Is it me or does this wicked cutter remind you of a guillotine? It is Christmas Eve and I am at home trying to make pasta, meatballs, desserts and whatnot for our not-quite traditional dinner. My mother-in-law is alone at home and calls me, once to run (literally run to the next village because my bicycle tire had a flat) to the little shop to pick up some powdered azuki beans; once to run back to the store to pick up some "sparrows eggs" (which, by the way, are not eggs, they are little crunchy snacks with peanuts inside); and once to slice the frozen mochi.
O-mochi is the pounded rice that we make in the winter for a variety of treats. Fresh, it is very sticky and soft. Dried, it is hard. Frozen, it is even harder. This big slab needed to be divided for the two households and then sliced. I took it home but even my biggest Japanese knife could not get through more than 1/4 inch of it, so I took out the saw. My mother-in-law wanted her half sliced but I couldn't do that with the saw! So she brought out the "big blade." This thing is ancient but it works. You could easily sever a limb.
We put out the newspaper - it seems we do a lot of food preparation on newspaper. I'm going to have to subscribe again in order to have a ready supply. Hack! Hack! It was a bit scary, but I sliced the o-mochi so she can grill it and snack on it with soy sauce and black sugar. Now, back to pasta making.
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