January 5, 2015
Japan's killer rice cakes.
"Mochi – glutinous cakes of pounded rice – are traditionally eaten in vast quantities over the holidays. Several people die eating the starchy delicacy every January, but this year the number is particularly high. Local media reported that nine people had died over the holidays, while 13 others were in a serious condition in hospital."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
14 comments:
It's the Japanese KinderEgg. Soon to be banned by US Customs.
That's a deadly tradition, but nothing compared to the 140 deaths on average every year in the US from drunk driving on New Year's.
I assume drinking too much is part of the choking problem.
Only 140? That seems low to me, somehow. (I flew on New Year's Eve, and midnight kicked over as we were driving home from the airport. I was a mite worried, but we got home before 1 a.m. -- I assume the real drunks wouldn't be on the road before 2 or 3.)
The moral of the story is that carbs are bad for you.
So a lot of old people choke finding it hard to swallow
Japanese desserts stink.
The reference to the wonderful film Tampopo has nothing to do with mochi, but everything to do with addinga bit of fun to an article about old folks choking to death.
Journalists, can anyone explain why aren't we allowed to hit them with sticks?
I think the Japanese are competing with the Koreans for strange ways to die.
Thanks for sharing. My first thought before reading the linked article was that maybe they were getting too much arsenic from all that rice as the news media was reporting last fall, but obviously this was related to the concoction they were eating.
Professor, I had the same immediate thought: sake!
If they had said Cass Elliot had choked from eating a rice cake instead of a ham sandwich no one would have believed it.
"Mama Cass, eating a rice cake? Get out of here!"
Did they die of boredom? A rice cake is bland and empty and pointless.
Some foreign food favorites mystify me as to why anyone ever thought it was good food or desert. This is one of them. Another is flan. Someone had to be almost starving to think it tastes good.
Dense rice with sweet soy sauce wrapped in seaweed. Yumsters! What could be better? Worth the risk.
Drinking isn't the problem. It is so dense, it does note easily break down during the chewing cycle into smaller pieces. Your teeth do no rip it apart easily, so people try and swallow it thinking it is a small piece and it is not. It just clogs you up so you can't breath.
Post a Comment