Japanese cooks’ rice cakes come out like cocks, tickle the Internet

The traditional New Year’s treat looks just a little too happy about it being 2017.

Japan doesn’t follow the lunar calendar, as so it celebrates the New Year on January 1 along with the Western world. However, Japan still has a soft spot for the animals of the Chinese zodiac, with the coming annum’s representative animal showing up on New Year’s cards, decorations, and online greetings.

This being Japan, sometimes the graphic designs are peppered with English words, which presents sort of a sticky situation in 2017. While most native English-speakers would say it’s the Year of the Rooster, sometimes dictionary-dependent designers in Japan instead create New Year’s salutations trumpeting the Year of the Cock, a rendering that’s not technically wrong, but still undeniably dirty-sounding.

Still, that suggestive translation might be the most appropriate choice for Japanese Twitter user @dog_men1. See, along with sending cards with Chinese zodiac animals on them, eating mochi (rice cakes) is a traditional New Year’s activity in Japan. Mochi can be eaten a number of ways, but one of the tastiest, especially in cold weather, is to bake the cakes in the oven, which is what @dog_men1 decided to do. However, he was in for a surprise when he opened the oven door.

餅焼いたらちんこみたいな膨らみ方して草 https://t.co/cOipl6rzas

—
犬マン (@dog_men1) January 03, 2017

“I baked some mochi, but it swelled up like a penis,” @dog_men1 shared, along with a snapshot of the phallic foodstuff. Granted, two of his three rice cakes turned out perfectly normal-looking, but that one on the left… (which also brings up the point that had it been the center rice cake that swelled unusually, the whole set would have resembled a cock and balls).

While rare, this phenomena isn’t entirely unheard of. Another Twitter user chimed in to say that he’s experienced it three times in his culinary efforts, and even included a photo retrospective.

@dog_men1 FF外から失礼します。 たいそうご立派な餅ですね！ 私も3度くらいなったことがあります。特に立派だったやつは今でもこのとおり写真に納めています() どうしてこうなるんでしょうね(´･ω･`) https://t.co/IsXCurssXw

—
WasA@わさわさ (@WasA_kitch) January 04, 2017

Of course, just like a broken cookie tastes the same as a whole one, there’s no reason to suspect that dong-like mochi is any less delicious than its conventionally shaped counterparts, so there’s no need to throw them away and freak out your garbage man on trash pick-up day. And if these photos have actually aroused your appetite, and you’re looking for other things to dine on during the Year of the Cock, we have some suggestions.

Source: Togech
Featured image: Twitter/@dog_men1

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