Just Hungry

1. On a rating of 1 to 10, 1 being the easiest, about a 4, mainly due to monetary and personal transportation complications.
2. Yes, there is a decent asian market a within 2 miles, but it happens not to be on any convenient bus routes. MD Oriental Market on Fowler Ave in Tampa, FL.
3. They have a reasonable selection. I've seen them carry fresh lotus, fresh lychee, fresh bamboo shoots, loads of packaged foods, miso, tofu, huge selection of dried foods and seasonings, more varieties of rice and noodles than I've bothered to count, but most of it I can't even identify because so far I can only read English.
4. Not at all! If can't find something, I'm usually able to find a suitable substitute.
5. Tampa, FL, near the USF campus.

How easy is it for you to get Japanese ingredients without having to resort to extraordinary measures?

Not 100% easy but possible. I could probably make about 10% of the Japanese things on your website.

Can you get Japanese ingredients locally, and if so, where?

My local supermarket carries a range of organic Japanese food like miso, rice wine, nori (but only for sushi), soy sauce, etc. but I don't use those really. I'm in a slightly nomadic type situation like yourself!

What kinds of Japanese ingredients can you get easily and locally?

Nori, soy sauce (and tamari), Japanese rice (takes some looking though), rice wine, panko

Does the unavailability of ingredients that are mentioned in Japanese cookbooks or websites deter you from trying a recipe?

Never =D

Where are you located?

Now, West Midlands, England. From Southeast USA.

1. How easy is it for you to get Japanese ingredients without having to resort to extraordinary measures?

Not easy at all. I live in a pretty rural area, nearest grocery for 50 miles in any direction is a walmart. I can get a few canned 'asian' veggies there like bamboo shoots, baby corn, water chestnuts. I can buy calrose rose. There is ONE type of nori sheets you can buy. I think they might have some form of half assed wasabi. They carry Frieda's chicken flavored udon about 1/2 the time and some kind of Frieda's yakisoba (which I haven't tried because the udon was such a disappointment) I can get your basic silken and firm tofu and teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and a number of chinese type sauces (hoisin, sesame ginger...but nothing like ponzu or unagi or gomadare, etc.)No rice vinegar, no mirin, zip.

In the summer when the roads are good I drive a roughly 100 mile round trip into Indianapolis to the International market there. They are run by Chinese folks I believe, but carry stuff from pretty much all over asia and a lot of mexican food stuffs too. Not a lot of japanese ingredients, but some at least. I can get ponzu and better quality rice and sweet rice, rice flour, mirin, miso, sometimes fresh daikon, fish sauce, proper cooking utensils, frozen shumai, and so on. When gas prices were so awful high last year though it was actually cheaper for me to order what I could get off the net and do without the rest then drive to Indianapolis.

Most of the time I have to resort to ordering online (usually Asian Grocer) for some of the more distinctly Japanese stuff. Oddly enough, I can get some awfully good (or I think they are) "Instant" udon noodles off amazon and get free shipping if I order two cases.

Many things I can not get at all, like...sorry, I know I'm going to spell this wrong...aburaage? The premade tofu pouches. I'd had them in a restaurant and LOVED them, but the only way I've found so far to get them is to order them fresh at an OUTRAGEOUS price.

I can't get fresh fish here from the walmart, and am a little wary of transporting it (even with a cooler) from Indianapolis. Don't know of any place there that carries sushi quality fish anyway. Nor can I find the japanese cavier I so desperately love without paying an insane fee for it over the net.

4. Does the unavailability of ingredients that are mentioned in Japanese cookbooks or websites deter you from trying a recipe?

Yes, quite a bit, though I have started doing some substitution tricks here and there. I know it won't taste the same but......I like variety, and even if it's not exactly what it should taste like it's better than nothing.

5. Where do you live? Greencastle, Indiana, USA. It's in the southwestern part of the state not to far from the border of Illinois, but not close enough to any good sized town in IL to be able to find an asian grocer there either.

Things I would give away a first born child or my brother right arm for because I love and just can't acquire would be the abaraage, white tuna sushi quality, salmon sushi...well, any sushi quality fish...sun dried octopus (love that stuff in a salad) the tobiko? cavier, melonpan (I got some from asian grocery, so expensive so I've only had it once but oh so good!) and quite a few other things I'm sure.

hello, here are my answers

1.quite easy for me. i really love japanese food, so i always have japanese rice, rice vinegar, mirin, and so on, at home.
2. i go to asian markets or japanese stores
3. i have been able to find quite everything i had been looking for. maybe japanese vegetables and shiso leaves are a little more difficult to find. i have not found yet an electric hotpot, though.
4. i usually can find substitutes. i also have been japanese cooking lessons, and the teacher told us about easy to find substitutes.
5. paris, france

1. Its actually not that difficult for me, there is the Japan Centre on Piccadilly which is really good and another Japanese supermarket on Brewer Street not far away. They take about 20/25 mins on a tube to get to, so its pretty easy.

2. I can get some ingredients at my local large supermarket, and there are two Chinese stores which sells some Japanese stuff about a 10 min walk away.

3. Noodles, Soy Sauce, Mirin, that sort of thing, but then a 25min trip is not far to get pretty much everything from the Japan Centre.

4. Yes sometimes it does, but I can usually find a good substitute.

5. North London, England

1. Somewhat easy!

2. & 3.
Yes, at normal supermarkets (for ingredients such as sushi rice, kewpie...) and asian(chinese/korean) groceries for most of the other basic japanese ingredients. But for the more complicated/harder to find ingredients I have to go to Japanese groceries or jump online and order it and pick it up at their warehouse (luckily it's very close to where I live!).

As for fresh food - especially fish, it is very easy to get them here just from the local fishmonger and groceries.

4. Generally yes, but if I really want to try to make it myself, I always try to make do with what I have and substitute it with something similar.

5. South-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia

1. Depends on what it is. Some supermarkets carry ingredients on their speciality shelves. There's also a Chinatown in the city center, as well as a massive Chinese supermarket outside of town, but not so easy for me to get to.

2. Again, depends what it is. But generally, yes.

3. Nori, Miso Soup paste, noodles, tea, rice, soy-sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, all normally available from the speciality shelves at the supermarket. I've also seen Umeboshi paste and packets of dried miso soup (which actually taste disgusting x_x I prefer the paste packets).

4. Sometimes, yep. I can't normally get hondashi, for example, and I once tried the granulated stuff (sadly, that shop no longer exists) and it was a disaster. It wasn't terribly encouraging. Fresh fish isn't really easily available, and where it is, it's expensive.

5. Glasgow, Scotland.

1. Easy. I live near two Japanese Grocery stores within walking distance, plus a Marukai that is only about 20 minutes away.

2. Can you get Japanese ingredients locally, and if so, where? I can go to asian markets for the full gamut; regular non-asian supermarkets for a lot of basics such as napa, tofu, daikon sprouts,even to my local farmers markets sometimes.

3. What kinds of things can you get easily and locally?
I can get EVERYTHING easily. Nori, kombu, miso (fresh!), tofu (made in the morning), seafood, dashi, fresh wasabi, daikon, so on and so forth.

4. No, the fact that my mother cooks japanese food deters me from trying japanese recipes. That - and I'm lazy....Japanese cooking (done right) has so many freaking steps!!

5. Where do you live? West Los Angeles, CA USA.

How easy is it for you to get Japanese ingredients without having to resort to extraordinary measures?

*Sigh*, much too difficult: if it wasn't for Japan Centre and Mount Sushi... and friends travelling to London... There is one Asian supermarket in Belfast which holds some Japanese stock.

Can you get Japanese ingredients locally, and if so, where?
I catch my own fish (sea fish and freshwater), so freshness is not an issue. Lots of mackerel, trout, salmon and so on.

I have to rely on the big supermarkets:
Tesco stocks some of the Yutaka brand, which is excellent, msg-free, and keenly priced: sushi rice, wasabi, tamari, nori sheets and miso soup, as well as mirin and rice vinegar, and pickled ginger. Supplies are sporadic, so I bulk buy when I see them. Very occasionally, Lidl has daikon radish. Sainsbury stocks some of the clearspring brand, but it's very expensive(99p for yutaka nori against 2.75 for nori in Sainsbury) and some items, like their miso soup, are foul .
I would kill for fresh mochi... And I hoard nanami togarashi: I even posted back a load from Hong Kong.

Does the unavailability of ingredients that are mentioned in Japanese cookbooks or websites deter you from trying a recipe?

No, I read for pleasure, and even if I can't try it, I can imagine what it's like and keep a list for when I get to a Japanese shop.
Where are you located?
The far north west of the far north west of Northern Ireland!

1: Very easy (:

2: Yup, there are 3 stores around me that are Asian grocery stores, and I also have 1 good Japanese marketplace 10 minutes away that I go to often.

3: All kinds! From not well known ingredients to konbu.

4: Not at all!

5: Irvine, California USA.

I feel very blessed because I live about 45 minutes from the best place to buy Japanese ingredients in Europe that is Dusseldorf. I can get almost everything. It is also good to go for traditional Japanese pub and resto food. I only wish they have high end japanese bakery!
But in the small border town I live in - I live in Venlo the netherlands which is the last train station before you cross over to Germany, I can get Miso, Udon, Soba, japanese rice, nori, rice, fish,sake, rice vinegar, really fresh tuna, mirin, both light and dark miso, furikake, wasabi, bonito flakes, tempura mix, japanese snacks

1. How easy is it for you to get Japanese ingredients without having to resort to extraordinary measures?

Very easy, but I do have to travel a bit (say, 15 miles).

2. Can you get Japanese ingredients locally, and if so, where?

Yes. There are several Japanese supermarkets nearby (Marukai in Gardena and Costa Mesa and Mitsuwa, also in Costa Mesa), and some Japanese ingredients are also available at my local Whole Foods and Ralph's grocery stores.

3. What kinds of Japanese ingredients can you get easily and locally?

My regular local supermarket has nori, furikake, and a few types of noodles. I'm not sure if it carries sushi rice or not. It also carries kimchi (not Japanese, but oh well : ) and pickled ginger. I can get pretty much anything I need at the Marukai supermarket in Gardena--kamaboko, all types of noodles (dried or frozen), fresh Japanese vegetables (and some Japanese vegetable plants), rice, sake, Japanese pickles, rice crackers, bonito flakes, nori, kombu, marinated fish, fish for sashimi, meats for shabu shabu ... and so on!

4. Does the unavailability of ingredients that are mentioned in Japanese cookbooks or websites deter you from trying a recipe?

No--if I really want to try a recipe, I'll do whatever I can to track down the ingredients (or, failing that, I'll substitute something else). That also goes for other cuisines--Indian, Thai, etc.

5. Where are you located?

Long Beach, CA

1. Easy.

2/3. I live near the center of a medium-sized, sprawling US city, and there's a large farmer's market (open year-round) about a mile from my house. There's a shop there called Saigon Market, which stocks tons of Asian foods. Also, some basics are available at grocery stores, plus there's a gigantic store on the outskirts of town that sells a huge variety of food from all over the world. It's called Jungle Jim's.

4. I have to admit that despite reading this blog, I don't cook Japanese food. N/A.

5. Cincinnati, Ohio USA