Serving Saki to a Serb: Mochi Ice Cream From Lotte

Mochi ice cream is a Japanese confection made of ice cream-filled mochi (pounded rice). The dumpling-like dessert has gained popularity in the United States over the years, flying off the shelves of Trader Joe's and Safeway. For the original mochi ice cream made by Japanese candy conglomerate Lotte, you can visit the frozen section at Uwajimaya.

Given the sudden surge in heat here in Seattle, mochi ice cream seemed like the perfect treat to introduce Slavko to.

Lotte's mochi ice cream box consists of 21 individually-wrapped, pinball-sized spheres in vanilla, chocolate, and green tea flavors. Slavko found this amusing. "This is the smallest ice cream I have ever seen! This must be why Japanese people are skinny!"

He popped them into his mouth one after the other like M&Ms, even though they weren't that small. "If I were to order ice cream at Baskin Robbins, I would be bloated later. But I can eat a million of these and still feel good!"

The vanilla he loved and the chocolate he was ambivalent towards, but the green tea he hated. "The mint flavor sucks! It's so bitter!"

I informed him it was actually green tea-flavored and he shuddered. "That's even worse. I hate green tea."

He unwrapped another vanilla treat and tossed it in his mouth. "You know, this flavor would actually go great with vodka," he said thoughtfully. "You could throw a couple of 'em in your glass and be good to go."

"Huh? Like a garnish?"

"Like a mixer - it melts, and then you have vanilla vodka."

"That sounds like a waste of mochi ice cream. You know you can just buy vanilla vodka, right?"

He ignored me and proceeded to finish off the vanilla-flavored ice cream. Then he smiled. "You should have some of these," he said generously and handed over the remaining chocolate- and green tea-flavored ice cream.