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Su Mochi
Su mochi — freshly pounded New Year mochi torn by hand into grated daikon and citrus
The last batch of New Year mochi pounding is torn by hand — no starch dusting — and tossed with grated daikon, bitter-orange juice, and soy. In the Buzen area, it's said to be shared out as the pounding session's finale.
- Origin: Fukuoka
- About 820 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Grated daikon is mixed with the juice of daidai citrus, soy sauce, and sugar, then tossed with freshly pounded mochi; in some areas it's also called oroshi-mochi, or grated-radish mochi. Winter daikon in season is said to carry a bit of bite along with compounds thought to aid digestion, making for a light, refreshing dish known as the finishing touch to a New Year's mochi-pounding session.
How it's made
Grated daikon is seasoned with daidai citrus juice, soy sauce, and sugar. Mochi pounded fresh at the very end of a New Year's session, without any starch dusted on it, is torn by hand into bite-sized pieces and mixed into the grated daikon sauce, making for a light, easy-to-digest treat often made as a family activity together. Draining the grated daikon lightly first is said to keep the flavor from turning watery.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have grown out of a custom of pounding a large batch of mochi before New Year's, with the final batch turned into this dish for everyone to share. It's still served today at local mochi-pounding gatherings held each year, described as an old, wholesome dish handed down through the generations, pairing the citrus's acidity with the daikon's digestive enzymes.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Fukuoka
- Abutte KamoSmall damselfish are salted overnight, then grilled whole, scales and innards left on — a bony fish often passed over elsewhere, but said to have caught on in Hakata Bay after a Meiji-era glut led someone to salt and grill the excess.
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- Amagi no KawatakeA rare wild freshwater algae, found only in the Kogane River in Asakura, is dressed with sweet or three-flavor vinegar — said to have once been presented to the shogun, and now conservation efforts continue as it's listed as endangered.
- Kabocha no Dango JiruA giant local pumpkin from Buzen's Mikkado district is simmered soft, then torn wheat dumplings are dropped in — the pumpkin, said to trace some 450 years back to Portuguese traders, was once a lifeline in leaner years.
- ChanraaA noodle dish said to have started at a diner in Moji, Kitakyushu. Chanpon-style noodles go into a Japanese dried-sardine broth closer to udon than to the original pork-and-seafood soup, devised, it's said, for a student who wanted Nagasaki champon but couldn't afford it.