Isobe Mochi

Ingredient	1 Serving Shōyu	1 Serving Shōyu	1 Serving Satō-jōyu	1 Serving Satō-jōyu
mochi	2 pieces.	2 pieces	2 pieces	2 pieces
nori	2 strips	2 strips	2 strips	2 strips
soy sauce	to coat	to coat	to coat	to coat
sugar	none	none	to taste	to taste

Isobe mochi is a simple Japanese snack that seasons a chunk of chewy-crispy toasted mochi with either straight soy sauce or an addictively salty-sweet coating of sweetened soy sauce.

Preparation

If using sheet nori, cut into strips as wide as a piece of mochi and long enough to wrap all the way around it.
For sweet-and-salty sauce, in a shallow bowl stir together enough sugar and soy sauce to thoroughly coat the mochi, sweetening the sauce to taste.
For straight soy sauce version, pour enough soy sauce into a shallow bowl to coat the mochi.

Directions

Bake mochi.
Bake the mochi at 350°F (180°C) until they are soft and puffed up.
Coat in sauce and wrap.
Roll each piece of mochi in the sauce you’re using to coat it thoroughly. Wrap a piece of nori around it and serve.

Notes

This recipe assumes you’re using pre-packaged mochi, which usually comes cut into squares of a roughly standard size. If you can’t find that, you can make your own using our recipe divided into relatively large chunks; omit baking it in this case.
Sweet soy sauce is called satō-jōyu, meaning sugar-soy-sauce. The amount of sugar is up to taste; a two-to-one sugar-to-soy sauce ratio is my favorite, but you can adjust to taste, for example one-to-one for less sweet.
The large photo above is of soy sauce-only isobe mochi.