BC Heritage Week takes place this week, February 16 to 22, 2026, inviting us to reflect on culture and heritage in our communities. This year’s theme, Stir the Pot, invites us to celebrate how food brings communities together, connecting us to the land, and ties us to our backgrounds, families and traditions.
Mochi: A Tasty Tradition
In January our staff came together to learn how to make mochi, a rice cake which may be eaten year-round, but is known most as a traditional food for the New Year in Japan. Mochi is usually made at the end of the year, to give the families rest and a hearty food to eat in the first few days of the new year (January 1-3). Mochi-making is often a communal cultural event, bringing together family and neighbours to prepare for the holidays.
Many households will make sure to display a kagami-mochi of two mochi rounds stacked with a small orange on top, before the end of the year. Then, by mid-January, the hardened mochi will be broken (kagami-biraki), cooked and eaten.
Here is a short video of a kagami-mochi which was displayed on the Crystal S last year.
Traditional Preparation of Mochi (mochitsuki)
In traditional mochi preparation, mochi-gome (a short-grain japonica glutinous rice) is soaked overnight and steamed. The steamed rice is then mashed and pounded into a sticky paste with mallets (kine) in a traditional mortar (usu). This requires the work of two people: one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi. They must keep a steady rhythm so as not to accidentally injure each other with the heavy kine! Then, the steaming sticky rice is cut or molded into shapes.
From the Archives: Mochi Making in Steveston
Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site shares the stories of a diverse community of residents and workers that supported Steveston’s fishing, canning, and boatbuilding industries. Japanese Canadian boat builders once supplied the boats that fed more than 150 canneries dotting the West Coast, including Steveston.
One of our favorite Steveston food stories is of community mochi-making using the steam box at one of Steveston’s boat works. A photo album belonging to the Kishi family shows a community gathering in their boat works. In the photos, you can see the community preparing and eating together. They steam the rice in a steam box — usually meant for steaming lumber used to build boats! Instead of pounding, they use a grinder for the rice, with a funnel to pour the rice in. The women then shape the mochi.
Modern Preparation of Mochi
These days with modern equipment, mochi can be made at home. Many of our team, who had never tasted fresh mochi before, gathered around an electric mochi maker, in anticipation of tasting this Japanese new year’s treat. The appliance steamed the rice and automated the laborious dough pounding, without the need for kine, usu and muscle-power!
Once the dough was ready, we used mochiko, a flour made of sweet rice, to form small amounts of the sticky white dough into round cakes.
We tasted mochi with a sweet topping, red bean paste, as well as savory options with soy sauce and wrapped in nori (dried Japanese seaweed). What a tasty treat! We appreciated this opportunity to share food, community stories, and cultural learning.
