|
Welcome! We are a small family grocery carrying the foods of Japan, Korea and China, plus a growing shelf
of Thai and Filipino items that customers keep asking for. If you have been cooking from a Japanese
cookbook and can't find the ingredients at the supermarket, we probably have them. If you don't know what
something is, ask; we like explaining, and we have been known to send people home with a free taste of something and
instructions written on the bag.
| What We Carry |
Rice. Short-grain Japanese-style rice (California grown) in 5, 15 and 25-pound bags;
premium koshihikari-type in 15-pound bags; sweet (glutinous) rice; Thai jasmine and long-grain rice;
brown rice. The 25-pound bag is the best value by far, and it keeps for months in a cool dry place.
Noodles. Udon (fresh in the cooler, and dried), soba (buckwheat), somen, ramen (fresh and instant, at least
twenty kinds of instant), Korean sweet-potato noodles for japchae, rice sticks, bean thread, fresh Chinese
egg noodles, and dumpling and wonton wrappers.
Miso and soy. White (shiro), red (aka) and mixed miso in tubs; Korean doenjang and gochujang; Japanese
soy sauce in bottles and gallon jugs, plus light, low-salt and tamari; Chinese light and dark soy;
Korean soy for soup; mirin, rice vinegar, sake for cooking, sesame oil, and oyster, hoisin and black bean
sauces.
Seaweed and dry goods. Nori for sushi (toasted, full sheets and strips), wakame, kombu, hijiki,
bonito flakes and instant dashi, dried shiitake, panko bread crumbs, curry roux blocks (mild, medium, hot),
furikake rice seasonings, and pickled plum.
Pickles and cooler. Takuan (yellow pickled daikon), kimchi in three sizes (we make our own on
Mondays, and it is spicy), pickled ginger, pickled cucumber and eggplant, natto, fish cake, fresh tofu (see
below), fried tofu pockets for inari sushi, fresh udon, and fresh gyoza wrappers.
Frozen. Gyoza and Korean mandu dumplings (pork, chicken, vegetable), shumai, edamame in the pod,
mochi ice cream, frozen udon, tempura shrimp, fish and squid, and Chinese buns.
Snacks and sweets. A whole aisle: chocolate-dipped biscuit sticks, rice crackers (senbei) in a dozen
shapes, shrimp chips, seaweed snacks, gummy candies, Japanese chewing gum, red bean cakes, mochi, and
the individually wrapped hard candies our customers' grandmothers remember.
Tea. Green tea (sencha, genmaicha with roasted rice, houjicha, matcha powder), barley tea for summer,
Korean corn tea, jasmine and oolong, and the roasted tea bags we drink ourselves.
Housewares. Rice cookers (5-cup and 10-cup, the good Japanese brands), rice paddles, sushi
rolling mats, bamboo steamers, chopsticks, rice bowls, soup bowls with lids, teapots, and the little
ceramic graters for ginger and daikon.
Produce, Thursdays and Fridays. Napa cabbage, daikon, bok choy, Japanese eggplant, shiso leaves
in season, ginger, scallions, bean sprouts, enoki and shiitake mushrooms, Asian pears in the fall, and
persimmons starting in October.
|
Fresh Tofu Thursdays
Every Thursday morning a tofu maker two towns over delivers fresh tofu made that same morning: firm and
soft (silken), in tubs of water, $1.25 a block. It tastes like something and it is nothing like the
supermarket kind. It usually sells out by Saturday afternoon, so come early in the week. Keep it in the
refrigerator in water, change the water daily, and use it within four days. The same delivery brings fresh
fried tofu (atsuage) and the thin fried pockets for inari sushi.
|
| This Week's Specials: Monday, September 27 - Sunday, October 3, 1999 |
| Short-grain rice, 25-lb bag | $12.99 (reg. $14.99) |
| White miso, 1-lb tub | $2.49 |
| Toasted nori, 10 full sheets | $1.99 |
| Frozen pork gyoza, bag of 50 | $4.99 |
| Instant ramen, any brand, 5-pack | $1.49 |
| Our own kimchi, quart jar | $3.99 |
| Genmaicha green tea, 100 bags | $3.29 |
| Asian pears, first of the season | 3 for $2.00 |
| 5-cup rice cooker (with the special above: rice and cooker together) | $39.99 / $49.99 |
| Specials change every Monday. Print this page or mention it at the register. Students with a university ID get 5% off every day; no need for a coupon. |
| How to Cook Japanese Rice |
Customers ask us this every day, and the answer is on the back of the bag, but here it is in plain
English. This is for short-grain rice on the stove. A rice cooker does the same thing with a button; if you
eat rice more than twice a week, buy one and never think about it again.
- Measure with the little cup that came with your rice cooker (it is 180 ml, a bit less than a
U.S. cup) or a regular cup, 1 cup dry rice for two people.
- Wash. Put the rice in a bowl, cover with cold water, swirl with your hand, pour off the cloudy
water. Repeat four or five times, until the water is mostly clear. This removes the surface starch; skip
it and your rice will be gummy.
- Soak. Drain, then add fresh water: for 1 cup rice, 1 cup plus about 2 tablespoons water
(roughly one to one and a small bit more). Let it sit 30 minutes. Do not skip this either.
- Cook. Heavy pot, tight lid. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn the heat to the
lowest setting, cover, and cook 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid.
- Rest. Turn off the heat and let it sit, still covered, for 10 minutes.
- Fluff gently with a wet rice paddle or wooden spoon, cutting and folding, not stirring.
The rice should be glossy, a little sticky, and each grain separate. For sushi rice, fold in seasoned
rice vinegar (we sell it ready-made) while the rice is hot, fanning it as you go. Leftover rice keeps in
the refrigerator for a day or two; sprinkle with water and warm it covered.
|
| Emiko's Everyday Miso Soup |
This is what we eat for breakfast. Ten minutes. Serves four.
- 4 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock). The quick way: 4 cups water plus 1 teaspoon instant dashi
granules. The real way: put a 4-inch piece of kombu in 4 cups cold water, bring it just to a boil, take
out the kombu, add a big handful of bonito flakes, turn off the heat, wait 2 minutes, strain.
- 3 tablespoons miso (white is mild and a little sweet; red is stronger; we use a mix)
- Half a block of soft tofu, cut in half-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon dried wakame seaweed, soaked 5 minutes in water and squeezed
- 2 scallions, sliced thin
Heat the dashi to a simmer. Add the tofu and wakame and let them warm through for a minute. Put the miso in
a ladle, lower the ladle into the soup and stir the miso with chopsticks until it dissolves, then stir
it into the pot. Do not let the soup boil after the miso goes in; boiling ruins the flavor and
the aroma. Add the scallions, turn off the heat, serve at once. Other things that are good in it: sliced
mushrooms, spinach, a few clams, thin slices of daikon or potato (put those in earlier and cook until
tender), or a little fried tofu.
|
| Hours |
Monday through Saturday: 9:30 am to 7:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Closed New Year's Day, and we close early on Christmas Eve. Otherwise we are here.
We take cash, checks with ID, Visa and MasterCard. Parking is behind the building and on the street. Free
delivery on orders over $50 within the city on Wednesday afternoons; e-mail your list or leave it at the
counter by Tuesday.
|
| Our Story |
|
We opened Sakura in the spring of 1986 in half of the space we have now. Hiroshi had come to Riverton
in 1979 to work as an engineer at the plant, and for seven years the nearest place to buy real rice, real
soy sauce or a sheet of nori was a three-hour drive. Emiko was cooking for a circle of Japanese and Korean
families who were driving to the city once a month and splitting a carload of groceries. After enough of
those trips, we decided the town could support a store, and we were nearly wrong for the first two years.
What saved us was the university: the international students found us, then their American roommates
found us, then the roommates' mothers. In 1992 we took over the laundromat's old storage room and doubled
the floor space; in 1995 we put in the second cooler and started carrying fresh produce.
Today most of our customers are not Asian at all. They are people who took a cooking class, or lived in
Japan or Korea for a year, or just like ramen. We think that is wonderful. Our daughter, who was three
when we opened, is now at the university herself and built this web page for us on her computer; our son
runs the register on weekends and knows more about the snack aisle than we do. Thank you for thirteen
years. Domo arigato gozaimasu.
-- Hiroshi and Emiko W.
|
Neighbors in the Tokyo neighborhood: Anime Otaku Central (their club buys a lot of snacks) ·
Bonsai for the Patient ·
Eastside Judo Club
More kitchens: Rosa's Kitchen Table ·
Miss Odette's Creole Kitchen
Tokyo neighborhood · GeoCities.us home
Special orders, questions, delivery lists: [email protected]
You are customer number
   
Last updated Sunday, September 26, 1999 (new specials). © 1999 Sakura Asian Grocery.
|
GeoCities.us
» Tokyo » Market
Sakura Asian Grocery