Fugetsu-Do

Since 1903, Los Angeles’s famed Japanese confectionary Fugetsu-Do has been open in what is now called Little Tokyo, offering homemade soft mochi and dango rice treats, monaka (red bean wafer cookies), and a bunch of other premade snacks. Today, although the small, historic store looks very much its age – and contemporary with similar stores one might find on winding streets in Kyoto – its bakery supplies Japanese supermarkets outside of Los Angeles, including Tokyo Central in Orange County, if you want to try its desserts without driving to Little Tokyo.

Over multiple visits to both the original store and Tokyo Central, we’ve purchased everything from their chocolate-filled mochi discs to their multicolored dango (basically just visually interesting mochi balls) and fruit-flavored cubes.