26 August, 2009

My Japanese groceries

Yah - we found some Japanese groceries on the western side of Brisbane. We found:
  • Tsuyu - the soup with goes with one type of Japanese noodles Udon (it has other uses too, but this is what we've used it for)
  • Seaweed designed for eating with Japanese stirfry (different to sushi seaweed)
  • Japanese curry rice (packet for making this)
  • Instant miso soup mix
  • Green soybeans (edamame) - delicious addition to the vegetable mix on dinner plate
  • Calpis - a cultured milk drink. Ironically pronounced "karupiss". Not a good sound in English.
We also found (but didn't buy):
  • Green tea icecream
  • Rice (can buy this at large supermarkets)
  • various type of Japanese noodles (can also buy most of these at larger supermarkets)
  • Japanese flavoured drinks like "Pocari Sweat" (like a sports drink)
  • disposable Japanese chopsticks (shorter and rounder than Chinese chopsticks)
The store is mostly Korean, but as you can see, we've found plenty of Japanese food too. Big problem, though, if you were trying to live "Japanese style" - it was expensive. Same thing occurred when I went to buy origami paper five years ago here. So cheap in Japan and incredibly expensive here. Similar in reverse, I guess. Many common and cheap groceries here are very expensive in Japan. I guess it makes sense, really. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I was disappointed not to find Japanese rice crackers. The boys would've been delighted with that find. If you're wondering what I'm going to do with my haul, we're mostly going to use it for "Japanese flavoured" evenings/groups. To give people an experience of different aspects of Japanese cuisine - aside from the famous and rapidly becoming common "sushi".

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