Onde onde mochi
Sunday, 22. June 2008, 09:21:23
The other day, I found this stuff called "Onde onde mochi" in a Chinese supermaket in Birmingham Chinatown and decided to try.
Here is the label.
It is explained in English "steamed sweet rice flour [cakes] filled with coconut".
Ok. they should not be disgusting. Fairly acceptable combination, isn't it?
By the way, "mochi" is a Japanese word, which evidently is being accepted into English, I suppose through American English, to describe foods, often sweet, made from sticky (glutinous) rice. I found an entry in Wikipedia.
These are onde onde mochi.
They look pretty!
Bright Green mochi is unusual even for me. The Japanese make green mochi, but its green is from green herb, thus more off-tone. 
(Green guy).
This is how it looks in inside. The filling is dessicated coconut with palm sugar. I never eaten mochi with coconuts filling. Pretty good!
Ok. I did know what mochi was, but what is onde onde? As always Almighty Google supplied me with the answer.
http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/10/onde-onde.html
Evidently it is Malay sweet made of glutinous rice flour and coconuts. The difference is that in the real onde onde, the filling is palm sugar and grated coconut is used only as coating. And the green colour really should come from pandan leaves (admittedly 'onde onde mochi' does include pandan essence in the list of ingredients).
I found it quite interesting to find a variation of Malay sweets, interpreted by the Chinese, given Japanese name ('mochi' part), and bought by people in UK. Is this something called GLOBALISATION?
Here is the label.
It is explained in English "steamed sweet rice flour [cakes] filled with coconut".
Ok. they should not be disgusting. Fairly acceptable combination, isn't it?
By the way, "mochi" is a Japanese word, which evidently is being accepted into English, I suppose through American English, to describe foods, often sweet, made from sticky (glutinous) rice. I found an entry in Wikipedia.
These are onde onde mochi.
They look pretty!
Bright Green mochi is unusual even for me. The Japanese make green mochi, but its green is from green herb, thus more off-tone. (Green guy). This is how it looks in inside. The filling is dessicated coconut with palm sugar. I never eaten mochi with coconuts filling. Pretty good!
Ok. I did know what mochi was, but what is onde onde? As always Almighty Google supplied me with the answer.
http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/10/onde-onde.html
Evidently it is Malay sweet made of glutinous rice flour and coconuts. The difference is that in the real onde onde, the filling is palm sugar and grated coconut is used only as coating. And the green colour really should come from pandan leaves (admittedly 'onde onde mochi' does include pandan essence in the list of ingredients).
I found it quite interesting to find a variation of Malay sweets, interpreted by the Chinese, given Japanese name ('mochi' part), and bought by people in UK. Is this something called GLOBALISATION?
WIDGETIZE
Miss Kimbers # 24. June 2008, 13:06
Kayoko # 28. June 2008, 06:21
Can you find something similar in Australia? As I've heard that there are many Malaysian and Indonesian restaurants there, I would guess you can. I recommend Malay sweets: they are fabulous!
Froggy # 6. July 2008, 01:45
So mochi comes from Japanese word, it make sense to me now. No wonder I don't know what it means in Malay.
You are right, bright green ones are unusual. I would instantly go thinking "Too much coloring agent!".
You said you have never eaten onde onde mochi with coconut fillings. What fillings did you have before?
Kayoko # 13. July 2008, 21:17
I have found the word "mochi" in blogs written by Americans and British, so I guess it is getting into English vocabulary.
This was the first time I ate "onde onde mochi". In my country, standard "mochi" contains, when it does, bean paste (red, green, white etc.). It does not necessarily contain anything, and it does not necessarily be sweet.
By the way, today I went to eat Kwe Tiau.
Picture here:
http://my.opera.com/tabatakayoko/albums/showpic.dml?album=562682&picture=7784218
It was a bit oily, but very nice all the same. Is the noodle used is as the same as Ho Fun?
Froggy # 22. July 2008, 06:16
So "mochi" is going international!
Nice Kew Tiau! Did you like it? Yea it's a bit oily since the noodles itself is already oily before frying. Putting few drops of sesame oil in your fried Kew Tiau is definately
Yea, the noodles used is the same as Ho Fun.
There's another type of fried Kwe Tiau, it's called Char kew Tiau. It's not dry like the one in the picture, instead it's with a bit of gravy. The Kwe Tiau is cooked in the gravy ( of chili paste, bit of water, prawns, shells, oyster sauce, chili sauce and 1 egg/serving ).
Maybe you can look out for it.. or maybe can just make it yourself, eh? Since it's simple
Kayoko # 2. August 2008, 22:33
Today, Opera seems to work rather well, so I try writing.
Yup, I liked Kwe Tiau. It was very nice and very hot (temperature wise) no doubt because of the quantity of hot oil.
The noodles were HUGE. I loved the texture.
I thought Char means stir-fry in Chinese. 炒? In Japanese we calle stir-fried rice Cha(r) Han (han meaning rice 飯). But also 焼 (bake) is char, isn't it? I am getting confused
Anyway, today I tried something called Ban Mien 板麺. It is a bowl of noodles in soup, but the noodles are like like small flat sheets. It was nice, but I have had better dishes
Froggy # 3. August 2008, 07:08
Yea, OPERA seems to be behaving good today..
Hmm.. Char means stir-fry in Chinese? Ahh, I didn't know that
Maybe there are versions for Char Kwe Tiau. Maybe the one that I love to eat is the not stir-fry version, eh?
Ban Mien.. I searched for it just now, and it looked nice. I guess the stock plays an important role in the dish. I once had this noodle soup and the soup tasted like plain water
Kayoko # 3. August 2008, 10:54
I searched some photos of Char Kue Tiaw, but they don't look to be in gravy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_kway_teow
I have not idea what is the difference between Kwe Tiau (it is spelled in thousands of different ways!
Ban Mien I ate also was in a lot of soup, and with what you say, I now guess it is the proper way of serving it. The soup I had wasn't very strong either, but not like plain water either. :up;
Anonymous # 8. February 2009, 23:53
Hi Kayoko!
I was trying to remember the word the Japanese use for the slimy taste, such as natto, yamato-imo and okra. Eventually I couldn't find it online, but instead found your post (http://my.opera.com/tabatakayoko/blog/2007/12/31/slimy-potato), which was really entertaining :) I'm from Southeast Asia and I have eaten my way to the UK :)
I learned how to make good daifuku mochi from some HK friends years ago! Real onde-onde is boiled, like a Chinese traditional dessert called tang yuen (http://www.malaysiabest.net/2008/12/14/how-to-make-tang-yuen-or-tang-yuan-for-winter-solstice-%E5%86%AC%E8%87%B3/).
Once I was making daifuku mochi back home for my relatives to try, an old Chinese aunty living next door played busybody and threw my steamed mochi dough into a hot frying pan!! She insisted daifuku mochi was invented by the Chinese, and then made herself 5 giant mochi the size of big buns for her children, who were all overweight. I was really upset. I think the Chinese are just lazy but want to sell something.
Kwe tiau can be ordered 'wet' or 'dry'. You are right, 'char' means fried/dry like in Japanese, and wet is in gravy thickened with cornstarch.
Ban mien does depend on the soup. You should try kway chap! It's a Teochew dish made with flat noodle squares and rich soup :)
Kayoko # 8. April 2009, 16:26
Sorry that I did not responded sooner. I have been very scarse in Opera Community, because, for some reason it used to stuck all the time. Now it runs OK, but I still don't like the new screen which was introduced in my absence!
Thank you for very instructive comment. Slimy consistency is expressed in Japanese with an 'onomatopée' Neba-Neba. General belief is that neba-neba food is good for our health.
You can make daifuku? Well, I cannot
Unfortunately here in Greece there are few Malaysian restaurants and I won't be able to try my beloved Malay food as often as I could in UK.