Western Recipe, Japanese Grocery Store Ingredients

I don't want this to be a blog that constantly Commissary-bashes.  I buy breakfast cereal, dried pasta, Boboli pizza crust, and Little TF's cheese sticks from the Commissary.  Pre-potty training, it was obviously easier to buy diapers that didn't require mental conversions from pounds to kilograms (adventure, not masochism, is the goal here).  Certain American items also just can't be found off-base, although many of them can. Of course, the Commissary is often cheaper.  The wine prices at the Mini Mart are generally unbeatable, too.  

It's still a fact that the freshness and quality of the Commissary's perishable items is, in general, poor.  And when the apples for sale have been in deep coolers for the entire previous year (there was a sign last fall guaranteeing certain apples radiation-free, due to their age), fresh taste and texture is inevitably lost.  So when the American members of Cooking Club had the assignment to cook Italian food last week, I made it my personal mission to purchase all ingredients from Japanese stores.  It can be done!

Chicken bouillon cubes: Taiga grocery store
Mascarpone cheese: Costco
Japanese shallot: Coop grocery store
Fresh, peeled shrimp: Taiga
Bread: Costco (in this case because I was buying
in bulk,but usually from my local bakery)
Tarragon plant: local, French home store
Wine: Costco
Roma tomatoes: Costco

The ingredients shown here were for a Bruschetta with Shrimp and Tarragon recipe.  With a few, small tweaks- Japanese shallot instead of our more familiar, garlic-like shallot, and chicken bouillon cubes instead of boxed or homemade chicken stock- the recipe was easily re-created!  Obviously, this is not the usual (or admittedly more convenient) one-stop shopping that is offered by the Commissary. But for me, this method of grocery treasure hunting is much more satisfying!

Ganbatte!

-The Tofu Fox

Costco has locations in Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kyoto, Saitama, Fukuoka, and elsewhere.  Not all of Costco's produce is from Japan; however, an item's country of origin is often clearly labeled in English.  

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!