Royal Garden Blues

Alonside wonders such as Alligator and Crawfish, it's easy to underestimate the more... normal ingredients. Take chicken, for example: half of every weird meat you'll ever try "tastes like chicken", yet all too often we underappreciate this cheap little gem.

Chicken Creole is a simple dish, and takes chicken into the forefront.

Chicken Creole
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour, ten minutes
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter
3 lbs chicken, mixed light and dark meat
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
several stalks celery
2 tbsp flour
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 clove garlic
2 bay leaves
cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 1/2 cups chicken stock

Prep:

Chop the onion, bell pepper, and celery.

Mince the garlic.

Cook:

In a large pot, melt 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat, and sauté the chicken, until browned. Then remove the chicken and set aside. Place onions, bell peppers, and celery and sauté for five minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, salt, cayenne pepper, and chicken stock. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Produce a Roux:

Cook very slowly, stirring constantly. There's an art to this, and it takes patience. If you burn it, throw it out and try again. In about five minutes the mixture will be peanut butter colored. This mix, known as a Roux (pronounced "roo") will thicken your chicken creole.

Finish:

Add the roux and parsley and cook for an additional five minutes. Serve over rice.


And with that, we're done with Cajun/Creole food. We stepped out from Acadia richer, or at least fatter, and we're off to somewhere far away. Cajun and Creole cooking is certainly quite unlike American, as you might think of it in the midwest, and despite hurricanes and oil spills, it is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

You Tell Me Your Dream

Crawfish

Crawfish go by many names here in the US, Crayfish, Crawdad, Crawfish, etc, but when it comes right down to it, they're little, freshwater inseects easily found in streams all over America (as well as China, apparently). They look vaguely like tiny lobsters, minus the claws, and turn similarly red when cooked.

Of course, catching them yourself is a lot of worth, so I located precooked tails for about $14 a pound. My first introduction to Crawfish was the Crawfish Étouffée at Yat's Cajun Creole. While I couldn't locate their recipe, I did find this one, to try my hand at the little buggers.

Crawfish Étouffée
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes to one hour
Serves: 6-8 people

Ingredients:

2 lbs crawfish tails
black pepper
cayenne pepper

3/4 stick butter
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
4 stalks celery
1 chili pepper

1 1/2 cups cold water
1/4 cup chopped scallion
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Pinch dried thyme
Pinch dried oregano
1 bay leaf

less than a half cup white flour (no substitutions!)
3/4 stick butter
creole seasoning

Prep:

Season the crawfish tails with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Mince up the onion, green pepper, celery, and chili pepper and put into one bowl.

Chop up the parsley and scallion, and put into another bowl together.

Cook:

Melt three quarters of a stick of butter in a pan, and sauté the onion, bell pepper, celery, and chili pepper in it for about 5 minutes, or until translucent. Then add a cup and a half of water, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, and crawfish tails. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Produce a Roux:

Melt the remaining butter in a pan over very low heat, and mix in an equal amount of flour. Cook very slowly, stirring constantly. There's an art to this, and it takes patience. If you burn it, throw it out and try again. In about five minutes the mixture will be peanut butter colored. This mix, known as a Roux (pronounced "roo") will thicken your étouffée.

Finish:

Add the scallions, parsley, and roux, and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring frequently.

Season with Creole seasoning and serve over rice.

The end result was promptly eaten by Katrina, myself, and several friends until we were all full. Delicious, I tell you I can't rave about how good it was enough.

The Horned Melon - Kiwano

Where: Africa

Never in all of science fictionhave I seen something that looks quite like this bizarrity. It's horned, spiky rind alone looks worthy of an alien planet, eschewing the normals of planet Earth in favor of an aesthetic befitting a Dalek's dinner table, and the outside is normal compared to the neon green flesh, consisting of encapsulated cucumber-like seeds in slippery wet pouches.

It is, in fact, a relative of melons, cucumbers, and gourds, though you wouldn't think so to see one at a dinner table (or, more likely, in ET's garden).

Eating one of these is easy enough, slice it open and take out what you will with a spoon, though a look at it made me expect something far more alien. The taste wasn't sweet, exactly, but it was refreshing, almost like cucumber with a hint of citrus, perhaps lemon and kiwi?

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

While defining the difference between "Creole"and "Cajun" food might be, at best, difficult, some dishes do exist that clearly belong in one or the other camp. A dish infused with the flavor of catfish and parsley, rich in the flavor of green pepper and tomato would seem to fit the bill, I figured.

I can't claim I've made this "correctly". After all, I didn't catch my own catfish. Don't know what kind of catfish it was, either. I do know it was fantastic, peppery, and delicious. This is truely a gem of a dish, and certainly unique to Acadia.

Catfish

There's fish, and then there's catfish. Most fish swim around in the water, covered in scales. Most catfish hide in lower waters. Some eat live food, though many feed on dead or dying food. They're size varies, some species becoming enormous, while others remain quite small, and you'll find some species of them all over the world.

Farm raised catfish are cheap and readily available all over America, though the flavor and quality may vary.

Remember the basics of buying fish when buying catfish: if it's whole you want to see clear eyes, and the flesh should be totally odorless. A hint of a "fishy"smell means it's off, and you don't want to risk it!

Catfish Courtbouillon (adapted from this recipe)
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves: 6-8 people

Ingredients:

2 medium yellow onions
2 green peppers
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch pasley
1 bunch scallion (green onion) tops
1 8 ounce can crushed, stewed tomatos
1 cup water
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 lbs catfish

Prep:

Chop the yellow onions and green peppers. Mince the garlic cloves.

Also chop up the parsley and scallion tops.

Slice up your catfish into 2 inch chunks.

Cooking:

In a large pot, put a thin layer of vegetables. Follow by a layer of catfish. Then sprinkle with flour and spices. Then drizzle some tomato onto the catfish, and then water. Repeat this process, layering vegetables, catfish, flour, spices, stewed tomato, and water until it's all int he pot.

Do not stir it! Bring to a simmer, and cook over very low heat for 45 minutes, not stirring it at all. Then add parsley and scallion tops to the top, and cook another five minutes.

Serve, like most cajun food, over rice.

Tree Tomatoes : Red Tamarillo

The Red Tamarillo is a fruit that originates from Latin America, but has been used in world cuisine, though it's not well known. Originally called the "Tree Tomato", it was named the Red Tamarillo to distinguish it and market it.

The flavor, once cut open, is not very sweet for a fruit, fittingly. Katrina found the seeds and the area around them terribly acrid, and the flesh had a more pleasant, mild flavor.

I haven't run across a recipe for preparing these yet, but I suspect it is useful in a variety of dishes as a savory ingredient, or even possibly sweetened. But I'll be honest: it's not a good snack!

Blueberry Wine

Where: Paw Paw, Michigan : The Midwest

I don't expect much from fruit wines. Usually, some chemically potent or harshly sweet flavor with an almost pleasant aroma is as good as you expect, but Blueberry Wine is more than merely drinkable: it's quite nice!

The aroma is subtle and the flavor, while hardly up the standards of red ines, has a touch of complexity and the sweetness isn't overpowering at all.

It's not exactly cheap, but compared to similar products, especially "blueberry flavored" ones, it's a pleasant little gem you won't see too often.

Cherimoya

Where: Peru

Mark Twain called this "the most delicious fruit known to men". Certainly, that's a hell of an endorsement he gave to this oddly shaped Peruvian fruit.

Found at a local Meijer, it took several days for it to ripen in a paper bag until it was soft, like an avocado, during which time I daily inspected it to see if it was ripe, and Katrina pointed out it didn't quite seem there yet.

Finally, it softened, and we cut it in half to dig in. The inside was quite odd, with a feathery, almost custard-like texture, and filled with large, black seeds. The flavor was mild, almost faintly tasting of lychee and papaya, but really I struggle to compare it to any other fruit I've had in texture of taste.

Cherry Wine

Where: Michigan, the Midwest

There's wine, and there's wine. This isn't the one you normally might drink, but cherries are cultivated widely in Michigan and they need to find something to do with them all, right? And what better way to preserve fruit than turn it into alcohol?

While the grape has been carefully cultivated for millenia to produce complex flavors, other fruit have not. This means that many "fruit wines"tend to be overpowering and obnoxious.

Cherry wine isn't entirely an exception. It is gravely lacking in complexity and the cherry flavor is very strong, making it tricky to accompany with anything more subtle than fast food. But it isn't too overpowering, and tastes refreshing, much like a Sauvignon Blanc, on a hotter day.

It may not ever make it into the world class of alcohols, but it's reasonably tasty, and a lot better than horrors like cherry vodka.

Storyville

Alligator

The 'gators hide out down in the swamp, and they're nice enough fellas, I guess. They mostly go about their business, and don't bother you none. That is, unless you annoy them. Then they tend to snap your hand off.

Ya wouldn't normally think of the guys as food, but down in the Louisiana swamps the critters the local Cajuns discovered they were tasty as anything else around, as long as you cleaned and tenderized it enough. Don't worry about them being protected, Alligator is commonly raised in farms for skin, and the meat may well be available at your local specialty meat market. Katrina and I located some off of 56th St. here in Indianapolis, pre-cleaned and marinated, and with a little help from our friend Bryan, who made sure it was extra tenderized by beating it with his bare fist into pulp, it was good to go.

The key to making gumbo is not to add too much liquid in the first place. You want your thickening to be done by the okra's soluble fiber. So barely cover the okra with enough liquid to boil it! The resulting gumbo is nothin'to sneer at.

Alligator Gumbo
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour, twenty minutes

Ingredients:

2 lbs alligator meat
1/4 lb andouille sausage (substitute any smoked sausage if you can't find it)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3 scallions
1 small white onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 20 oz can crushed and stewed tomatoes
2 pounds okra
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
2 tbsp cayenne pepper
12 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp filé seasoning (replace with 1 tbsp powdered thyme, if unavailable)

Prep:

Slice up okra, discarding stems.

Chop up the green bell pepper, being careful to discard the seeds and stem. Also chop up the scallions, white onion, parsley, and celery.

Slice up the andouille sausage and alligator meat into 1" chunks.

Cooking:

Put the okra into a pot and cover with water, and bring to a boil. Make sure to add water if it needs it, but add no more than you have to! The more you add the thinner this will be and you want a thick, rich gumbo.

Sauteé your celery, onion, scallion, and green bell pepper in a pan with a stick of butter. When soft, add your tomatoes and sauteé for another ten minutes. Pour into your okra/water mixture, and add the alligator and andouille, and then simmer it gently, being careful not to scorch it, for two hours.

Season with salt and hot sauce, and perhaps some capers.

The Result:

The result was delicious. I must confess alligator's flavor certainly doesn't warrant buying it every day. It tastes good enough, but one could get away with something more available, like chicken, for a cheaper and more readily available gumbo.

But then, this is a gumbo recipe! Play with it! Add some of your own ingredients, and throw out what you don't care for. This dish is all about mixing together what's in season and making a thick, tasty stew of it, so don't hold yourself back!

Niagra Wine

Where: Michigan

Traditional wines are named for the grape they are made from, and finding St. Julian's line of grape wines made from traditional snack varieties, I figured Niagra would be preferable to Concord grapes. After all, who would want to drink Welch's wine?

Well, jokes on me. The variety of grape used for Welch's is, in fact, not Concord, but Niagra. This wine isn't entirely unpleasant, but it just tastes an awful lot like grape juice. Some of the sugar is converted into alcohol, but it's lacking in complexity and character, with an overpowering harshness common to many fruit-wines.

Bottom line: for six dollars, you can get yourself a Pinot Grigio or Reisling and spare yourself.

Chapter 2 : Louisiana and the Trinity

Taking on the task of making the most bizarre, insane, and unexpected food blog on the planet isn't easy, so Katrina and I left China tired, and in need of a rest. We decided to get back to something normal, a little closer to home, and we figured a stop by New Orleans would be a little more familiar. I lit a cigarette as we stepped off the boat, and grabbed her soft hands and pulled her up beside me. Down the docks I could see ships eagerly pulling in hauls of shrimp.

The last time a Katrina came through New Orleans it wasn't pretty, and we agreed we could keep her identity a secret, but with a giant plume of oil extending off the coast the inhabitants were sure to catch on so we needed to make our way out to the Acadian countryside quickly, and mingle with the immigrants who settled out there.

New Orleans is home to two seperate twin cuisines. The affluent French descendants who still practised Catholicism and spoke French led the charge in this strange land, adapting classical European styles to local ingredients, blending French, Spanish, Mediterranean, African, and Indian cuisines together into food fit for the city.

The Acadian countryside, however, housed something altogether different, despite sharing ingredients. The poor rustic communities would take what they could get, and blended their European heritage more directly with what the land and sea could give them, many dishes consisting of whatever they could find at the time.

The people out there worship the Holy Trinity, or maybe it's 'Da Trinity'. I'm not quite sure how to say it, but it's not the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost like you might think. Turns out, it's a mix of onions, celery, and green peppers, derived from the 'Mir Poux' of their French ancestors. Many of the dishes are thick and stewy. Some, like Etouffe use the starch of wheat blended with butter in Roux. Others, like Gumbo use Okra, a mysterious long green fruit from Africa.

I rushed in without looking, as always, but I had a few important things to back me up. Some hot sauce is always helpful, but it also doesn't hurt to find yourself some capers and gumbo file seasoning. File seasoning takes a little searching for, but it's Sassafras, or a mix of Sassafras and Thyme, that will provide some dishes with a suitably 'Earthy' flavor.

It didn't take me long to find the Trinity in all its glory. The symmetry of the flavor adapts to any dish and makes it stand out, even in something basic like Red Beans and Rice. I recommend finding yourself some par boiled rice. Use Uncle Ben's if you gotta, but skip past the instant stuff. You'll thank me for it later.

Red Beans and Rice
Prep Time: Four hours to overnight
Cooking Time: Two Hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 lb dry red beans
2 quarts water
1 lb sausage (preferably andouille, but kielbasa or italian sausage will do if you can't find it)
1 large onion
1 large green pepper
2 stalks celery
1 bay leaf
2 cups dry rice

Prep:

Soak the red beans for at least four hours in water. The longer, the better. Some people recommend a couple days, but make sure you change the water at least once a day.

Right before you begin, you'll want to chop up your onions, celery, and green pepper.

Cooking:

Drain the red beans and put them into a pot with fresh water. Add everything except the sausage and rice and boil for at least two hours.

Steam your sausage to the side and then slice it up, and toss it in about 15 minutes before it's done. Prepare your rice to the side, following its directions.

When it's done (the beans will be suitably mushy) drain it, and serve with rice.

You may want to pepper and salt it up a bit, but you'll have a delicious, and enormously filling, meal.

Summary

Chapter 1: China
The Century Egg
Bok Choy : Basic Stir Fry
Peking Duck
Snow Fungus : Chicken and Snow Fungus
Chinese Eggplant : Chinese Eggplant Stir Fry
Cellophane Noodles : Ants Climbing a Tree

Chapter ?: Japan
Coffee Mochi

Chapter ?: Vietnam
Sesame Candy

Chapter ?: Korea
Aloe Vera Drink

Nothing to My Name : Ants climbing on a Tree

I'm going to eat ants!?

No. As many strange things as my journey has taken me to: not ants.

At least not today. Today's food is cellophane noodles. These noodles are common through Asia, typically made from Mung Bean Starch (and sometimes known as 'Bean Thread Noodles'). They are also known as Glass Noodles in the West.

As for our "Ants", the Chinese sometimes name dishes "poetically"instead of "literally". For this famous Sichuan dish, minced or ground beef is cooked and mixed with cellophane noodles, and the somebody, somewhere felt this made him think of ants climbing along branches.

I look at this dish and think of one word: delicious.

Ants Climbing on a Tree

100g Cellophane/Beanthread/Mung Bean Noodles
3 tsp Rice Wine
Salt
100g minced or ground beef
2 tbsp oil
3 tsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp chili paste
350 ml chicken stock
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
3 Scallions

Soak the noodles in hot water for ten minutes, then drain.

Mix beef with rice wine and a dash of salt, and let soak for a couple of minutes.

Heat a wok or pan with 2 tbsp of oil, then add the minced beef mixture and fry for several minutes. Then add the Soy Sauce and Chili Paste and sautee for another minute.

Add the stock and noodles for the wok, along with Dark Soy Sauce, and simmer until the broth is mostly gone. Add the Scallions, stir, and serve with rice.

This dish was fantastic. Spicy, delicious, and despite being pasta fairly low in calorie.

It's also the last Chinese article we have to offer for now. We head to our next destination, a place stranger and more alien, the inhabitants of which create dishes unequaled in their unique flavor. That place is: Louisiana?

The Chinese Eggplant

Long, shiny and purple, the eggplant crept slowly from the heart of India, across China and Japan to the East, and Westward, along Afghanistan and Turkey, to reach Europe.

Some varieties actually are white and round, giving the plant its seemingly ill-fitting name, though thick, round, baseball bat shaped varieities are common to America. The Chinese Eggplant is recognizably an Eggplant still, just longer and thinner, with a less bitter and more delicate flavor, yet the same shiny, vibrant purple skin.

Rarely do I find a recipe that looks perfect online, but this one was an exception. A simple stir-fry, Katrina rifled through the refrigerator to find a few other "must use"foods that couldn't wait until the next day, including some Red Bell Pepper, Zucchini, and Jerusalem Artichoke (which next season I certainly hope to explore better).

The final result was pleasant, not too bitter, and contained a nice mix of eggplant flavor, oil flavor, and ginger. Well, except for the ginger pieces Katrina was picking out of it, and I was eagerly searching for.

Chinese Eggplant Stiry-Fry

2-4 Eggplants
2 large pieces of ginger (about the size of a chicken wing)
2 tbsp olive oil
Sprinkle of Dark Soy Sauce
Dash of Sugar
Dash of Salt

Step 1: Cut your eggplants into pieces (about 1 inch across)

Step 2: Heat olive oil on a large wok or frying pan. Seasoned is better, but if you don't have that a normal, preferably iron or stainless steel, pan will do.

Step 3: Once hot, begin frying the ginger for a couple of minutes. The ginger adds flavor, but you may not want to eat it when you're done (unless you like intense ginger flavor)

Step 4: Add the Eggplant. Fry until it is soft, and slightly brownish.

Step 5: Add soy sauce, sugar, and salt to taste.

And you're done! Enjoy!

Next Time: Peanut Butter isn't just for Sandwiches anymore!

Attack of the Snow Fungus!

Of the many odd foods our journey has taken it, perhaps no name has generated so much shock as "snow fungus". An entire "fruiting body"of snow fungus vaguely resembles a human brain, white and full of folds, and it has a spongy, gelatinous texture. The snow fungus is found on trees, but it doesn't feed on the wood, in fact it feeds on other fungus, devouring its brethren to grow. This bizarre member of the same family that gives us yeast and mushrooms, its seaweed-like branches reach outward several inches from its host. Clearly, it is not of this world!

Snow fungus can be found dried in Chinese and other Asian grocery stores looking like dried, slightly yellowed balls of... stuff. Once reconstituted it is oddly flavorless, ye pleasant. One could feel as if chewing on nothing, but a jelly-textured nothing. It is valued in Chinese medicine, and nutritionally rich in vitamins, minerals, and protein, and can be used in a variety of ways. Most often, it is used for deserts and soups, although it is pictured above as an entree, cooked with shredded chicken, sesame chili oil, and an unflavored one adorns the rice (with enoki and oyster mushrooms as sides). Adapted from this recipe, which I'm not entirely sure we understood, but nevertheless delicious, here is a fantastic way to enjoy this spongy food.

Snow Fungus and Shredded Chicken

1 Chicken Breasts, grilled
1 oz Snow Fungus
1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tbsp Sesame Chili Oil
1/2 tsp Powdered Chicken Base
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce (light in color, not salt)
1/2 tsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
2 tbsp Sesame Seeds

Step 1: Soak the Snow Fungus in water for an hour.

Step 2: Rinse off, and then remove the tough center. Then shred the Snow Fungus into pieces.

Step 3: Boil the Snow Fungus for 10 minutes. Drain well.

Step 4: Wile the Fungus is boiling, grill a chicken breast. Any method will do, we used a Foreman Grill. Shred the chicken when finished.

Step 5: Mix the Snow Fungus and Sesame Oil, Sesame Chili Oil, Chicken Base, Light Soy Sauce, Sugar, Salt, and Lemon Juice. Light stand for 5 minutes, then mix in shredded chicken.

The result will be a delicious, spongy feast, which is far more filling than you might expect, so don't let the name throw you off this delightful food.

Next Time: Sean and Katrina confront the great purple vegetable, the terrifying Eggplant!

Peking? Beijing? Quack? - Peking Duck

Every country in the world has its own quintessential dish, something that wraps up everything about a country's culture and peoples into one mouth-watering adventure, baked in their pride. Mexico has the taco. America has apple pie. Britain has spotted dick. Or maybe Britain's was fish and chips... I forget.

But China's national dish is Peking Duck, a specially raised quaking extravaganza of flavor, cooked in a unique oven that you'll never see, and you'll only ever taste it by shelling out a few extra of those capitalist dollars the communists deplore.

Therefore, making an approximation of Peking Duck is more than a little challenging. I found a recipe, but it didn't seem to quite make the skin of the duck crispy enough as outlined, so sometime in the future I will revisit this with my own recipe, but for now I will say this:

If you get your duck from an asian grocery store, do not be surprised when you open the package and the still attached head rolls away from the body and looks up at you. It was only Katrina's fast meat-cleaving skills that saved me from the undead horror.

It Came From Beyond : Aloe Vera Drink

Where: Korea

While exploring new foods is often scary, the most terrifying concepts in beverages are easily dispelled by one simple fact: no matter the country it's all sweetened until it is mostly harmless. Katrina has long been a fan of this odd, translucent drink full of chunks of aloe vera drink (a plant primarily used for hand lotion here in the US). I had my doubts about it, but found a Sugar-free version that approximated that taste of hers and decided to give it a go.

The texture is odd, with little "bits"floating around it. I've experienced this trend before, like grass jelly drink, but the insubstantial bits of Aloe take on a very different tone. It's not all together bad, but quite unlike anything western. The alien-green of the bottle is deceptive, once poured it really looks quite normal, save for the "bits". If you're in the mood for something different, it's pleasant, and definitely worth a try.

Sesame Candy

Sesame seeds in the US are used primarily for decorting buns, and all too often Americans forget its range of uses. Over in Vietnam, and much of the world, sesame is ground into an array of products like Sesame Candy, an odd sesame and peanut snack with a taffy-like consistency. These Vietnamese sesame candy are sweet and delicious, though, and more than once I found myself sleep walking to the kitchen, in search of their sweet, rich goodness. They did not last long enough.

Royal Family Food's Coffee Mochi

Attempting to open a bag of chips is simple enough. Just tear open the bag, reach your hand in, and go. Maybe that's why they are so bad for you, I wonder. What if eating every bite took effort, with each chip individually wrapped for freshness. Surely, the extra effort, and calories burned, would make mowing down on a bag of Lays a more healthful, fresher experience. Best of all you wouldn't have to eat the entire bag, since every last chip would be perfectly fresh, every time.

My application to work for FritoLay wasn't just rejected: when he was done reading my ideas the head of HR set my resume on fire. But Japan agrees with me. Oh no, not one company, the entire island. The Japanese obsessively wrap their snacks, plastic inside plastic, all destined to bulk up landfills and continental shelves.

Mochi is itself one of Japan's more intriguing snacks. It's a ball or so of crushed rice paste filled with different flavors of jelly, typically red bean, and then wrapped with various leaves, depending on time of year and flavor.

Royal Family Food's bite-sized Coffee Mochi is stuffed with a brownish coffee filling that's not quite as tasty as the typical red bean paste, and makes the entire snack muddy, and the coffee flavor itself is so mild that one hardly tastes anything except the sweetened rice. Not that that's a bad thing. I think I'll just have one more.

And another.