Mochi Donut Pop-Up Shop – What It Takes

A short run-and-gun documentary about what it takes to run a popular mochi donut pop-up shop. Take a look behind the scenes of MoDo Hawaii over the course of a few days in March 2020 as the unknowing shelter-in-place order approaches in California.

ABOUT MODO HAWAII
"Founded three years ago (in Honolulu, of course) by Kenny Chen, Daniel Furumura, and David Mao, the bakery quickly developed a rabid cult following and its signature sole offering is considered by many to be the gold standard of mochi doughnuts." – Chowhound

THANK YOU
I have never made a documentary before so this is my first crack at it. Thank you to Modo Hawaii for allowing me to capture their journey. Thanks for watching and be sure to check out MoDo Hawaii and their hot & fresh mochi donuts! Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more of these.

FOLLOW ME

FOLLOW MODO HAWAII

SPECIAL THANKS
MoDo Hawaii, Mitsuwa San Jose

#MoDoHawaii #MochiDonuts #MochiDonut #Documentary #FoodDocumentary

[JeffersonHI]

What a fantastic documentary short! This gives us a window into the tireless effort that is required to run a "small business." I found it amusing that Sharlene's official job title read, "Social Media Manager/Graphic Designer, " but all of her Other Duties As Assigned included loading up all of the 25# bags of (proprietary formula) rice flour needed for the day, mixing the "wet stuff" in preparation for the next day, prepping the dough, lugging the heavy box of black sesame ("...the gold") and heaving it up onto its top perch in the storeroom, preparing the fruit glazes including the black sesame glaze (from scratch!), wrapping her fingers to protect them from burning when dropping the hot product onto the glaze (a bit of wisdom which could only have been learned from a prior bad experience), expertly glazing each donut without being heavy-handed about it (and making them less than perfect), and oh - in addition to all of this minute-to-minute activity - she then constructs and trouble-shoots their online ordering system...probably while at home, at night, before getting some much-needed sleep. It made me tired just writing it all down. But Sharlene would be the first one to tell me that everything she does is also done by each of the MoDo team members - including my son, Daniel. I'm so happy that the film shows that all of their hard work and dedication to producing the perfect mochi donut has not only won over the San Jose community but has brought them success in SoCal, too (Irvine and Torrance). As the film points out, it all began with the first pop-up event in San Jose in 2018. It was important for them to open their first stand-alone store in the community where their success on the Mainland was first recognized. Thank you, San Jose! And mahalo plenty, ninjason, for this terrific documentary.

[tete]

So sad to hear that all of the Modo Hawaii locations have closed, truly were my favorite mochi donuts!!

[gillynova]

Definitely feeling the timelapses you shot

[trudylemke]

I can’t wait to try these donuts. I’m close to Irvine.

[maximiller]

From the design of the store, boxes and the donuts are perfect. I just find out about these donuts and I can't stop eating.

[gillynova]

Nice video bro! Definitely keep it up! - Jez’ cousin

[siptang]

can someone please tell me the name of the machine that drops the already formed dough into the frying oil xd

[estefaniasanchez]

Soy de España, donde puedo comprar la máquina de mochi donuts?

[christinad]

5:50 You could break/damage your scale pushing down on it like that. Trust me lol

[didinogueras]

What's the white stuff the girl put in the Tupperware? Was the lard??

[scullyz]

Where is this? I live in Hawaii. Never heard of this place.

[mr.durangos]

I sell the 98% effective recipe. I show you the preparation step by step with exact ingredients according to your country