Mochi in Copenhagen?

When I set out on my bike to visit the Taste the World festival in Copenhagen's Nørrebro neighborhood, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I wondered how it might compare to other international food festivals I've attended in the past.  The aim of the festival was to celebrate diversity, and was held as a part of the city-wide Copenhagen Cooking festival. A variety of cultural organizations participated, with some selling specialty foods to sample.  

After living in the greater Los Angeles area throughout college and in Santa Monica after that, I have been spoiled by having almost every international cuisine at my fingertips on a daily basis.  In fact, it's one of the things I loved most about living in Los Angeles.  With access to a car, you can travel the world through your stomach without leaving the county limits.  But if there's one thing I didn't think I would find at an international food festival in Scandinavia, it was mochi.  Nevertheless,  I found myself standing in front of an entire table of it.  

I discovered the sweet rice treat rather late in life, at the end of college.  This was before tiny versions of mochi became popularized as toppings in frozen yogurt franchises across Southern California.  Ever since developing a taste for it, I've been making up for lost time by sneaking in trips to Little Tokyo, driving to downtown LA specifically to spend $2 here and $2 there on mochi ice cream or mochi with red bean.  I've long dreamed and schemed and hoped to one day visit Maui for New Year's, where my friend April's family pounds rice for the mochi each year by hand to make the traditional Japanese version from scratch.  April's mom Janice has even generously shared some of their prized peanut butter chocolate mochi during her visits to California.  This version is a longstanding family favorite they buy at a local shop on the island.  So you can imagine my delight when in the middle of this festival in Europe, I see the smiling folks at the Buddha's Light International Association selling mochi for 10 Danish kroner each.  

I couldn't quite believe my eyes.  I first purchased only one individual mochi, feeling a bit skeptical.  But after tasting it, it didn't take me long to make my way back to the table for more.  Unfortunately, I came to the festival unprepared and didn't have that much cash on me, or else I may have ended up buying their whole supply.  But it's probably better off this way.  I don't want to assume anything, but just like my childhood offered no exposure to frikadeller (Danish meatballs), I doubt that the average citizen of Scandinavia gets access to mochi very often!  Better that I leave some for the rest of Copenhagen.  When you've lived in Los Angeles, it's a strange but beautiful phenomenon that a lot of international foods actually end up tasting like home to you.  I'm not sure peanut butter chocolate mochi will ever catch on in popularity here, judging by most Danes' opinions on peanut butter.  But even so, this sesame mochi will certainly do the trick!  So thank you to the Buddha's Light International Association for bringing mochi to the festival that day.  And delicious mochi at that.

More scenes from the festival: