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Monday, June 18, 2007

Mikawaya - Los Angeles (Little Tokyo)

So after our tasty but not quite full dinner at Izakaya Haru Ulala, we made our way through Japanese Village Plaza and came upon Mikawaya, creators of mochi ice cream. Did you know they only started mass producing mochi ice cream in U.S. in 1994? A version of it was invented by a Japanese company, Lotte in 1981. I thought it had been around forever, but I guess not. I think I had my first mochi ice cream in 1997, so does that make me relatively cutting edge? :P

Mikawaya mochi ice cream is commonly found at most Asian grocery stores and Trader Joe's. But they also have a retail store in Little Tokyo where they sell individual mochi ice creams, ice cream, and Japanese pastries.


At the end of the day, there was just vanilla and coffee flavors left. One single mochi ice cream is 75 cents. My favorite flavors are green tea and mango.

I forgot all the ice cream flavors but there was obviously green tea and plum wine.

Jaden of Steamy Kitchen very nicely bought a six-pack for us to share.

Mmm. Coffee ice cream surrounded by a thin layer of sticky rice dough.

But we're not done yet. Mochi ice cream was a great treat but we were still hungry.

Mikawaya
118 Japanese Village Mall
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-628-6514
Monday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Sunday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

12 comments:

  1. wow. we sure ate alot...and we weren't even done yet!

    I WANT RAMEN NOWWWWWW
    *@$@#!)%**!@! for living 1600 miles from you. Damn it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why am I up at 3am thinking about RAMEN!?!?!?

    Their secret ingredient must be crack.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jaden,
    We? You're the one with the bottomless stomach. I think it was you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. mmm...yummy. I want one too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gee, she already spill the word RAMEN !! ramen ramen ramen hahaha, btw, I also went to shin-sen-gumi in Rosemead. It was nothing compared to Daikokuya :( I want those frozen coffee mochis, its freaking hot today :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. Maybe Mikawaya was founded in 1994.

    Yukimi-daifuku, the Japanese product from Lotte upon which Mikawaya's mochi ice cream is most likely based, has been around since 1981... You can see it on the Japanese Wikipedia site:

    Yukimi daifuku


    I think Mikawaya's ice cream is better, but Yukimi-daifuku's mochi texture is not as hard.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't mind all mochi ice-cream ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh i've walked passed that mochi ice cream place before! i didn't know it was the same brand as the ice cream. yums. :D i love mochi. oh it was only invented in 1994? crazies

    ReplyDelete
  9. i was gonna get mochi at costco but the freezer here was dripping water so theyre probably melting. =(

    t

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cooking Ninja,
    It was good!

    MW,
    I told you Shin-sen-gumi wasn't as good as Daikokuya!

    Jason,
    Thanks for pointing that out. Mikawaya was the first in the U.S. to freeze and mass market mochi ice cream.

    Tigerfish,
    Two of my favorite ingredients combined. :)

    BC,
    I know! I walked by it all the time too and didn't make the connection until I wrote up the post.

    t,
    Mine never last long in the freezer anyway. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just a quick note Mikawaya is open until 10 Tues - Fri and 11 on Sat

    ReplyDelete

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