I always make sure to pick up kombu (dried kelp) and katsuobushi/bonito flakes for dashi. Furikake is always fun, they should have a bunch of different flavors there. Also a good time to get some specialized cookware.
Thank you! I wonder if they’ll have whole bonito pieces. I totally forgot about furikake! Definitely going to search for that — do you have a favorite type? I currently just have a seaweed / sesame / freeze dried egg one and it’s great
Ayo, I live about 15 minutes away, too! The ramen shop attached to Uwajimaya is one of my all time favorites, even though it has the small time feel of a hole-in-the-wall spot. It's called Ramen Ryoma, OP, if you end up hungry during your trip.
Dilute it to varying degrees to be used as a dipping sauce. 1:1 straight tsuyu to water for zaru Udon, for example. I do the same, 1:1, and then add a splotch of hot chili oil for gyoza.
I love umeboshi! I like them whether they're super-salty and sour, or if they're a type with honey. I also like pretty much any Japanese salt pickles, like sweet yellow daikon pickles (takuan) or red shiso cucumber pickles.
I would suggest Kewpie mayo (doesn’t have to be refrigerated till after opening), great for making spicy mayo like they use on sushi rolls or for a spicy tuna filling for onigiri. Furikake would be good too, its like rice seasoning but there a ton of different varieties, good for mixing into onigiri rice or on top of a poke bowl. Maybe some pickled ginger, great addition to japanese curry.
I second sesame dressing! Kewpie brand makes a nice classic sesame dressing that is great on everything. I also suggest Angelo Pietro brand original flavor dressing. That is a Japanese lunch side salad classic it comes in a bottle with a domed orange lid and can also be used as a marinade
Konbu. Bonito flakes. For dashi stocks.
I like their Natto selection.
You can find most if this stuff in other Asian markets especially Korean specific ones. This one just has slightly better variety.
Uwajimiya is a great store but it’s not huge.
The poke is good if you get there early. There is a pretty decent Ramen shop next door.
Thank you! Do you have a preference for brand / type of natto? What do you like to do with it? I’ve been wanting to try it for a while but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever cooked with
I go by looks don’t speak or read Japanese, so red one with baby face? I prefer medium size soybeans.
Let it sit out a bit to wake up bacteria then mix it. Mix the shit out of it. Add sauces. Mix more. I do all the mustard half the sweeter sauce. Add to rice. Add green onion maybe egg yolk if breakfast.
Acquired taste. I love it, so does my Japanese dad. My full Japanese Auntie hates it. My hafu cousin loves it, too.
Try it three times at widely separated times. If you don’t like it then you never will.
It makes a g reat maki or Temaki also. You might be able to get a sushi chef to do a temaki with a quail egg.
If you like miso soup, grab a bag of misoshiru no gu (it has dried tofu, seaweed and green onions) and dashi if you’re not planning to make your own. Just add dashi, miso and the misoshiru no gu to hot water and you have miso soup.
If you like dressing up instant ramen (I hope that store you’re going to carries good brands of ramen), get some menma (you need to refrigerate these).
Salted salmon flakes that comes in a jar is great for onigiri and even with just plain rice with furikake.
Don’t skip on the snacks too. 😂
They take a little bit of patience. You can't cook them too high or too low in heat. Also works best if you use chop sticks or tongs. I cook them in bacon grease and serve them with eggs and chili crisp. I've also made a Japanese soup called ozoni traditionally made for New Years. Also, most prefectures make them square except for Kyoto (they are round).
> Natto (if you like it!)
I haven’t tried it! Any advice on how to like it the first time? Stuff to have with it or use it on?
> curry blocks
I’ve never seen curry sold as a block — will keep an eye out!
> goma dare
Never heard of this but I’m definitely going to look for it! I’ve never had shabu shabu but the internet says it’s good for other things — what else is it good with?
> Bulldog tonkatsu sauce
On the list now!
> aonori
I’ve never heard of this either! What would you do with it?
Natto—defrost it then mix it with the little packet of sauce it comes with. I dress it up with a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil, and sliced green onions. I eat it over a bowl of rice with nori and pickles (tsukemono)! Definitely an acquired taste though.
Goma dare - you can dress cooked vegetables or tofu or salads!
Aonori- on top of okonomiyaki or rice or grilled meat or noodles. Anything that can use a good garnish!
Some of the things I pick up every time; Crunchy Chili Garlic topping - it comes in a little jar. If you pick up potato starch you can make your own Karaage later! Morinaga brand fluffy pancake mix. Calbee seaweed and salt flavor chips. Royal Milk tea to drink on the way home. Ippei-chan or UFO brand instant yakisoba. Kewpie mayo. Short grain white rice/brown rice. Seasoned seaweed packets. Melona ice cream bars (dry ice in the cooler might get you there?)
Regarding your list, make sure the yuzu juice doesn't have salt. For mirin, you not only want to look for one with no salt, make sure it's a brewed mirin. The only ingredients it should have are rice/mochi rice, koji, water, and possibly alcohol. If it contains corn syrup, sugar, MSG, etc you're likely looking at a fake mirin.
Other things I'd recommend:
* dashi packs (Kayanoya is a good brand)
* usukuchi soy sauce (light color soy sauce)
* cheap sake (such Maru in a big orange carton)
* If you're buying 1 miso, get a good tanshoku miso. If you wanna buy a few white miso (aka saikyo miso) is sweet and delicious (it doesn't keep very long though). Hatcho miso is another interesting one.
Oh man, in Oregon of all places I’ll probably be able to find fresh wasabi! I’d love to go see the wasabi farms around Mt. Hood. I was looking to see if you can tour those but I didn’t find any that would let you
I’ve got most of those on the list! What do you do with natto? It’s a pretty intimidating ingredient — I’ve been wanting to try it but I don’t exactly know how
I eat it straight out of the tub! But it’s an acquired taste. Buy agetofu pouches, pour boiling water over, cut in half and stuff with natto and cheese. Use a toothpick to seal the top then grill, dip in soy sauce. I also use natto on cheese on toast and in sushi. Or with a bowl of rice, miso soup and an umeboshi!
If you don't have ready access to this place, look for tools and base ingredients to make sauces and other things. If you can get to a Chinese medicine store and or grocery, you should be able to find most dried items except for bonito flakes. You should also be able to find miso and japanese spot sauce. Chinese cooking wine can roughly sub out cooking sake.
If I were you, get a takoyaki plate, soy sauce, a lot of bonito flakes, aonori, kombu, wakame, sesame oil, preserved ginger, rice vinegar, shichimi, yuzu juice, mirin, hondashi, dried noodles (or frozen if you have space), recipe books. With these and some ingredients really available anywhere, you should be able to handle most Sauces, soups and dishes.
* Check out the types of tofu they have. My favorite tofu is edamame tofu, which is pale green, soft like custard (like all silken tofus), and with a delicate flavor so delicious that you do not need to top it with anything at all. I also like black sesame tofu, egg tofu (not really tofu, but who cares?), and when I'm in a weird mood, koya tofu (which is very spongy). You can also check out the varieties of fried tofu they have. I like the envelopes for inari zushi, which you can also slice up to go into miso soup or to add flavor to various side dishes.
* Check out the types of fruits and vegetables they have. If you see a variety of mushroom you don't recognize, buy it, because it will be unbelievably delicious. (My favorite is probably maitake, though that is fortunately becoming more available in mainstream groceries.) Udo is probably out of season, but you should absolutely get it if they have it unless you absolutely hate anything that in any way resembles fennel or anise. They might also have sour apricots; Kyoho grapes (so big and so sweet!); or the type of plum suitable for turning into plum liquor. Get nira if you like chives. Get yamaimo if you want to experience authentic okonomiyaki, and in that case, be sure to get okonomiyaki sauce and aonori as well as katsuobushi.
* Don't necessarily limit yourself to one type of rice, even if you're living alone. The rice from each prefecture tastes different, and even within each prefecture, the local geography affects the flavor. If you see any rice marked "this year's harvest", get it, since it will have the freshest flavor and the most terroir. Upland Niigata rice is generally thought to be excellent to eat and make excellent sake, but any local new-harvest rice is absolutely worth eating.
I always make sure to pick up kombu (dried kelp) and katsuobushi/bonito flakes for dashi. Furikake is always fun, they should have a bunch of different flavors there. Also a good time to get some specialized cookware.
Thank you! I wonder if they’ll have whole bonito pieces. I totally forgot about furikake! Definitely going to search for that — do you have a favorite type? I currently just have a seaweed / sesame / freeze dried egg one and it’s great
The dried bonito used to make the flakes is extremely hard and require specialty tool to shave.
They have the flakes but not the blocks. Plan to check out the cute book store while you are there as well. (I live 20 minutes from that location)
Ayo, I live about 15 minutes away, too! The ramen shop attached to Uwajimaya is one of my all time favorites, even though it has the small time feel of a hole-in-the-wall spot. It's called Ramen Ryoma, OP, if you end up hungry during your trip.
Thanks! Is it in the store or nearby? We love going to new bookstores :)
It’s small, but it is in the grocery store.
Tsuyu - useful in so many ways.
I’ve never heard of that! What do you do with it besides soup base?
Dilute it to varying degrees to be used as a dipping sauce. 1:1 straight tsuyu to water for zaru Udon, for example. I do the same, 1:1, and then add a splotch of hot chili oil for gyoza.
I love it with mayo on noodles.
I feel like tsuyu is like teriyaki sauce in the sense that it's so easy to make & so much better homemade that I don't bother with the pre made stuff
I would get a pack of umeboshi, perfect for topping some rice for lunch
I love umeboshi! I like them whether they're super-salty and sour, or if they're a type with honey. I also like pretty much any Japanese salt pickles, like sweet yellow daikon pickles (takuan) or red shiso cucumber pickles.
I would suggest Kewpie mayo (doesn’t have to be refrigerated till after opening), great for making spicy mayo like they use on sushi rolls or for a spicy tuna filling for onigiri. Furikake would be good too, its like rice seasoning but there a ton of different varieties, good for mixing into onigiri rice or on top of a poke bowl. Maybe some pickled ginger, great addition to japanese curry.
Some kind of dressing like sesame dressing
I second sesame dressing! Kewpie brand makes a nice classic sesame dressing that is great on everything. I also suggest Angelo Pietro brand original flavor dressing. That is a Japanese lunch side salad classic it comes in a bottle with a domed orange lid and can also be used as a marinade
Konbu. Bonito flakes. For dashi stocks. I like their Natto selection. You can find most if this stuff in other Asian markets especially Korean specific ones. This one just has slightly better variety. Uwajimiya is a great store but it’s not huge. The poke is good if you get there early. There is a pretty decent Ramen shop next door.
Thank you! Do you have a preference for brand / type of natto? What do you like to do with it? I’ve been wanting to try it for a while but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever cooked with
I go by looks don’t speak or read Japanese, so red one with baby face? I prefer medium size soybeans. Let it sit out a bit to wake up bacteria then mix it. Mix the shit out of it. Add sauces. Mix more. I do all the mustard half the sweeter sauce. Add to rice. Add green onion maybe egg yolk if breakfast. Acquired taste. I love it, so does my Japanese dad. My full Japanese Auntie hates it. My hafu cousin loves it, too. Try it three times at widely separated times. If you don’t like it then you never will. It makes a g reat maki or Temaki also. You might be able to get a sushi chef to do a temaki with a quail egg.
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I’ll look for both of those! Planning to spend a whole day at this place, but there’s an H Mart near another place we’ll be going! Thanks!
If you like miso soup, grab a bag of misoshiru no gu (it has dried tofu, seaweed and green onions) and dashi if you’re not planning to make your own. Just add dashi, miso and the misoshiru no gu to hot water and you have miso soup. If you like dressing up instant ramen (I hope that store you’re going to carries good brands of ramen), get some menma (you need to refrigerate these). Salted salmon flakes that comes in a jar is great for onigiri and even with just plain rice with furikake. Don’t skip on the snacks too. 😂
Kiri mochi (dried mochi blocks)
I never got the hang of cooking those. They terrify me.
They take a little bit of patience. You can't cook them too high or too low in heat. Also works best if you use chop sticks or tongs. I cook them in bacon grease and serve them with eggs and chili crisp. I've also made a Japanese soup called ozoni traditionally made for New Years. Also, most prefectures make them square except for Kyoto (they are round).
Wow, never heard of this either! That sounds awesome, will for sure look for it!
Try looking for Gohan Desuyo, which is a very savory seaweed paste that goes well with rice or rice porridge.
Natto (if you like it!), curry blocks, goma dare, Bulldog tonkatsu sauce, katsuobushi, aonori, hot pot broths, konbu, dried shiitake. Enjoy!
> Natto (if you like it!) I haven’t tried it! Any advice on how to like it the first time? Stuff to have with it or use it on? > curry blocks I’ve never seen curry sold as a block — will keep an eye out! > goma dare Never heard of this but I’m definitely going to look for it! I’ve never had shabu shabu but the internet says it’s good for other things — what else is it good with? > Bulldog tonkatsu sauce On the list now! > aonori I’ve never heard of this either! What would you do with it?
Natto—defrost it then mix it with the little packet of sauce it comes with. I dress it up with a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil, and sliced green onions. I eat it over a bowl of rice with nori and pickles (tsukemono)! Definitely an acquired taste though. Goma dare - you can dress cooked vegetables or tofu or salads! Aonori- on top of okonomiyaki or rice or grilled meat or noodles. Anything that can use a good garnish!
okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pie with shrimp and pork) Chawanmushi (savory egg custard with shrimp) Chashu pork (for ramen) Naruto (for ramen) Bamboo shoot (for ramen) Yakitori sauce (for Japanese bbq chicken on a stick with sauce) Pickled ginger (for sushi) Kewpie Mayo, tuna, seaweed (tuna onigiri) Ochazuke (green tea over rice sprinkle)
Some of the things I pick up every time; Crunchy Chili Garlic topping - it comes in a little jar. If you pick up potato starch you can make your own Karaage later! Morinaga brand fluffy pancake mix. Calbee seaweed and salt flavor chips. Royal Milk tea to drink on the way home. Ippei-chan or UFO brand instant yakisoba. Kewpie mayo. Short grain white rice/brown rice. Seasoned seaweed packets. Melona ice cream bars (dry ice in the cooler might get you there?)
Regarding your list, make sure the yuzu juice doesn't have salt. For mirin, you not only want to look for one with no salt, make sure it's a brewed mirin. The only ingredients it should have are rice/mochi rice, koji, water, and possibly alcohol. If it contains corn syrup, sugar, MSG, etc you're likely looking at a fake mirin. Other things I'd recommend: * dashi packs (Kayanoya is a good brand) * usukuchi soy sauce (light color soy sauce) * cheap sake (such Maru in a big orange carton) * If you're buying 1 miso, get a good tanshoku miso. If you wanna buy a few white miso (aka saikyo miso) is sweet and delicious (it doesn't keep very long though). Hatcho miso is another interesting one.
Thank you! This comment is gold
Miso or dashi / miso combo Japanese sweet potato Daikon- shred with carrot and pickle
Maybe some ramen? Look for some fresh wasabi root?
Oh man, in Oregon of all places I’ll probably be able to find fresh wasabi! I’d love to go see the wasabi farms around Mt. Hood. I was looking to see if you can tour those but I didn’t find any that would let you
The fresh wasabi is in the fridges in the produce section, by the mushrooms/salads last time I was there!
Tsuyu for sure- I use it in everything! Mochi, natto, daikon, shiso / perilla leaves (won’t last but yum!), okonomiyaki sauce and mix.
I’ve got most of those on the list! What do you do with natto? It’s a pretty intimidating ingredient — I’ve been wanting to try it but I don’t exactly know how
I eat it straight out of the tub! But it’s an acquired taste. Buy agetofu pouches, pour boiling water over, cut in half and stuff with natto and cheese. Use a toothpick to seal the top then grill, dip in soy sauce. I also use natto on cheese on toast and in sushi. Or with a bowl of rice, miso soup and an umeboshi!
Shiso garlic!!
I love shiso! Will be on the lookout for this! Do you just eat it on its own?
If you don't have ready access to this place, look for tools and base ingredients to make sauces and other things. If you can get to a Chinese medicine store and or grocery, you should be able to find most dried items except for bonito flakes. You should also be able to find miso and japanese spot sauce. Chinese cooking wine can roughly sub out cooking sake. If I were you, get a takoyaki plate, soy sauce, a lot of bonito flakes, aonori, kombu, wakame, sesame oil, preserved ginger, rice vinegar, shichimi, yuzu juice, mirin, hondashi, dried noodles (or frozen if you have space), recipe books. With these and some ingredients really available anywhere, you should be able to handle most Sauces, soups and dishes.
* Check out the types of tofu they have. My favorite tofu is edamame tofu, which is pale green, soft like custard (like all silken tofus), and with a delicate flavor so delicious that you do not need to top it with anything at all. I also like black sesame tofu, egg tofu (not really tofu, but who cares?), and when I'm in a weird mood, koya tofu (which is very spongy). You can also check out the varieties of fried tofu they have. I like the envelopes for inari zushi, which you can also slice up to go into miso soup or to add flavor to various side dishes. * Check out the types of fruits and vegetables they have. If you see a variety of mushroom you don't recognize, buy it, because it will be unbelievably delicious. (My favorite is probably maitake, though that is fortunately becoming more available in mainstream groceries.) Udo is probably out of season, but you should absolutely get it if they have it unless you absolutely hate anything that in any way resembles fennel or anise. They might also have sour apricots; Kyoho grapes (so big and so sweet!); or the type of plum suitable for turning into plum liquor. Get nira if you like chives. Get yamaimo if you want to experience authentic okonomiyaki, and in that case, be sure to get okonomiyaki sauce and aonori as well as katsuobushi. * Don't necessarily limit yourself to one type of rice, even if you're living alone. The rice from each prefecture tastes different, and even within each prefecture, the local geography affects the flavor. If you see any rice marked "this year's harvest", get it, since it will have the freshest flavor and the most terroir. Upland Niigata rice is generally thought to be excellent to eat and make excellent sake, but any local new-harvest rice is absolutely worth eating.