Arare (あられ, small mochi rice crackers)

Arare looks like a confectioner's trick: tiny pieces of mochi that puff into crisp little stones, light enough to vanish with tea. It isn't difficult. It only asks you to do the part modern recipes like to skip, which is to let the cut mochi dry properly.

The first secret is dryness. Fresh mochi is too full of water to crisp cleanly; it softens, slumps, and sulks in the oven like a child denied a sweet. Dry it until the surface feels hard and the edges show small cracks, and the heat can turn the trapped moisture inside into lift. That is the puff. Nothing mysterious.

Use mochi-gome, glutinous rice, in the form of plain kirimochi, the firm blocks sold for New Year cooking. Cut it small, because arare means hail, not cobblestones. We season it with soy only after it has puffed, so the surface stays dry enough to crisp before it takes on that dark, salty shine.

Arare belongs beside tea, in lunch bundles, and in the small comforts that keep well without fuss. Make it ahead and serve only a modest bowl. Leave it room. A cracker this small teaches restraint better than a sermon.