I haven’t thought about these in years. To be honest I don’t think I was ever sure about what they were called other than brown sugar Mochi balls but you used to be able to get them some of the small mom-and-pop stores in Hawai’i. They were usually sold alongside of the sweet steamed rice cake which is also kind of difficult to find these days because as an old-school treat, they are not very fancy and they don’t photograph well so not much to show on social media. But they are fantastic to eat and it is always good to see people resurrecting favorites that generations of people have enjoyed. I think too often the culture is too focused on finding the next great thing and we lose sight of some of the smaller special tidbits that are cultural foundations.

I am very happy to see a pushback against people denigrating other cultures’ food. Not everything is going to be someone’s taste but usually there is something that is adjacent in the repertoire of a culture’s culinary offerings that someone can enjoy.

If you have the chance and the inclination, I would say try to make dau lau and see if you like it. I have also had it with brown sugar and peanut butter inside of it and that is something I highly recommend if you like that kind of thing.