National Ice Cream Day - Mochi Ice Cream

Happy national ice cream day everyone!  Even though it is very cold, gloomy and raining from summer thunderstorms (yes, in California), I will still be celebrating with scoops and scoops of ice cream - Mikawaya's mochi ice cream.

Mikawaya has a home store in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles,CA with a wide assortment of (natural) flavors, but this will take over an hour commute.  Asian markets such as Mitsuwa and even Zion Market are much closer and carry some of the more exotic flavors including my favorite black sesame (and red bean which is a close second), tiramisu and plum.  Each box is ~$3-4 and contain 6 pieces.

Black Sesame Mochi (my #1 favorite, two thumbs up)

For even more convenient access, my local Trader Joe's carries a few limited flavors (green tea, strawberry, mango and chocolate) for a set price of $3.49.  My local Ralph's also carries a few flavors but retails for ~$5-6, so I am more than willing to drive the extra mile to TJs where I can pick up ~2 boxes for the price of 1.

Green Tea, Mango, Strawberry, Chocolcate Mochi

Since I picked up 3 boxes of mochi, I resisted the temptation to pick up some of TJ's coffee ice cream or other goodies.  Trust me, it took a lot of willpower.

Lots of ice cream options at TJs

Mango, Green Tea, Black Sesame

 I celebrated with some black sesame, mango and green tea mochi ice cream... Hooray for national ice cream day (aka great excuse to run out and buy more ice cream)!