Shako LiuFugetsu-Do Confectioners, a mochi shop in downtown Los Angeles, will celebrate its 110th anniversary this fall. The family-run sweet shop was founded by Seiichi Kito in 1903. In Japanese culture, mochi, a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice, is a favorite food for New Year's Day. Fugetsu-Do's current owner Brian Kito, Seiichi Kito's grandson, combines the tradition with a modern twist, adding colors and different fillings — chocolate and peanut butter, for example — to the hand-made rice cake recipe he inherited from his grandfather.
“We use pastries in funerals, showers, certain birthdays in the Japanese culture,” Kito says. “We also use them for certain religious ceremonies and holidays — New Year's Day is generally a day to eat mochi.”
Recently we caught up with Kito to ask him about the upcoming anniversary. For the video, turn the page.
Video by Shako Liu.
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