Fugetsu-do: Little Tokyo, LA

At WC's recommendation, we checked out Fugetsu-do, a Japanese wagashi (sweet shop) just steps away from the JANM.  Located in the heart of Little Tokyo on East 1st St. in downtown Los Angeles, the shop has been family owned and operated since 1903, which is truly amazing. It is one of the oldest still operating food establishments in LA clocking in at over a century old. The store also purports to be the first to invent the "fortune cookie".  You can read more about that here on an older post on this same place by WC. In that post you will find more details about mochi, how they make it, etc...

This sign is near the rounded corner of the original Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist temple which is across from the JANM.

 There wasn't any available street parking so we parked in a structure across  the street...here's the view.

The storefront...

Here is a row of different types of mochi:

"Kiku" in Japanese means "chrysanthemum". According to Fugetsu-do's webiste, "This is a special mochi to Fugetsu-do, which includes fresh pink and white mochi surrounding a white bean center - all molded to the shape of a flower."

The striped one is "Suama" which is a nonglutinous rice flour and can be colored in pink and yellow (or green). That last one was "Shigure" which I am not sure what's in it. If anyone knows, please let me know.  All of their desserts looked so pretty and if I didn't care about calories, I would have tried them all.

Here are more mochi...the last two have yokan a thick jellied dessert made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar. It is usually sold in a block form, and eaten in slices. Many years ago, one of my Japanesestudents gave me a gift box of yokan before along with another gift box filled with tea. I had no idea what yokan was. One of my other Japanese students told me that only "old people" ate yokan (that kind of sucked hearing that because I was only 26 at the time, d'oh!) and they ate it with tea, hence the gift pairing.  Uhh, thanks a lot? I consoled myself thinking that the student's parents probably picked out the gift and not the student itself.

Here's a few more kinds of mochi - these are filled with red beans...

The mochi on the bottom left is "Mango" flavor - I liked the little green leaf embellishment...we ended up getting two of those. [update - I just ate the mango one and the flavor is really subtle. We also picked out a Lime flavor mochi and TC and Bert really liked that one!]

And here's some more candy colored mochi! The flavors are self explanatory...TC chose the orange one for us. It tastes like chewy orange sherbet.

This is the back part of the store...you can see the lady at the far left assembling our mochi box. We chose 8 types (actually 7, since the mango was a duplicate). She was super nice and helpful especially since I asked a lot of questions. You can see Yan Yans on the display shelf below...

In addition to individual packets of rice crackers and other snacks, the shop also had gift sets...

Like the hot bitches that they are, here are the packaged Peanut Butter (ooh, how cute! It's pink) and Chocolate Mochis (both kinds are $4.00 for 6 pieces) in the display window...they are calling your name! Love the blingy jewels!

I was so eager to try the chocolate mochi that I ripped open the package and doled out one for each of us before we even crossed the street! I was so excited by the "soft as a baby's butt" texture of the mochi and the promise of a sweet chocolate center waiting to be bitten and savored...

Armed with our mochi purchases, we headed out to have an early dinner...