Mochi: Hawaii's Chewy Assemblies of Craft and Culture

Let’s pound the mochi

The sound of flattening

Kneading it, Sugaring it, Localize it

Rolling it, Making it, Shaping it

Fill it up, yessah, it’s done!

Some get beans, some get treats

Some get all kine things for eats 

Life is uncertain, so eat dessert first!

-Hawai’i Island Hilo Boy

As more properties are bought up from Japanese Companies looking to come in, or Mainland Companies looking to extract, there are few places that are able to keep their roots. It can be the last day for a business and in the local fashion people will not get much of a chance to go before they choose to throw in the towel, because that's the humble way to go out. These places the story is typical, the landscape has been built for the larger companies, and the people need to get their bites in before another place bites the dust. The farther and more inconvenient places have a better chance, so passing the larger residential areas, the larger commercial spaces there can be good times ahead. After a long day of work and making the commute, there are artisanal confectionaries, but it's non traditional Japanese as it is often called not Japanese enough, too Hawaiian, and over influenced by its multicultural makers and influences that reflect a time gone by. Which is fine, because many enjoy the heritage of the islands, while some may want something else, and some just may want a sweet to eat.

A strip mall with street parking lines the road with a line going out the door. A small little place that is tucked in a place a bit out of town, there are these sorts of places that have round and powdery treats that come in bento like containers or pink boxes. Whilst in such a neighborhood there is a destination of the sweet sort that has steam going into the already humid air that makes the kitchen sweat. 

There is a family as there always is, but this one has hands covered in powder, the potato starch covers their fingers, and the flying of the starch falls like snow back onto the board for the treats to be shaped. At the front there is a window that peaks into the kitchen where there is a plethora of colors and artisan woods used for the arts, because being real with it, there is a craft to the making of these sorts of confectionaries. In this case it would be one of the few Mochi Shops that are still around like Two Ladies Kitchen in Hilo that keep chewy goodness alive. They are known for being the important families that are able to train Hawaii Mochi Makers and even Hawaii Master Mochi Makers.

There is a sort of magic that happens as the process happens with a sort of energy that can be felt that comes from the fingers to the food. As the food is handled the Rice flour changes its form, stuffed with Azuki beans, and has a nod of a more familiar look through replicating its origins, a Japanese daifuku, or filled-mochi, disgraced as some say from the Sugar of the plantation times that make it ever more sweeter. The mochi is addictive, sweeter than normal, and possibly something that is more like a candied rice goo. It's a sweet thing for sure. The mochi of Hawaiian mochi has become the island's mochi, so it is something people can say is their mochi, a style that originally came from what was all around. The deserts, the snow covered mountains, the lush tropical rainforests, the colorful plants, and the taste of a sweet life.

In the outside world of continents, people see sweets as a craving, a rush to eat it all, with no crumb left behind, but when they hear it’s a piece of mochi as the sweet, it changes what they believe that sweet to be. A mochi is a Japanese import, a rice cake, and has centuries of tradition with gods, the Heian period, and symbol of new years festivities. While that may be true for Japan, the snack had changed, as many things have, when it had taken its own place in Hawaii. While immigrants brought over its original meanings and practices like the art of mochi making called “Mochitsuki”, that was just to honor those who had originally come from their home prefectures. Those who would also take root would see how it would take different forms, including butter variations, and condensed milk.

Colorful like the hibiscus. When looking at the appearance of the colors, the mochi is compared to the very colorful and plentiful flowers. Think about it as these little colorful local treats that require your attention from the moment you leave the counter until the moment it hits your mouth, because if it is left there too long there might be no more to share, because other people have a taste for them too. It is like the people who eat it, because what started Japanese has become something that all can enjoy. 

The ingredients that make its taste have even come from the land, and argued to not be Japanese for so many reasons, but that is because it has become a Hawaii thing. While many wonder if it is Japanese the rest of the world sees it as an interesting thing that doesn’t represent the place it came from and call it a Hawaii sort of snack that is trying to be like its original, even when it's not. Most people who are eating it aren’t really thinking about that, in fact it's more about bringing something to the work place, bringing it to family for the new years at the gathering island, or just for a treat. It is so not Japanese that some tourists from the motherland would disregard it entirely. As people stand in line at places that specialize in mochi they see all sorts in the crowd, college kids, aunties, and elders all leaning into the seemingly endless options of glutinous rice treats.

Simply Mochi Mochi, Mochi is rice cake, one critic shouted, while another said Hawaii mochi is Daifuku, while another voice would say in Japanese that it is simply not authentic, and Hawaiian mochi is not trying to do any of those things. So, yes, they are correct, because in Hawaii, filled mochi is very common and popular, often referred to simply as mochi or by specific, creative flavor names. It is a style of mochi that is only found in Hawaii, mom and pop shops specializing in their own sorts of mochi, and with all sorts of families adopting and changing traditions to better fit the freshness of what's available in the ways of flavor. Mochi can mean many things in Hawaii, it can mean plain, stuffed with fruit and beans, packed with cookies, mixed as a type, or filled with some sort of thing you fancy. Mochi tends to be best eaten shortly after purchase, because many locals know that leaving it out overnight, the filling will spoil, the mochi will get hard, and it will not taste its best.

Visitors from the neighbor islands would highlight sweet and chewy treats to bring back as “Omiyage” from the Big Island. People in Hawaii bring gifts to people when they leave the islands and that is part of the gifting culture. In places like Japan the culture can be a bit different as the way it is viewed is different and that's what makes it not at all the same. While gift giving in Japan has been linked as a sort of gratitude, respect, and sort of show of modesty, the Hawaii form has changed to show of mutuality, appreciation, and communal participation. Mochi is something that is nice to get, since it's hard to make it with the machines, the really long process of preparing the rice and steaming at home and the process can be tediously long, but buying it is quick! In a sort of fogginess of thought, the place that comes up is Kilauea, Hilo, or the industrial parts of Kalihi. 

The new-old wave of Hawaiian artisan steamers had mostly moved, leaving a shell of its former scene found sold from friends, or from the farmers markets that brought back a Hawaii symbol of sweets—after people forgot it was a Hawaii thing and Japanese interests tried to advertise it as not Hawaii at all. There would have to be a good look at what was around, thinking back it's hard to remember, but the places were there not too long ago with their specials, so surely there would be pop ups with the ideal dishes that could help show where the mochi had went. Upon going to the store, the familiar sights were gone, the people had changed, so it would be a chance to take in the places with a different viewpoint. The really old “Jichan” (grandpa-figure) hunched over the counter replenishing the mochi rice cakes, gone with someone who may not even be from Hawaii, and the “Obachan” (grandma-figure) talking with customers for new ideas for a special of the day, gone with her second cousins daughter who was the only one who was willing to take over the family store. Things being done as they were, some old and some new, and as things pass over, they must and have changed.