AlwaysAisle

Yes, it is Ebisuya at Medford. Wow, you know the Japanese grocery store used to be located at Central? I lived at Boston long time ago, then moved to Los Angeles (Hermosa Beach, yes, I was a beach bum ) for 15 years, and now I am back at Boston. Japanese grocery store at Central dates back to when I was at Boston pre Los Angeles time.

Yes, Ebisuya is doing well. Pretty much it is weekend if I go there but always busy. Once I read an interview article about the owner of Ebiisuya on local Boston newspaper, the owner said when the Japanese grocery store at Central closed Boston was in a situation of not having Japanese grocery store at all. The owner started Ebisuya then. I never thought about Medford location of Ebisuya not accessible by T, true if no car then it is not easy place to access. Selection at Ebisuya is good, pretty much can find what needed. Ebisuya now has made to order sushi and bento stand. Sushi is make your own selection, bento listing are tonkatsu (pork cutlet), aji fry (fried mackerel), chicken karaage (Japanese fried chicken), and Japanese curry rice. Those are all made to order. I think sushi made to order is good, even if I include ikura (salmon roe) and uni (sea urchin) sushi with 10 pieces come out to be around $25. At local so called "sushi restaurant" sushi regular will likely be repeat of salmon, tuna, salmon, tuna, salmon, tuna and California roll...

As far as Japanese grocery stores and restaurants scene at Boston is concerned today, beside Ebisuya at Medford this February Japanese grocery store at Hartford, CT called Maruichi opened at Brookline. Maruichi Brookline is right at Coolidge Corner of Green Line C, Cleveland Circle Line. Maruichi is accessible by T and selections look like not much different from Ebisuya. Maruichi has small food court setting with Brooklyn Ramen.

As for Japanese restaurants at Boston, small Japanese shops at Porter Exchange building at Porter Square is still there. Popular izakaya style restaurant Ittoku used to be located at Brighton moved to Porter Exchange end of last year. Santouka (山頭火) is at Harvard, there is also Totto (鳥人) ramen, is this also from Japan? I know there is Totto ramen at New York City. Udon restaurant Tsurutontan from New York City opened at Kenmore Square. Also, FuGaKyu restaurant at Brookline used to be popular with Japanese, what I heard is that about ten years ago there was Japanese TV drama and actress Hitomi Kuroki's character lived at Boston and Hitomi Kuroki's character worked at FuGaKyu restaurant in the drama. But looks like this "boom" has die down now and there are far less Japanese tourists at this restaurant today.

AlwaysAisle

Talk about kakiage, this is frozen kakiage I bought at Ebisuya Japanese grocery store at Medford (just north of Boston).



And the label on that back says...



Yes, it says "Not For Retail." Looks like this is supposed to be for restaurants and such, not to be sold at grocery stores to public... And it came all the way from Thailand...

evergrn

Glad to hear that Ebisuya is doing well. You know the one at Central?! That was where I went the most!
I spent some time in Boston, until 8-10yrs ago. When I got there, we had the Japan center (with Kotobukiya market) at Porter, Cherry Mart on Newbury, that Japanese market in Central, Reliable Market in Somerville (Korean owned, but the items there were mostly Japanese) and also the one in Central.
During the time I was in Boston, I think every single one of those grocery stores closed except for Reliable.

I have not heard of Maruichi, but Coolidge Corner is a great location for Jpn grocery store. I think Coolidge Corner is the absolute best urban area in all of Boston with lots of foot traffic. Tons of Japanese people there, many of them doing things at Longwood Medical. Plus everyone who lives in Coolidge Corner are health-concious and culturally savvy, so I bet Japanese store would do great there. But I hope it doesn't take business away from Ebisuya too much. I cannot believe that a japanese grocery store existed in Hartford, as I wouldn't have thought there're many Japaense living there.

I don't know any of the restaurants you mention, except Santouka is a chain that definitely did not exist in Boston when I was there. And I know Fugakyu... they were not very good back then. I don't go to Japanese restaurants in USA much at all, but we did used to go to Minado buffet in Natick and then there was also Oga Restaurant in Natick that I'd take my parents to when they'd visit. Have you been to Oga?

Oh there was a restaurant called Shiro way out near Hudson/Marlborough. It was actually owned by Japanese people. Oddest location for a Japanese restaurant owned/operated by Japanese. I didn't think they were that good, but other Japanese people swore by that place. Do you know that one?

(sorry to others for this trip down Boston memory lane)

I don't know if the one I mentioned from Trader Joe's is any better than the one you bought from Ebisuya. But I bet it's cheaper.
I'd like to recommend you try the one from Trader Joe's. Again it's in the frozen section and it's called Bird's Nest.
Trader Joe's Vegetable Bird's Nests Review ? Freezer Meal Frenzy

weegiewife

jeez, I remember the store at Central Square from childhood. I was sad when it closed. Same with Kotobukiya/Porter Square. I still haven't managed to get to Ebisuya but glad to hear it is still going strong. If you are near the south shore at all, Kam Man in Quincy operates as mostly a pan asian supermarket and also has a fair selection of pantry staples but fewer good fresh options.

LapLap, I am sure you may know this but Japan Centre in London does delivery by post and, while they are expensive, they also have a reasonable selection of essentials.

I am on lockdown right now in coastal Scotland so am relying on what things I have managed to bring home from my last trip to Japan in February. Trying to eek them out as long as I can...but I am loving looking at everyone's photos.

LapLap

Our usual go to point is the wonderful Rice Wine Shop in Brewer Street, but we have a fantastic Korean store just a 10 minute walk away, so if this lock down does continue we can still get most of our staples.

I had this Guardian recipe pointed out to me recently. It’s hilarious. I happen to be the kind of person who does have all the ingredients needed in their store cupboard - but I have them there for a reason! * No way would I waste them on whatever it is this recipe is for.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/202...kake-fried-egg

I figure that if there was a Venn diagram of people who’d have these ingredients in stock and people who’d like to follow this recipe it would consist of two separate, non-overlapping circles.

*I buy Mirin/Mirim regularly, a bottle never lasts longer than 6 months.

evergrn

I actually have been to that Kan Man a couple times. And the pho restaurant on the same parking lot.
They did have a decent selection of Japanese food items as I recall, but that was maybe 10yrs ago.

MSYtoJFKagain

I made some more sushi rice yesterday for lunch. Sadly, there were no pictures this time. I handmade a few Spam musubi and practiced my temaki rolling skills with some spicy canned tuna and leftover scraps of smoked salmon. It definitely gets easier as your comfortability handling the sushi and nori grows. I can see why people use the mold for musubi, it is very tough to get a good shape and even tougher to get it to stay together. I made 4 and I would (grudgingly) say that only one was really edible as a musubi, the rest were just rice and spam.

On a sad note, our Korean market downstairs has scaled back their prepared foods considerably over the last week. Premade bibimbaps and gimbaps have all but disappeared. They've conspicuously been unable to restock their Asian coffees/drinks and those are meager now. Thankfully they are now VERY well stocked with flour, vegetables, and paper goods so I can simply make my own!

The restaurant I have been ordering our prepared meals from is doing a good deal on a wagyu galbi addition to their menu. 14oz portion for $20 (You can get two). I'm sure it's merely American washugyu but even being a bone-in cut, it's a nice price. Our local wagyu vendor is actually running some steep discounts on A5 Miyazaki but I honestly wouldn't feel comfortable cooking it. Even discounted 20% it is nearly $120 per pound! I'm going to just save that money for when we're in Japan in February.

AlwaysAisle

A Sushi chef at a Sushi restaurant at Westchester County at New York once told me that Japanese rice still stick and hold shape when it is cold. But other rice when hot it sticks and hold shape together but once cold will not stick and not hold shape well. When making musubi or onigiri hands are used to shape rice, and obviously cool down cooked rice so that is easier to handle by hands. But not using Japanese rice making musubi or onigiri may be difficult because at cool temperature where rice can be handled by hands it may not stick and hold shape.

Ths is according to the sushi chef at Westchester county.

MSYtoJFKagain

That makes a lot of sense. It looks like I'll be doing temaki for lunch and musubi for dinner next time!

LapLap

I think AlwaysAisle nailed it - your calrose type rice would need to be piping hot if you want to shape it for anything other than norimaki/temaki.

Every now and again I’ve had to make large batches of onigiri (without nori) for groups of little people with not quite optimal rice. If you don’t use piping hot rice for this, the onigiri shapes disintegrate in a child’s hands - the mess is horrendous and the kids go hungry as they don’t get their snack.
Some people have skin like asbestos. Not me! Handling hot rice is painful!
Solution? Sarin wrap! (You can re-use it). If you have some food handling gloves, use them too. The more layers between you and the scalding rice the better.

If the rice isn’t blisteringly hot, the temptation is to exert too much pressure. Packing onigiri too hard also affects the taste.

Another scenario where it’s important to use well made onigiri that are resistant to disintegrating is yaki-onigiri. Vital to make these with very hot rice also, otherwise they just fall apart in the pan/BBQ/under the grill.

—-
On Saturday we had lunch in our tiny garden, the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed Okinawa inspired Taco Rice in the sunshine.

jib71

Put away that Sarin wrap!

Saran Wrap
... In 1943, John Reilly and Ralph Wiley of The Dow Chemical Co. completed the final work needed for introduction of PVDC, which had been invented in 1939. PVDC monofilaments were also extruded for the first time. The word "Saran" was coined by a combination of John Reilly's wife's and daughter's names, Sarah and Ann Reilly.

Sarin
Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in Germany by scientists at IG Farben who were attempting to create stronger pesticides; it is the most toxic of the four G-Series nerve agents made by Germany. The compound, which followed the discovery of the nerve agent tabun was named in honor of its discoverers: Schrader, Ambrosias, Gerhard Ritter, and von der Linde.

LapLap

Good catch!

In our home it’s the “good” cling film (we usually bring some back from Japan just for this kind of purpose as the English stuff is cobweb thin and frustrating - although it does “stick” to itself better). Saran for me is an exotic word, for some reason I confuse it with Sarrasin and give it a Faux-Franco spelling.

jib71

Now there's a word that pops up in all sorts of unexpected places - from blé sarrasin, to Saracens rugby club, Sarson's vinegar, and the sarsen stones at Stonehenge (where the demons dwell, where the banshees live, and they do live well).

weegiewife

No way would I waste them on whatever it is this recipe is for.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/202...kake-fried-egg[/QUOTE]

wow.......just....... wow

cockpitvisit

I bought a bag of frozen edamame in an Asian supermarket, cooked in boiled water per instructions, got them out of the water, put some salt on - they tasted so good that I forgot to make a photo.

I hope edamame are healthier than nachos