are also antibacterial. After the mochi batter is wrapped in bamboo leaves, it is steamed for another minute to preserve the color of the bamboo leaves and allow the flour to absorb the aroma of the bamboo leaves. She makes 300 mochi by herself, twice a week. It's not an easy task for a 92-year-old woman, but she does it fluently as she puts her heart and soul into every mochi. Each piece was carefully arranged on the table for the dessert to set. After that, her mochi will be sold at supermarkets in the city for 170 yen each, with a limit of five per customer. Every time it is sold and when the shop opens, Grandma Misao's mochi sells out quickly almost as soon as the shop opens because it's a popular item that the townspeople have been waiting for. All customers say the same thing that the dessert is impeccably delicious. The soft texture and delicate aroma of bamboo leaves make this mochi special. Everyone who had tasted the mochi was smiling happily. On some days Grandma goes to the supermarket and talks to the customers who buy her snacks. “When I saw everyone having fun eating my mochi. That made me want to do it even more,” Grandma said with a happy face. But to bring happiness to everyone, behind the scenes is the 92-year-old woman's hard work in the kitchen alone.

In childhood, grandmother was sick and had to leave school. But her mother said to her, “Even if your child doesn't get good grades from school. Or not studying, but the 10 fingers that your child has will be an important tool in life. Use ten fingers that you have to work, and, in this life, you will never be without money.” Misao said she lives up to her mother's teachings today and it has been proven to be true, the 92-year-old still uses her ten fingers to work hard to deliver mochi. of love to all who have tried happy working Proud of work that is the secret formula for creating happiness in life and having a healthy body at the age of one hundred years.

Reference

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