shopping

I should have done this a long time ago, but hey, better late than ever. I'm going to try to assemble a list of Japanese grocery stores worldwide, that people can refer to. Obviously I cannot do this without your help! I can list info for places I've lived, and there have been some great comment posts in the past here that have included such info, but I'll try to put it all in one place.

So, please head on over to to this constantly updated page and add any information you have about in the comments!

I've added the categories Food related shopping places you shouldn't miss in Japan and Places that ship Japanese food-related things worldwide.

[Update:] Of course this turned out to be a way bigger job than I thought :) But I'll try to add as much as possible over the weekend. I've found that there are quite a lot of Japanese pages that list stores and so on, for expats obviously. I'm collecting those and adding them, together with your suggestions in the comments.

• Japanese grocery store list top page

We received a PR release the other day from LeShop, Migros' home food delivery web site, that they are no longer going to be selling traditionally raised (with the _gavage_ method of force-feeding) foie gras to German speaking Switzerland. This didn't come about because of government legislation, but apparently was a decision made by Migros, following the results of customer surveys which were overwhelmingly against gavage.

Some time ago, I realized that I was often using food to deal with anxiety and stress. I can't say I've gotten out of that habit totally, but I know the symptoms now and can deal with them a bit better. One way is to read about food instead. I'm sure I'm not the only one who takes cookbooks to read in bed.

A look at preorder New Year's feasts in Japan.

A few readers have emailed me recently about rice cookers by coincidence. So I thought I would put my answers here for everyone's benefit.

Here's another bit of food related shopping news for my fellow Swiss residents, expat or not. I recently got an email about a new site called The Cheese Club. They are still in pre-launch mode - the official launch is scheduled for February. One thing that makes they quite interesting is that they are run by an English and Swiss couple and will be selling British cheeses, as well as Swiss and Spanish cheeses. As far as I know, British cheeses aren't that widely available here in Switzerland (Jelmoli has a limited selection, at least in Zürich) so this could be good news for a lot of people. (There really is no substitute for a good Stilton, for example.)

Although they haven't officially opened yet, they are already selling a cheese tasting pack, which includes wedges of blue Stilton and Wensleydale, for 69 CHF. They guarantee delivery by December 21st. Could be a great gift for your favorite homesick Brit!

• The Cheese Club

A very special limited edition olive oil which comes from Siracusa, Sicily via Zürich, Switzerland.