I love mochi!
But my family mostly eats tteok, which is Korean rice cake. And songpyeon is tteok that is most like mochi. These are great finger-food treats for holidays and social gatherings. My favorite are the ones with toasted sesame on the outside and sweet bean on the inside.
There is a Chinese dim sum treat that is similar to what you describe (we massacre the pronunciation to “jeen duey”). I love, love LOVE those.
My local Chinese places also have those… But they just call 'em “sesame balls”.
My experiences with mochi have all been from New Years celebrations at the aikido dojo I practice at. After the 1000 bokken cuts we have fried mochi wrapped in nori and then dipped in tamari sauce, washed down with sake from bottles that have sat on the kamiza for the previous year. I find the mochi to be pretty bland, the flavour is all in the nori and sauce, not to mention the sake.
One macabre twsit to this, choking to death from eating mochi is a thing, more common among the very young and the elderly - Delicious but deadly mochi: The Japanese rice cakes that kill
I love mochi. Unfortunately, my favourite place to get it locally just closed down recently. Their mochi truffles were to die for - especially the limited edition ones like the Valentine’s or their Easter Egg mochi.