Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: April 2010
One of my favorite flowers in my Mom’s garden is this Snow Rice Cake Plant.
Yes, that’s a flower. It only has one giant petal, but it is a flower. Also known as the Japanese Jack-in-the-Pulpit, it’s native to Japan, though it looks and acts a lot like a native North American plant, the Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
It’s called a Rice Cake Plant because that large white bulby-thing on the end of the stalk in the center looks a whole lot like a round cake of mochi, which is a somewhat-sticky cake of rice pounded into a paste. It’s very delicious, actually one of my favorite foods, and can be used in all sorts of dishes from sweets to soups. Sweets are by far the most common use, though. It can be easily flavored and, thanks to its sticky moldable texture, it can easily have delicious treats put in the center. I’m quite fond of Dango, which is sweet mochi with a paste made from the sweet azuki bean in the center, and of Mochi Ice Cream, especially the green tea flavor.
The plant, on the other hand, doesn’t taste sweet. It’s actually mildly toxic, so I really wouldn’t recommend nibbling on it. Still, it is very pretty with the pure white inside the cup.
