Dec 30: Annual Mochi Tsuki (餅つき) Festival at DIA Park Premier hotel
The event will begin at 12.00 noon and continue until 4.00 pm (IST) when guests would enjoy authentic Japanese delicacies in the hotel's lawns in Sector 29.
GURUGRAM: The sprawling lush green lawns of DIA Park Premier Hotel will host the annual Mochi Tsuki (餅つき) Festival under the open sky on December 30 to mark the new year celebrations to welcome the year 2023 in a grand festive way.
Hundreds of Japanese families including children and women will participate in the ceremonial making and eating the sweet rice treat mocha. This ritual has been celebrated as New Year’s tradition in Japan, with generations of families and communities coming together to wish good health and prosperity for the new year.
As many as 150 participants would enjoy the authentically prepared Japanese food and beverages by the experienced Japanese chef Shinji Nakajima and his team who work hard to prepare for this event every year to offer very authentic Japanese experience.
According to Rajat Kumar, General Manager, DIA Park Premier Hotel, the event will begin at 12.00 noon and continue until 4.00 pm (IST) when guests would enjoy authentic Japanese delicacies in the hotel’s lawns in Sector 29 on December 30.
“Mochi Tsuki festival is an annual feature that forms part of the series of events the hotel keeps hosting at its venue for the benefit of its Japanese guests to make them feel close to their own Japanese culture from time to time as they are thousands of miles away from their country,” he added.
Mochi Tsuki festival is the centuries-old method of first steaming the sweet rice over an open fire, then placing the cooked rice into a warm stone or concrete bowl called an usu. Using large wooden mallets, two people rhythmically pound the rice in the usu, while with bare hands a third person swiftly moves the rice between each mallet crash.
After several minutes of vigorous pounding, the rice becomes a thick, smooth dough – mochi. From manual pounding in the usu or special mochi-making appliances, the mochi is removed and children of all ages hand form the steaming-hot mochi into small handball-sized cakes, filling some of them with a sweet bean paste called ahn.
While arguably mochi is best eaten hot and fresh, many enjoy roasting it in the oven, then dipping the puffy and crisp hot mochi cakes into a combination of sugar and soy sauce. For future enjoyment, mochi can be frozen in airtight bags.
One can experience the tradition of mochi tsuki or “mochi–making” first hand. Pound rice and make mochi cakes along with the chefs.
