bocastephen

I thought I would start a thread for folks to post questions about how or where to buy something in their home country that they ate/drank/saw in Japan.

So to get started, my request is Japanese soft tofu for traditional hiyayakko. We stayed at the RTTG resort in Kyoto last week and their traditional Japanese breakfast starts with hiyayakko, which is this amazing scoop of cold, slightly sweet tofu served over a banana leaf in a wicker basket, and you can add mashed ginger, green onion and soy sauce. I've never seen this type or flavor of soft tofu in the USA - it was slightly brownish in color and had a different flavor and texture than the normal bleached-white soft tofu you get in a US supermarket. Has anyone seen a Japanese tofu used for hiyayakko in a US Japanese supermarket, specifically in the LA area? Is there a specific name I should I ask for?

BeachRat

You probably want to hit up Meiji Tofu in Gardena. A very tiny tofu shop on Western near Artesia, that sells several different kinds of in-house made tofu. While I wouldn't call any of them browinsh in color, their flavor is really outstanding, and we also serve it with mashed ginger, green onion and soy sauce. Our goto option is the Supreme Kumidashi. You can find a couple of their varieties in both Marukai and Mitsuwa, but the selection at their mini-factory / store is better. Limited hours and cash only, but oh so worth it.

MEIJI TOFU CO.

bocastephen

Perfect, that's exactly what I am looking for! Thank you

evergrn

If you live in US, how are you dealing with this? Or there's just no getting around it?

First of all, just about all the best Japanese instant noodles have been unavailable in US since ~2010.
Recently I've noticed that some of my favorite dressings and condiments suddenly decided to specify on their labels that there may be instances where traces of chicken are contained. I don't know why they started doing that, and it's super annoying because I'm having to give up bringing back increasing number of condiments back from Jpn. Nothing has changed about any of those products, except the labels.

bocastephen

Is it an allergy or dietary issue? I regularly bring back meat curry which is unavailable in local US Japanese supermarkets. I've never had an issue since I always declare "cooking sauce" (which it is) and no one has said anything - I don't believe they can read the labels.

What I really wish I could bring back, or find locally, are Japanese eggs with the deep, dark orange yolks. The closest I've found so far is the local farm a few minutes from my house, but they don't feed the chickens enough beta carotene feed to get that super dark, rich color and texture.

evergrn

I believe US has ban on anything chicken from Jpn, including chicken extract. If you go to any Japanese grocery store in US, I guarantee you won't find any item that has anything chicken-related in the ingredient.
Before I got GE, I had everything with chicken in it confiscated during secondary screen. Forget where, may have been SEA or SFO. There're actually customs officers who've been trained to look for certain characters associated with chicken (鶏,チキン).
So many rice sprinklers, instant noodles, curry, etc, etc, have trace amounts of curry. I love corn dressings from Jpn. I swear their labels did not say chicken this past March when I was last there. But in July all the corn dressings specified that traces of chicken may be contained.

Do you have GE? I don't want to take a chance. But I wish US would lift this restriction.

Interestingly, I just returned via SFO last month and there was zero customs check. Cleared immigration, then picked up bags off carousel, then surprisingly there was no further checkpoint and no one to talk before exiting the area for domestic transit bag drop.

bocastephen

I have GE/Nexus but I always declare food and they are only ever interested in confirming no fruits or vegetables, they never ask about meat, seeds, plants, etc. and the process is over in about 3 seconds.

rustykettel

Me too!

bocastephen

Also truth be told, it's not customs regulations that started to curtail my shopping sprees - it's the result of looking at the nutrition information on the cooking sauce and curry packages and realizing that the sodium count per serving is counted in G and not MG! Who the heck eats 2GRAMS of sodium in one meal??? Apparently people in Japan! Yet everyone seems very thin and very healthy.

My other half had a look at one of the packages and banned me from buying any more of it, so now I am just shopping mostly for tea bags (the Life Supermarket sentcha/matcha combo bags are the best), matcha powder, some pharmacy odds and ends, and haiga rice (white rice with the bran so your body thinks it's brown rice, but your mouth thinks it's white rice).

The worst was seeing some of the huge, old bonsai trees for sale near the bonsai museum outside Tokyo that were $150-200 there, but would sell for $6,000+++ in the USA, and knowing there was no way I could bring it back with me.

evergrn

Japanese people may be thin, but high BP is pretty prevalent in Jpn.

I still don't know how to resolve the poultry ingredient issue. Technically it's not allowed. I'm certain of this.
Declaring my possessions as "sauce" or "condiment" with assumption that they won't further scrutinize seems risky to me. As I mentioned before, I was already subject to mass-confiscation. I'd been very compliant ever since, never bringing back any condiment with any little mention of chicken/poultry. But now that more and more products are changing their labels to add "may contain chicken" blurb, we're being deprived of all these things we've been using and it's getting a bit ridiculous.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...r-personal-use
Jpn has had incidences of bird flu. Hence the restriction of poultry goods from Jpn.

Gradfly

Sometimes I think it depends on who you get at inspection or your port of entry. On my last trip to Japan, I declared the groceries I had bought. I mentioned to the customs officer I had rice when asked about fruits and vegetables. Only follow-up question was whether it was packaged, which it was. I guess they were satisfied and they let me pass through. As reference, this was at DFW and I'm GE.

When I crossed the US/Canadian land border, did the same thing and declared the various Asian groceries in my backseat as well as my frozen ribeyes. CBP officer told me I was good since my stuff was processed/packaged.

Which port of entry do you usually go through? Just my experience but I've found LAX customs to be more understanding compared to ORD or DFW.

jib71

Does anyone bring unpackaged rice with them?
How?

Jaimito Cartero

BeachRat

We came close, but thankfully didn't. Brought back 50 pounds of yamadanishiki direct from our supplier. They had the forethought to split it into 4 / 12.5 pound bags for easier packing. Otherwise, we may have had to split the bag...

aresef

I've seen Japanese Kit-Kats (with an expected markup) at the chain Lolli and Pops but, uh, turns out they just filed for bankruptcy, so act fast.