Since I made Kraft macaroni and cheese for my host family (which you can see in the above picture), my host mom decided to teach me how to make Okinawan mochi, or muuchii (ムーチー). It is traditionally made in the winter and eaten on December 8th to signal the beginning of winter. Muuchii are tied to strings and hung in houses, and the number of muuchii that are hung are determined by the age of the children in the household. If a child is born that year, はちムーチー (hachi muuchii) is celebrated and parents visit neighbors and family to give out muuchii.
So, on a hot and humid Okinawan summer day, my host mom and I made muuchii. We first went to the backyard and picked large sannin leaves. Sannin is the Okinawan name for Alpinia Zerumbet, gettou (月桃) in Japanese. A member of the ginger family, sannin has an earthy yet distinctly ginger aroma. My host mom then taught me how to make the muuchii, a mixture of mochiko, white and brown sugar (brown sugar is unique to Okinawa), and water. We then washed the sannin leaves and wrapped the muuchii mixture in them, ready to be steamed.
After steaming for about 30 minutes, they were ready to be eaten and were (not surprisingly) delicious.
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My mother was born in Okinawa and she has not had mochi wrapped in sannin leaves for 40 years. Is there anywhere in the Bay Area where she can purchase this mochi?