Mochi Lab (Hawaii 2018): Butter Mochi Cupcakes

It’s hard to believe that I first stumbled across Mochi Lab’s amazing butter mochi cupcakes in 2015 while walking through a farmers’ market in Waikiki. While we’ve been back to Hawaii a couple times since then, we’ve never been able to revisit until this past year. That’s partly because Mochi Lab can only be found at pop up locations. We made a special trip out to the Honolulu Farmers’ Market, in front of the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Ward Avenue, to revisit this year and were not disappointed.

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Mister Donut (Akihabara): Tokyo 2017

When you’re this good… they call you “MISTER”. Seriously… I don’t know what else you can say about Mister Donut. Interestingly, Mister Donut originated in the US but is now headquartered in Japan. That probably explains why their mochi donut is soooo good.

Mitoya (Kuromon Ichiba Market): Osaka 2017

Ahhhh, mochi! For those of you who are unfamiliar, mochi is a rice “cake” made from glutinous rice that’s been pounded and molded into shape and which has a distinctive chewiness to it.

Honolulu Juice Factory (Hawaii 2017): Passion Mango Tea with Sweet Potato Mochi

While waiting for our skewers from Carp Dori in the Shirokiya Japan Village Walk, I decided that we needed something to drink and figured the best place to go would be the Honolulu Juice Factory, also conveniently located in the Japan Village Walk.

Lawson Station (Waikiki 2015) – Mochi Ice Cream

They don’t make convenience stores like Lawson Station in Vancouver.

Mochi Lab (Waikiki 2015) – Lilikoi Butter Mochi Muffin

Finding Mochi Lab was a complete fluke. They’ve got a stall at the local Mahiku Farmers Market in the Hyatt Regency in Waikiki every Tuesday between 4-8pm.

Icy Bar – Mango Ice Cream Mochi Icy

What could be better than shave ice? How about some ice cream on that? Oh wait, why don’t we add some fresh fruit on that? What, you want mochi too? Okay!

Basho Cafe – Mochi Mochi Matcha

Hmmm… a Japanese cafe? There’s an abundance of sushi restaurants in Vancouver, but I think this is the first Japanese cafe that I’ve been to.

Lawson Station (Moana Surfrider) – Hawaii 2013

Lawson Station has an interesting history.  For instance, from the name, you wouldn’t really expect to find a Japanese convenience store.   Lawson actually has roots in Ohio where it was originally known as Lawson’s Milk Company back in 1939 (that’s probably why their logo has a big milk container on it).