bad review of Minamoto mochi

This is my very bad review of Minamoto mochi. A long time ago, I bought mochi from Minamoto, located inside the NJ Mitsuwa store, and there was a tiny, dead bug inside the box, squashed against the inner paper packaging. It was gross, but I thought... maybe it's just a bug from nature and maybe it's okay since it's not in contact with the food itself. The mochis were wrapped in a paper bag, and the bug was on the other side of the sealed bag. Visions of Japan, trees, random insects, whatever... So I got over my OCD a bit and figured the product was expensive and it must still be good. Besides, I read online that this brand was supposed to be fine, etc. etc. So fancy, yada, yada.

I went to Mitsuwa recently, and felt glee at seeing the display of desserts everywhere. What do people do when they go somewhere and see something they like and want to share with others - photos and videos of course. Then a Minamoto employee came up to me and said, 'No video,' in a rather rude tone. At first I was surprised, since I didn't see any signs about photos or videos being prohibited, but ok, fine. I asked if photos were allowed, and she said no. That's it, with no reasoning as to why or any apologies. No friendly smile or customer service. Here's a photo of her before our meeting.

I read that some older Japanese women can be racist towards people of other ethnicities. Gotta wonder.  Reminded me of the time I went to the nearby Japanese bookstore (Kinokuniya) and asked the older employee there if they sold calendars, and she just abruptly responded 'No,' and then ignored me. Like okay, I won't be buying anything there if you're going to be like that.

After shopping at Mitsuwa (the larger supermarket), I returned to this Minamoto counter and decided to get strawberry mochi since I traveled so far and it's been on my mind for a while. Another employee seemed friendly and offered a box from the freezer, claiming that it was the freshest one. That'll work, since there's a long drive back home and I've got an insulated bag.

Following a walk along the riverside, I returned to Minamoto and considered buying the peach mochi since the employee previously mentioned that was the most popular flavor. Who knows when I'll be back in that neighborhood. The employee was about to sell me the display box on the counter. I then asked if there was a newer one in the freezer. She replied that the ones in the freezer are the same date as the display box. Okay, but I'd prefer a frozen one since I bought a bunch of refrigerated items and have a long drive home. So the employee starts debating with me on how the display box is just as good, if not better, than the ones in the freezer. This, after she just sold me the frozen strawberry mochi, claiming that the frozen ones are fresher. She adds that the frozen peach ones are in another freezer that's locked and she can't get into it. What a lie. It's gotten ridiculously funny.  

So she's telling me that there is a freezer, a second freezer, but it's locked and employees can't get into it. I should've offered to buy 2, just to see her reaction. Would she magically be able to open the freezer then.

Obviously I didn't buy the peach mochi. And I won't be returning to Minamoto to buy anything else.

About the taste - is it worth the price of 20 bucks for a box of 8 tiny, soft, squishy mochis with hardly any rice covering? Nah. Of course not. I gave it a shot, but nope. And that's a good thing, because now I can stop wasting money on it, and there's really no need to go all the way there just for overpriced mochi with terrible customer service and the potential of dead bugs. Oh, and there was a giant dead rat on the riverside walkway. Granted, it wasn't in the store, but still nasty. And no, I did not take a picture of a dead rat. Ew.

At home, nobody here wanted to try the mochis. One person thought it looked strange when I asked him if the outside white stuff looked like mold. I wound up throwing that one away, even though they all looked like that, in images as well. The white surface looked almost glittery, felt gritty and odd.  It was bumpy, covered with tiny white circles.

I ate 2 pieces soon after purchasing them, and then got very sick later that night. Today I had one again to see if the mochis were the cause of sickness, and felt somewhat nauseous soon afterwards. Hard to pinpoint for sure since I do eat other things throughout the day. There are 4 more left to experiment with if I'm ever constipated lol.

Welp there's my review. Totally not worth it. This is a reminder to myself, and also a suggestion to anyone reading this. Minamoto mochi - nope. Minamoto - no. Iieeeeee. (I think that's 'no' in Japanese.). Too expensive. Makes me sick. Bad customer service.

EDIT: I've thrown away the remaining half of the mochi package, since the nausea after eating one eventually turned into serious sickness (i.e. diarrhea) that night.  This is similar to what happened the other day after I had some.  No good.

asian markets and sweets

Yesterday was 'visit all the asian markets and get all the asian snacks while driving to visit my dad' day.  

Some highlights include seeing stickers that are really cute but I couldn't justify spending money on them since I have stickers and well - what do you do with them besides stick them...

I forgot what I thought about the spam musubi that I bought a long time ago from H-Mart.  Well, I bought it again and now I know that it's not that great.  The rice was plain with no flavoring added.  The egg and spam were flavorful, but honestly, the spam is too salty.  Too much sodium for me.  As I get older, I realize I can't handle the same things as before.

REMEMBER: Next time no more spam musubi.  It's not as good as I recall.

I hope to remember or read these notes next time to avoid buying them yet again.

The novelty / snack store (Fukuya) next to H-mart had so many kawaii stuff like tons of keychains, unbelievable amounts of snacks - decision paralysis!  I didn't buy any keychains but I did like glancing at them.

I got things I already know I like - lychee and strawberry gummies, and a new flavor (mango) mixed in with tried and true ones.  They were way cheaper there ($2.99 a bag) than at H-mart next door ($5.49!). 

I also got some dorayaki from Fukuya and when I asked a worker there, he said they were $2.99 (no price sticker).  However they rung up at $5.49 instead - they were cheaper and on-sale next door at H-Mart.  Lesson to learn : stick to products with price labels or be prepared for price shock.

At Kam man, I bought some dim sum.  There were egg custard tarts next to Portuguese tarts.  I got an egg one.  Also got some sesame rice balls and a container of bean curd rolls.  I thought the bean curd rolls were vegetarian but upon reading the ingredients at home, I see they are not - they include pork, shrimp, and possibly more stuff like beef.  There was something that tasted like salty creamy cheese inside too... 

LESSON TO LEARN : Avoid the bean curd rolls.  I should stay away from any 'complicated' dim sum items, and maybe just stick to things that can stay room temp all day.  Especially since I have a long drive home from the place of purchase.  Even after I microwaved everything, it seemed risky in hindsight.

Next time I could just get the white plain buns, and skip the other stuff (definitely anything containing meat, heavy oils, sauce, etc.).

Kam man has the usual bakery stuff but now they also have tons of mooncakes.  No idea which is the best brand.  I'll have to ask my dad one day - he'd know.

Editing to add - I called my dad later to ask him about mooncakes.  He said that the best ones are the ones made in USA (where we live) because they would be the freshest.  For example, the ones made in Hong Kong or Taiwan were made months ago.  Here in the US, they would be made closer to Moon Day.  They're not available yet at this time of year.  Made fresh to order closer to the holiday.

So I went to Costco and bought the only mooncake they sold.  May as well grab the other asian snacks nearby since the Costcos closer to me probably won't have them.  (The one near my parents obviously have more asian clientele.)

I'm saving the mooncakes (made in Taiwan) for next month, when it's actually Moon Day.  The mung bean one, made in Malaysia, is very pretty with its flower design, but the taste is meh.  It smells weird.  I guess because of the mung bean.  The castella cake is nice, and made in Japan.

EDIT: REMEMBER: Note to myself to not buy mooncakes anymore, because anyone I would gift them to would already have too many already.  And the people I live with don't like them.  This year only one person ate a quarter of a cake.  I wound up attempting to eat parts of the rest and now my stomach feels sick.  The egg yolk part is yuck - I ate around it.  The lotus bean part was okay at first, but now it's just too much.  There's still a whole cake left (expires February 2027 but who will eat it?).  Even though it's tradition, it's okay to skip it for the sake of everyone's health and sanity.  On the other hand, everyone did seem to enjoy the Aldi 7-up cake that I got as backup.  (It's round, like the moon.)

And I also went to Trader Joe's - to get kimbap, mini taiyaki, and jumeokbap among other things.  I miss having these stores closer so I really had to stock up a bit.  Until next time.  There was even another store I skipped (Ranch 99) - not enough time!

shooting star

My most favorite person in the universe and I saw a shooting star for the first time ever in our lives tonight.  We were walking up a trail and glimpsed the tail end of the meteor traveling from right to left.  It sparkled yellow and orange at the end like a perfect star.  As if it were a cartoon.  

The night had a dreamlike quality with many other extraordinary sightings - a big bat swooping low back and forth on the edge of the park path; tiny and large frogs on the walkway; an aircraft mysterious and close at first shining a solitary bright white light, then at different angles displaying its side and other colored lights; the moon and a nearby planet or star that seemed to grow larger as time passed; and the orange glowing lights amongst the distant houses...

No photos of the shooting star, so it'll just have to live in the memories and imaginations of witnesses.

🌠

zinnias and back garden

The zinnias started blooming a few days ago - 46 days after seed planting.  The first flower opened the day we got air quality alerts and wildfire smoke in the air so I stayed inside.  Just as well, since more bloomed days later and the garden looks even prettier now.

After photographing the garden, I pulled a bunch of the crazy pokeweed getting out of control on the property line.  My strategy was to remove the pokeweed berries first, and then deal with the tall stalks afterwards.  Finally, I pulled up any seedlings I noticed.  Maybe one day there won't be any, or hopefully it'll be a more manageable amount.

Back to the gorgeous flowers - at least 5 or so different shades - magenta, yellow, orange, red, and another shade of pink perhaps.  BIG SMILES! 

😃 😁 😊

The magenta / dark pink one appeared first, about four days ago.  I see 5 layers of petals so far.

The yellow, cheerful one showed up soon after.

Today I noticed the orange, red, and more up close in person.  (It's nice to be able to see the garden from the window too.)

In the wildflower patch behind the zinnias, there is a Black-eyed Susan (?).

I think this may be a calendula.

Happy summer flowers!

pink rose

 

Behold, the second bloom of the pink Morden blush rose bush.  The first rose bloomed on June 22nd, but I missed getting a good photo before it expired.  I see something has been munching away at the leaves and petals here as well.  There were no obvious creepy crawlies out there when I was watering it today.  Maybe they desiccated in the heat wave.  In the background is the bunch of begonia leaves which will hopefully flower as well one day.

takeout

 Korean fried chicken and (Japanese) miso ramen with chicken, shared with family.  Yummy!  Oishiiiii!

The soup was on the bottom part of the container, and the toppings and ramen noodle was on the top part like a plastic sieve/colander to keep them from getting soggy.  How clever!

and funny chicken art that looks AI - hahaha

 

wildflowers

Some colors are appearing in the wildflower garden.  The sweet alyssum were already blooming, but today I noticed some new ones while watering them in the hot hot heat wave.

Google told me the yellow one is a yellowcress and it is actually a weed.  Ohhh am I supposed to pull that one out?

I can see the hue of this Siberian wallflower all the way from the house.  It's surrounded by sweet alyssum.

And the prettiest one of all so far - a Johnny jump-up that I noticed at the last moment - it jumped out at me - hahahahaha...

The wildflower mix that I scattered back in the end of April included the following:

baby's breath, blue flax, lupine, calendula, Siberian wallflower, yarrow, sweet alyssum, English daisy, Shasta daisy, lancelet coreopsis, dianthus, coneflower, California poppy, Indian blanket, Iceland poppy, Mexican hat, Black-eyed Susan, and Johnny jump-up.  Hope to see more of them soon!

mugwort weed

 

This is a photo of a weed called mugwort.  I used google image search to identify it.  At first I thought maybe it was a chrysanthemum since there was an old photo of the garden with some mums growing in the same general area.

A few weeks ago, I dug up and divided a larger plant that was growing under the bleeding heart plant.  Thinking it was a mum, I planted the two halves in different parts of the garden - dug holes for them (no small feat with the hard, clay ground), watered them almost daily, even trimmed the leaves twice so that they would puff out with flowers later in the year.  Hahahaha.  

One way to tell that it's a mugwort (versus a chrysanthemum) is to look at the underside of the leaves - they are silver/white - in contrast to the the darker green of the chrysanthemums.  The shape of the leaves are also somewhat different than those of mums.  Mugwort leaves are spikier.  Anyhow, I dug up all the mugworts (three clumps today).  Begone.  Time to focus on the nicer plants, like some of the begonias, etc.

summer day

According to my dad, on this day, I (we) should not wear the following colors: red, white, and black.  He added that it's okay to wear one item in that color, but to avoid wearing an entire red outfit.  For today only, because it's the first day of summer (?) or something.  Sometimes it's difficult for me to translate what he's actually saying.  It's a Chinese belief and today has some meaning to it.  Well it's a good thing I called him today; I changed out of my pink shirt into a green-blue one.  I was actually wearing a pink shirt and blank pants - all the bad colors at once haha oh dear.

He also said to eat something that sounded like 'joong' in Cantonese.  An orange?  No, he said - I can't buy it where I am anyway.  Google is awesome - I searched what food joong is in Cantonese and discovered that it's a traditional Chinese sticky rice, covered with bamboo leaves.

With the first day of summer approaching, here's a recent photo of the weed/wildflower garden out back.  The sweet alyssum are the first to bloom.  Not counting the oxalis that's everywhere, some of which I've been trying to pull out but at this point may just give up doing so.  See that yellow peeking out - that's oxalis aka yellow wood sorrel - Google told me that.

Happy Summer Weekend!

summer flowers

Here are some flowers I bought from Home Depot - marigolds and a lantana plant.  They are supposed to be drought-tolerant, which is good because it's getting really hot around here and watering plants every day is a bit much.

There are tons of weeds growing in the backyard garden, particularly where the wildflowers were sown.  I've been pulling out the weeds, and more keep popping right up.  Maybe if I get a better handle on them, there will be a photo of the back garden to share one day.