Yomogi Mochi @ Nakatanidou, Hashimoto-cho, Nara

The historical city of Nara, is loaded with alot of stuff that people take from granted. It is not just about the deer that roam freely or the majestic Buddhist temples. Sweets are a something worth noting too.

Front of the house. 

There are some things you must eat when you visit a certain place. And for Nara, it has to be yomogi mochi  (蓬 餅) . And not just any mochi, but the one from the fabled shop called Nakatanidou. It is so famous, that I believe almost every food blogger or TV show focusing on Nara would have featured it. So instead of giving a brief intro about the place, I would just jump straight to the mochi itself.

Snacks on the ready!

This green gooey treat is made primarily of rice flour and mugwort, a plant from the sunflower family. So yeap, the green colour is all natural. And it does lend some flavour to it. There was a grass-like freshness to the confection, giving it a hint of bitterness too. It seems to be more chewy as well compared to other rice cake desserts that I have prior. This textural difference is probably attributed from the fibers of the mugwort.

A close up on that golden powder

The outside was also coated with warabi, or roasted soy powder. This gave not only a woody and slightly nutty profile, but it also made it easier to handle and prevent the mochi from sticking. Like icing sugar with marshmallows, this was pretty genius.

Look at that interior. 

But the textural experience did not just end there. The mochi was also filled with adzuki paste. Sweet and slightly chunky, it gave the sweet treat another element, when alot of things were already going on. Tasty stuff indeed. Although I have a small gripe for it being ¥150. It is not expensive, but I found it to a bit of the pricey side for mochi.

The finishing touches to the sweets. 

The place is particularly popular because of the mochi pounding that they do in order to make the rice grains, to rice paste and to the eventual rice cake. However, it is a labour intensive process and the live show does not happen all the time. So I missed that opportunity in taking a video of the pounding. Wow that sounded odd.

A close up of the signboard. 

Nonetheless, this mochi was very good and I really liked it. It was a good sweet treat to have in between walks around the ancient city of Nara and something you should try. Definitely not a tourist trap that I initially thought it would have been.  So if you do plan to come over here, the address to this historical shop is as follows:

29 Hashimotocho, Nara, 630-8217, Japan