The Moffle: Mochi and Waffles together at last

It’s the latest food craze! Sweet or savory, the moffle is a waffle made from traditional Japanese mochi rice cakes. The outside of a moffle gets crispy like puffed rice but the inside retains its chewy mochi-ness.

While a number of Japanese food bloggers claim that any waffle iron will do (and the trial and errors are well-documented), one clever company has already branded itself “Moffle” and produced a moffle maker. Available on Amazon Japan, the Moffle moffle maker comes in single (¥6,800) or double (¥12,790) iron models in “milk white” or “milk pink.”

The possibilities for experimentation are endless: moffles with ice cream, moffles dipped in curry, moffles and cheese. One of the moffle’s big draws is that it, while it can be handled like bread, the rice-y taste makes it an appropriate match for Japanese food. So if you prefer spicy fish roe to ham and cheese, you might want to make a moffle sandwich to go instead.

For those who aren’t ready to commit to purchasing a moffle (or waffle) maker, a few trendy cafes, like Café Milk in Harajuku have introduced moffle items onto their menu. Moffle flavors at the new (and quite stylish, we think) Cafe Milk (average ¥550) include the savory mentaiko and cheese (left) or ham and mayonaise, and a sweet plain one topped with vanilla ice cream and fresh mint (right).