Originally published at: Two people in Japan choked to death eating New Year's rice cakes, four others hospitalized | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
That asshole rabbit made the cakes too sticky
8 Likes
They got more Mochi than they bargained for. I wish more people Heimliched more…
6 Likes
Now it makes me wonder how many people in the US die by black eyed peas every year. There has to be a statistic on this somewhere.
And I’m not talking about these guys…(although I can’t stand either them or the legume)
7 Likes
I’m Heimliching etc etc
3 Likes
That’s so sad. Chew every mouthful 100 times.
4 Likes
Probably just makes it stickier. I suspect the trick to eating this stuff is dilution.
4 Likes
Reminder: mochi means two very different food experiences. The stuff you get at Trader Joe’s, while yummy, is not the deadly kind Mark is warning us about.
8 Likes
My first thought was raw oysters… 
5 Likes
Damn, now I want some mochi. Even with the possibly choking to death bit.
I wonder if part of the unique hazard of mochi is that it resists Heimliching. It’s highly sticky and, once eaten, soft enough to deform to the shape of the pipe its going down, but holds together well enough to form a solid mass.
Isn’t even mochi. It’s made with a multi-ingredient dough based on glutinous rice flour, rather than kneaded whole glutinous rice. Technically it’s a rice noodle dumpling.
8 Likes
It is on the “dark side” of food, like mayonnaise the third rail of condiments.
7 Likes
OH man. I love dessert mochi. The rice dough is soooo good. But yeah, it can get chewy.
There are also Korean Hot Dogs, which are kind of like corn dogs, only with rice dough dipped in like a crumble texture and fried. So good!
1 Like
In the movie To Live, a man dies from eating too many buns too quickly, and it is mentioned that inside the stomach each bun expands to 7x its size. Since the man ate 7 buns, that was like eating 49 buns. No proof is offered (other than 7x7 = 49)
1 Like
I am down to my last 6 mochis. Made a new batch of ozoni broth. Lunch while working from home is set
3 Likes
Even the subpar mochi one finds in the US can still have a choking hazard to it, the texture being gummy and chewy/soft makes it to where it can be deceiving on the sensation that you’ve chewed it down enough to swallow. Not going to discourage anyone from enjoying it but really make sure to very thoroughly chew it 
3 Likes
This happens every year, and it’s almost always old people (or the very very young). Combine not very good teeth with a subsequent tendency to not chew well (and try to gulp food), and you’ve got a chewing hazard.
Real mochi is gooey and chewy, and has to be masticated a bit before you could really swallow it.
The “glue” holding traditional shirasaya (Japanese temporary/storage sword mounts) is basically dilute mochi.
So… mochi is really just rice glue in it’s concentrated form.
Our Household thoroughly enjoyed our New Year’s Ozoni soup with mochi in it (and no fatalities!).
6 Likes
Someone on Forged in Fire used a rice glue for an Asian weapon’s hilt (I forget the type/nationality). Unfortunately, she had never done it before and while originally this method worked historically, hers failed in testing 
It’s really not for things you’re going to use. It’s a “strong enough, but still easily removable” glue. If she made it to Forged in Fire, she should have known that.
The shirasaya mountings were really more temp/storage mountings, and not really meant to be used.
2 Likes
Same here. It’s been ages since I’ve had proper mochi.
One of the ways it is served is to fry it until the outside is crispy, while the inside remains a sticky, chewy mass. Yum!
1 Like
When I lived I Japan, I was given a “mochi lecture” to make sure I understood that it could be as deadly as it was delicious.
Your Ozoni sounds delightful!
1 Like
