(violin harmonics music)
- My grandmother, if she knew now what I was making,
would be very surprised.
Mochi is originally from Japan.
It's a white pastry that's made from rice flour.
It's stuffed with azuki beans.
That's the traditional mochi.
Our mochi has become Hawaiian mochi.
My own style.
(soothing violin music)
We live in Hawaii and, if you look around,
we have deserts and snow,
we have tropical rainforests and all the flowers,
the birds and the oceans— it's all very colorful.
(serene orchestral music)
This is Hilo Town.
I would consider it to be old Hawaii.
Everything is a little bit slower.
Hilo is where I grew up and where my grandparents
settled when they first came from Japan.
They came as workers for the plantation in the cane fields.
They were seeking a better life, and so did
the other groups of people that came
from all over the world.
Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans, they all
had to live together, and they all shared their food.
The Japanese contribution was the mochi.
Every time I taste it, I think back
to where I came from, and I think of my grandma.
She, as a treat, would make her mochi.
Her mochi was the reason that I had interest
to keep mochi on the menu of Hawaii.
(solemn piano music)
Two Ladies Kitchen is called Two Ladies
because we started with just my aunt and myself.
I knew that my aunt knew how to make mochi
but there was nobody else to pass it on to.
And I knew that mochi is my calling.
When I first started the business, it was just
my family who helped me.
My parents are now in their 90s,
and they still come to the mochi shop.
A lot of our flavors are found in Hawaii.
We have a strawberry mochi, with a fresh strawberry
on top of the beans and it's wrapped in the white mochi.
That is very popular.
Liliko'i is passion fruit, so I use the fresh nectar
and we make mochi.
We use the fruits of the season,
persimmons, peaches and nectarines,
pineapple, on and on.
Now I have a ginger mochi, brownie mochi,
a marshmallow, like a rocky road.
I never say no to someone's suggestion.
It's been almost 25 years, and now,
we have lines out the door.
It's not only the Japanese people
who embrace mochi, but it's become a Hawaiian food.
I meet people from all over the world,
and they, too, now love mochi.
It sticks everyone together,
other races, culture, our family friends.
Mochi just makes you feel happy,
and that's why I say, “Mochi is love.”