Rice Cake 2 weeks ago, Uncle Di came to Hangzhou to do business and brought a lot of farm fresh food for my family. One big surprise was my parents,my brother and I got a meter high bag of rice cakes called ‘Nian Gao’ and a bag of ‘Mochi’. The difference between ‘Nian Gao’ and ‘Mochi’ is that ‘Nian Gao’ is made of uncooked rice powder and ‘Mochi’ is made of cooked sticky rice. My mother said she would be much happier if we shared just one bag of rice cakes. As I didn’t know how to store rice cakes, my mother instructed me to soak them in cold water after five days. However it seemed like she forgot to ask how long ago my uncle had bought them. All the Mochi had become mouldy. The mould was colorful, I could see several colors:black, yellow, dark blue and red. What a pity I had to throw them away. After work, my husband saw them in the rubbish bin and said ‘In his hometown, such kind of mochi is edible’, which left me dumbfounding. Lucky Niao Gao didn’t go bad. I soaked them in cold water and change water every 2 days to keep them fresh.It is said in this way, Niao Gao can last 4-5 months without refrigeration.