The third installment of our Don’t FOMO (fear of missing out) series is here. We’re once again encouraging readers to jump on food and drink that are available for only a short time in the Bay Area — or otherwise very hard to get.
Fresh, handmade mochi will soon be a fleeting memory in San Francisco as Benkyo-do, a Japantown landmark, is set to close at the end of March.
Fortunately, Northern California is still home to a handful of traditional mochi shops. And with spring around the corner, family-run West Coast institutions like Osaka-ya in Sacramento and Shuei-do in San Jose are working overtime to fill orders for sakura-mochi, a seasonal Japanese confection wrapped in a single cherry blossom leaf.
Pink-hued and pillowy soft, these dumplings are made during a short window centered around the week of Hinamatsuri, or Girls Day — one of five sekku, or seasonal Japanese festivals — that takes place on March 3. The salt-preserved sakura leaf is edible and balances the sweetness of the anko, or azuki bean filling, with a savory and fragrant, herb-like note.
Sakura-mochi from Benkyo-do comes in a lighter, more traditional shade of pink. The 115-year old store is set to close at the end of this month.
Courtesy of Naoki NittaThe delicate treats are consistently popular, said Osaka-ya’s Linda Nakatani, who took over her family’s mochi business in 2009. She and her sons, David and Yoshio Murakami, mix, roll and form every piece by hand, using rice from Koda Farms in the Central Valley and sakura leaves sourced from Shizuoka, Japan. “It’s a lot of work. From the first to the third (of March), we’ll probably get six hours of sleep altogether,” she added. “But Girls Day is my favorite time of year — the mochi is so pretty.”
Sakura-mochi come in two regional variations. In eastern Japan, the Kantō-style uses shiratama-ko, or sweet rice flour, to make a lightly griddled, mini taco-like mochi, which Nakatani calls yaki-zakura. In western regions like Osaka and Kyoto, the Kansai-style uses dōmyōji-ko, or steamed, coarsely broken sweet rice, to encase the anko inside a tender chew.
Osaka-ya makes both versions — in a surprisingly vibrant pink — though the textured dōmyōji are far more popular, said Nakatani. In fact, her late mother, Asako, an Osaka native, introduced the Kansai-style mochi to Sacramento customers when her parents took over the shop from the Shikasho family in 1963. Japanese American-owned businesses were still plentiful in the city, Nakatani said, but “we couldn’t get broken rice back then, so she used to pound and crack it herself. And it became a big hit.”
Nearly six decades later, dōmyōji is synonymous with West Coast sakura-mochi. “We get orders from all over the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland and Denver,” she said, recalling that in the early days, her parents used to send out-of-state shipments via Greyhound bus.
Linda Nakatani (left) mixes a batch of steamed mochi rice with the help of her son, Yoshi Murakami.
Courtesy of Naoki NittaAlthough mochi sales fell to a trickle during the pandemic — Nakatani reported having to throw away about 500 pieces a day during several slow stretches — business has returned to a brisk pace in the past few months. It’s a credit to her longtime customers, she said, who’ve continued to support the store.
Benkyo-do: 1747 Buchanan St. San Francisco; $2.75 each, available through March 5, benkyodocompany.com
Osaka-ya: 2215 10th St. Sacramento; $1.85 each, available through mid-April, osakaya-wagashi.com
Shuei-do: 217 Jackson St., San Jose; $2.75 each (limited availability March 3-5), facebook.com/shueidomanju/
Farther afield
Kogetsu-do: 920 F St., Fresno; $1.50 each, available March 4-5, kogetsu-do.weebly.com
As one of the last remaining Japanese confectionary shops in the country, Nakatani is determined to hold onto Osaka-ya’s historic and cultural legacy. “I’m going to have this (mixing) stick in my hand as long as I’m alive,” she said with a laugh, “and keep making mochi.”
Naoki Nitta is a food and sustainability writer based in San Francisco. Email: FDepartment@sfchronicle.com
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Pillowy soft sakura-mochi are in season. Here's where to find the fleeting Japanese treats in Northern California - San Francisco Chronicle
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