Learning about Mochi!

The mochi Kanani sent us.

Today Kanani gave us some cupcakes. Well we first thought they were cupcakes, tell we noticed it said Mochi on it. We thought it was just some brand or something but later found out it's a type of sweet treat made especially in Japan and Hawaii!

I  (Morgan in my Saami outfit.. that is for another post..) decided to look it up on the web what these non-cupcake mochi things were about before we tried them.

Looking for Mochi

In Wikipedia it says Mochi is "Mochi (Japanese: 餅) is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice (not to be confused with gluten) pounded into paste and molded into shape..... While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time. Similar snacks are prominent in Hawaii..." and other countries.  Here's a Link.

Ahh! I see now.  It's a sweet rice. I tried to find some pictures that looked like the mochi Kanani sent us. We must have some particularly fancy mochi by the look of it. The mochi does look a bit like sushi in some pictures. They even have cookbooks on how to make Hawaiian mochi, such as this one by Jean Watanabe Hee. Looking at Mochi recipes on the web I notice some have a lot of butter, and some are even non-desserts like mochi with fried chicken. We don't eat chicken but if we did I bet it would probably taste pretty good. They even have mochi in caramel corn. Yum! The original mochi from Japan has an azuki bean paste but it comes in many different flavors including chocolate peanut butter, mango, strawberry and hazelnut. It all sounds so good. Wonder what flavors Kanani gave us?
Have you ever tried mochi?