Reasons Why I Love 日本 #9

もち (mochi). Rice that has been pounded into a large chewy ball. It's really tough to describe why this is so good, but it is--perhaps it has to do with how filling mochi is, or how mochi absorbs the flavor of the dish it is in (I had an udon dish with a curry base that had mochi in it, and it was amazing). One caution--don't bite off more than you can chew. Apparently, people do choke to death on mochi on a more-than-occasional basis.