餅

Mochi (餅) is pounded glutinous rice — steamed rice beaten until it becomes a sticky, chewy mass. The pounding is traditionally done with large wooden mallets in a mortar, a ritual called mochitsuki.

In Japan, mochi is essential to New Year celebrations. Families gather to pound mochi; temples distribute it. And every year, a few elderly people choke on it — it's that sticky.

Mochi ice cream — ice cream wrapped in mochi — was invented in the 1980s and became globally popular. The chewy wrapper became more famous than the traditional form.

The texture that mochi provides — chewy, stretchy, slightly sweet — has no Western equivalent. The word names a texture as much as a food.