Osaka-Ya Japanese Dessert in Sacramento

Mochi is like the Russian roulette of desserts, either dense and satisfying, or boogery and tasteless.

Fortunately Osaka-Ya, a kind of Japanese bodega tucked into a corner of Sacramento’s Grid, has spent over 50 years making Japanese sweets the right way.

Behind the counter, Yoshio, the grandson of Osaka-Ya’s founder, patiently answers every question that I toss at him about the shop and its food. “These ones are filled with lima beans,” he explains, pointing at tempting little bites under a brightly filled glass counter. Long before Chopped had chefs making desserts with unconventional ingredients, its delightful to know that someone somewhere, decided lima beans would make a fine sweet treat.

Beautifully colored, each little package is $1.50 and flavors range from the familiar orange and raspberry, to what might be less familiar, such as Sakura, which is a sweet mochi filled with bean paste and flecked with pickled cherry blossoms. Osaka-Ya also carries other treats such as snow cones and many grocery products.