This modern day Mochi cake is a chewy, coconut flavored Japanese pastry that was introduced to me by my niece, Lindsey, a budding chef and possibly my numero uno commentor on this site. She is enamored with Japanese culture; She brings a Bento box lunch to school, reads stacks of Manga, bakes Japanese pastries and the list goes on. She is not Japanese. Her mother is actually from Vietnam and her father is from the United States.