Mochi

mochi a Japanese glutinous (sticky) rice cake. The rice is steamed and pounded into a paste before being shaped into cakes. These may then be eaten while still soft or allowed to harden before being toasted and served with various accompaniments such as soy sauce, sugar, nori. As Hosking (1996) puts it:

They are one of the essential Japanese foods and, having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them.