taro & mochi

to taro:

At the start, it wasn't about the meaning behind what we were labeling ourselves. It was more about how it sounded and how it felt to us. But the more I think about it, I start thinking about how deep it can get :) All I knew about taro before you mentioned it to me was 'a sticky round root-like looking thing with a coarse and rough skin that my mom used to cook when I was young.' All I could recall was that it was really slippery when peeled and you absolutely needed to cook it before eating it. For mochi, it was pretty the issue of me being a huge fan of the sticky evolutionized rice and being addicted to the dessert since I was young living near Little Tokyo. But now, I think they're appropriate labels for us on a more deeper sense :)

Taro is a root vegetable that has extreme toxicity and is considered inedible raw. The cause of this is because taro contains high levels of raphides, which are calcium oxalate crystals that are found in plants as a defense mechanism against plant predators. Once consumed, seeing as how calcium oxalate is highly insoluble, it tears at the soft tissues inside the human (or predator's) body and can cause edema, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis, and more. However, once cooked or left in cold water for a long time, the toxins reduce, and taro becomes edible with care. It can actually be good for the body once cooked as it becomes a good source of nutrition that boosts the immune system against malaria and yellow fever. Taro also brings out a sweet nutty flavor that is popular all throughout Asia.
To sum it up, taro is a food that goes through patience and time to bear fruit to an amazing taste and many benefits. Like you. You have a coarse but cute outside but if anyone attempts to just take you up for grabs immediately or too quickly with no effort, they'll come to understand that you aren't an easy person. When you don't like someone on first impression, you have a side to you that definitely knows how to growl and bite. But when someone pours in time, effort, and genuinity, you are a person that will blossom up to your peers and gift them with an amazing friend and dashing example. That's you.

As for me? I'll keep it short. Mochi is something that originated in Japan. During festivity times, men would pound away for hours with heavy wooden mallets on oversoaked cooked sticky rice while turning and wetting it. There is always the risk of injury when making it, but the labor-intensive process is continued to finally result in mochi. Mochi is the reward to hard work, labor, and risk. The chewability becomes intriguing in the mouth and the sticky addictive opaque dough can become a great final touch to a sweet sidekick. It is popular to put in taro, red bean paste, white bean paste, strawberries, and even ice cream inside of mochi to develop amazing desserts and it is also used as a popular final touch and topping on frozen yogurt.
It is all I can do but hope that I can become truly like that too and become an individual that goes through turmoil, hardships, and tribulations to become one that can embrace my friend's and peers sweetness and amazingness to bring forth something even greater, and become a unique element that tops off lives.

yours,
mochi