The 7th Challenge (Part 2) All About Mochi

Part 1 is here.

Beware: This writing is reallly looong, so if you're not in the mood of reading a long essay, don't read it :p.

1. Mochi in Pasar Laris

I did my interview in Pasar Laris, Taman Palem, West Jakarta on Sunday, because that's one of the only days (the other one is Saturday) I have time to go to my chosen market. At first I planned to do it on Saturday, but I wasn't ready yet.

I chose that market because I knew the right seller. She sells her sister-in-law's homemade cakes (not a reseller), and she knew the detail of the process. I knew they were homemade cakes because the cakes weren't packaged yet. My mom also ever asked her though.  Her name is Dewi, and she is 55 years old.

My favorite non-wheat cake are Mochi, Putu, Klepon, and Pudding just because they taste really delicious compared to other non-wheat cakes. But I picked Mochi because:

1.They were the first things that came to my mind, and I have searched much about them.
2. My mom is the person who makes pudding, and if I interview her, it would be too easy.

Although my mentor already gave me suggestions of how I could deepen and find out more about the main ingredients of pudding. I decided to just go on with Mochi.

Tante Dewi sells many types of traditional cakes together with her elder brother, both wheat and non-wheat. She has a large stock of them, prepared for the mass amount of customers she'll get, and starts selling from 6 am to 12 pm.

There are more of them at the left, right, and bottom of the ta-

ble. The ones at the bottom won't be sold until there's a vacant

spot on the table.

I interviewed her at around 6:15.

Interviewing her is a bit of a risk. If it's done too early, she would be busy arranging the cakes. Peak time is from 6:30-10 am, so if I do it around 6:20, it would be full with customers and she would be busy helping them out.

My mom introduced me first to her, because if it's only me who talk, I will mostly get ignored. She probably will think I'm a spy, someone who wants to copy her and sell mochis. And well, I just look like an unimportant person compared to her other customers.

There are 3 variations of Mochis that she sells, although the one that's different is only the colour of the outer skin :D. There's pandan, plain, and black glutinuous rice. The inside is the same: peanut. The main ingredient is the same too: glutinuous rice.

She didn't buy the glutinuous rice in a packet and in ready-to- use flour, though, instead, she bought big gonny sacks of the glutinuous rice. I'm not sure it's really a gonny sack, more like a plastic gonny sack, because as far as my mom and I know, no one sells flour in gonny bags anymore. Her sister in law made the dough by immersing the glutinuous rice in water for a few hours, then pound it, like how the factories do in Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmSrULDVRPc

No wonder her mochis are different than the common ones, as she didn't like using those glutinous rice flour like "Rosebrand" or "Suji Wangi". "Mana enak" she said :p.

When trying to find out what kind of glutinuous rice flour she uses, it was kinda hard. Instead of saying "It's the privacy of the company/it's our private information" like how the other producers do, she kept on saying "Find it in Youtube." So I stopped.

Then my mom asked about how did she get the flour, where is the central market, but she didn't want to answer. To attract her attention, my mom asked "Do you use something like Rosebrand?", then she answered :p. And that's where I get the sentence "Mana enak pake Rosebrand, makanya punya kita beda." (Using Rosebrand won't be delicious, that's why our mochis are different.) Sorry Rosebrand companies.

Tante Dewi sold mochis as one of the many traditional cakes that she sells, because there are quite a lot of people who like mochis. Out of those three variants of mochis, the one that she likes best is the one made out of black glutinous rice. That's my favorite too :D.

The main ingredients used to make her mochis are: glutinous rice and a little bit of sugar. There are totally no mixture of wheat flour in it, and other than that, they just sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of the mochis.

Despite it's her sister-in-law who makes the mochis and other cakes, Tante Dewi was taught together with her older brother how to make it by their mom. Maybe that's where her sister-in-law learned her skills too. :p She started learning how to make it at 30+ though.

The process of making it is by making the skin first, mould it, then flatten it. The next step is to make the peanut filling, and put it onto the skin. Cover up the filling with the flattened skin, shape it, make it nice, add some sesame on it, then steam it. Finish. :D

Her sister in law starts making the cakes from 3 a.m. Together with 3o assisstants to help produce the cakes,  most of the time the cakes are sold, so I think the hard work really pays off. There is no most popular cake, all are well and sold! What happens to the unsold cakes then? (remember it happens rarely). They were either given to the mates, the security guards, or friends.

She said that these mochis doesn't contain any vitamins in them, but I think Carbohydrate is present in the mochis. Each cake/mochi costs Rp.5000.

Me interviewing Tante Dewi

The cakes I bought

The cakes I bought (1)

I have to make 2 trips there, because I forgot to ask about what type of glutinous rice flour. does she use. I missed one of the main question though, which is "How long does one of these take to make?" My mom did asked me if I have any more questions on the 1st visit there, but more customers kept on coming, and I have nothing more in my mind, so I said no. On the 2nd visit there, my mom asked the same question, and I said no, because I don't feel comfortable bombarding her with any more questions, seeing the fact that she already feels uncomfortable with my glutinous flour questions. :p. Even though she's free of customers :p.

They just put the cakes on trays, brought to the market by car, then if you bring your own box, you can just put the cakes there, but they have small plastic containers if you don't bring your own.

The average weigh of each mochi is 53 gr.

The inside of each mochi.

From my research, I found out that mochi came from either China or Japan, as no one was sure about it. Google doesn't even know who first invented it, not even Tante Dewi, as it's a heritated food, starting from our old ancestors until now. There were even endless variations (maybe even more are being made now). It was something no one could claim. But I did research about how mochi came into Indonesia, and hypothesis says that either the Japanese brought it here when they conquered us, or the Chinese had brought it hundreds of years ago. The most famous mochi in Indonesia is mochi Sukabumi. It's famous because making mochi is the oldest job in Sukabumi in the cake field.

http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/majalah/2015/05/150527_majalah_bisnis_kue_moci

2. Mochi mochi in Daan Mogot mall

The second person I interviewed is an employer from a small stall in Daan Mogot mall called "Mochi Mochi."

The brochure

The box

Side of the box

The person I interviewed is called Erna, and she's 31. There are 14 variations of mochi flavors that she sell, which are: plain peanut, red bean, green bean, black sesame, white sesame, salty peanut, green tea, pandan, chocolate, durian, strawberry, and chicken floss (the stock is finished). Her favorite is salty peanut, chicken floss, and plain peanut.  

She's only an employer, so she doesn't really know how is the process of making the mochi. But she knows though that these mochis don't have any mixture of wheat flour in it, and the main ingridient is glutinous rice flour. The factory is in Pesing, West Jakarta, and the mochis came in whole, complete shapes, and all she has to do is arranging them so that it looks presentable. 

We tried calling the company to ask about what kind of glutinous flour they use, and, although they didn't want to reveal the name of it, but they mentioned that it's a local brand. Some of the filler that aren't produced in Indonesia are imported (like green tea and red bean paste). 

I think the mochis have preservatives in them, as they can hold up to 3 days out of the fridge, and a week in the fridge. You don't have to steam it if you want to eat them from the fridge, all you have to do is wait for 15 minutes for it to soften up.    

She starts selling from 10 a.m. until 9.30 p.m. Usually she has a friend who help her there, but she/he wasn't present.

The mochis don't always sold out, unlike the ones in the market, but it also depends if the mall is crowded or not. If it's crowded sometimes it sold out, but the ones that aren't sold out will be given back to the factory. The crowd's favorites are the plain peanut ones, and it's usually on the weekends that many customers come.



All of the mochis cost Rp. 7000/each, even the packet where it's filled with only fine peanut grains and marble shaped glutinous rice only mochis.

I bought various types of mochis, although I forgot some of them.

All are cut in half.

Me interviewing Mbak Erna.

3. Frozen mochi

I don't interview anyone here, but I bought the frozen mochis from Hypermart Daan Mogot, on Friday.

The costs

The types of flavors they have.

Instructions of how to cook it.

There's a mixture of wheat flour though.

Before being boiled.

After I boiled them and they're ready to be eaten.

4. Ice cream mochi.

I have been asking my mom about ice cream mochi, and, while I was shopping in Daan Mogot Mall on Sunday, I found the advertisement (and my mom the booth) for this mochi ice cream booth called MochiMaru: 

There are a variaty of flavours here, but the ones that are available
 are chocolate, tiramishu, and durian.

The orange ones are the durian flavours.

We bought two mochis: chocolate and tiramishu.
We don't buy durian because I don't like durian.

Close up.

The employer's name is Wati, she's 20 years old. There are 10 variations of flavours, which are: blueberry, cheese, chocolate, durian, green tea, oreo, taro, strawberry, tiramishu, and vanila. The ones present are only the durian, chocolate, and tiramishu. The flavours she likes most are: chocolate, durian, tiramishu, and taro. The most bought ones are chocolate and oreo, because most of the customers are kids.

She doesn't know the process of the mochis because she has never been to the factory, but she knew that the factory is in Bandung, and the mochis came by car. They came in a complete shape directly, all Mbak Wati has to do is make it presentable. There is no mixture of wheat flour in it. 

The mochis could hold up to 1 month in the freezer, but they will melt when they're out of the freezer :v. There are no preservatives in this mochi though. It's only the skin that's mochi, the filler is ice cream :vv. Mbak Wati hypothesised that maybe they make the mochi skin first in a mould, fill the ice cream in, then cover it with another skin of mochi.

1 mochi here costs Rp. 10.000, but she doesn't know the weight of one of them. Although we have the choice to bring the mochis home and weigh it, my grandma wants to eat out, so I'm afraid the ice cream will melt when we reach home (only to weigh it). If you want to eat them there, there's a choice of cutting the mochi or not. If your teeth are strong enough to handle the cold, then Mbak wati won't cut it. If they aren't strong enough, then she will cut them for you.

She starts selling from 10 a.m to 10 p.m.. The weekends and public holidays are the days that she gets the most customers. Starting from 10 a.m till 10 p.m., there will always be plenty of customers.  

The mochis are stocked every week. The ones that aren't sold yet will be kept in the mall freezer, so the freezer is on 24h. 

I feel bad towards the end of the interview, because there are 2 customers waiting, but my interview took so long, so they left :(. She lost customers. :(.

From my research, I got the info that Frances Hashimoto was the inventor of mochi ice cream.

I didn't ask the question "Does these mochis contain vitamins?" because as I know they only contain Carbohydrates.

I also didn't ask the question "How long does one of these take to make?" because 1. I forgot and 2. The 2 other people I interview doesn't know the process of making it.

I researched where the central farming for glutinuous rice flour, and it's in Subang, near Bandung. I did a survey and found that the common flour that people use is Rosebrand, because it's cheaper than Sujiwangi. I found Sujiwangi after researching for more brands of glutinuous rice flour. From an online store, it costs Rp. 11.200 for 500 gr.  In Pasar Duta Garden, the flour seller sells 500 grams pack each for Rp. 8500 (Rosebrand). I think everyone sells glutinuous rice flour at 500 grams/pack. 

Tired writing this whole report :/
Sorry for the countless mistakes I have made.