Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the March 2017 issue of HONOLULU. It was updated in March 2019.
Hawai‘i loves mochi. We eat it as a snack, bring it to potlucks, give it as gifts and wedding favors. Perhaps more than anywhere in the world, we’ve adopted Japan’s sticky rice treat as our own and evolved it.
Pink and white chichi dango, liliko‘i cheesecake daifuku, even the nouveau ‘ulu-spice vegan butter mochi—Island-style mochi says as much about our food culture as it does about our increasingly entwined identity as a people…