Mugwort by the Coastal Road
It was growing absolutely everywhere! And just like that, it reminded me of my grandma picking mugwort and making yomogi mochi for me when I was little. Feeling a wave of nostalgia, I started picking some mugwort, and this unique, refreshing scent spread around me. “Oh, this is nice,” I thought, and decided to try making yomogi mochi for the first time in decades. So, I filled the plastic bag I was carrying with soft-looking mugwort and took it home.
I tried to recall how it was made… I remembered simply boiling it until soft, then mashing it with a pestle, kneading it into shiratama dumplings, rolling them, and eating them with anko (sweet red bean paste). However, I was a bit concerned about the bitterness of wild herbs, so I checked a recipe just in case. It said to boil it with baking soda. Hmm, I don’t remember doing that before, but it seemed like a safe bet, so I tried boiling it with baking soda. As expected from a “Japanese herb,” it had a unique, refreshing aroma. Scents and memories are so strongly linked, aren’t they? It really brought back my childhood.
I tried mashing it directly with a pestle, but it seemed like it would take a lot of effort, so I thought I’d use a blender. But the fibrous stuff just wouldn’t blend at all because there wasn’t enough liquid. So, it was back to good old grinding, grinding, grinding. I remembered myself as a kid saying, “This is hard!” while mashing it.
I didn’t have shiratama flour, so I boiled about three pieces of regular mochi until they were soft and then mixed them with the mashed mugwort. The mugwort by itself had a pretty strong, distinct aroma, so I chickened out halfway through and reduced the amount of mugwort. But later, when I ate this mochi with kinako (roasted soybean flour), the aroma was actually milder than I expected. Now that I think about it, I remember the color being much greener when I made it long ago, so maybe I should’ve just gone all-in with the mugwort. Still, it had that nostalgic flavor and tasted delicious!
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