Background: Three years ago, my husband and I moved from an area in California with 7 Japanese markets within a 5 mile radius to a suburb in Arizona where our closest Hmart is 20miles+ (30 minutes on the freeway).
We initially tried to go to an Asian market every weekend for thin meat and Asian veggies, but that got tiring, so after a few months we started stocking up on must-have condiments, frozen stuff and dried veggies (kiriboshi daikon, hijiki, wakame, shiitake) but cooking with more “american” produce.
Below are some of our finds in the past three years, would love to hear any of yours as well!:
-(pictured in photo next to the Katsuo tataki) Broccoli sprouts are an “okay” substitute for Kaiware. Since they’re more mild in flavor, we ended up finishing that whole bowl while we’d probably only need a third of that if it was Kaiware.
-Leek and cabbage are pretty good in Nabe if you don’t have hakusai or naga-negi.
-If you can’t get katakuriko or potato starch, cornstarch is a good enough substitute, especially for Karaage. I feel I need to use a bit more than katakuriko if it’s for thickening liquid.
-My Japanese husband disagrees but i feel like persian cucumbers are a good substitute for japanese cucumbers
-Gyoza tastes good even if you miss a few things. I always waited to make Gyoza on days I’m able to get nira chives at Hmart but one day made it with cabbage, pork, garlic and ginger and it was decent. Better with green onions & nira? Yes. But it satisfies sfies the gyoza craving.
-Trader Joes and Costco sometimes has “shaved beef” but ground meat is decent for Nikujyaga
-We ran out of Ponzu the other day on Gyoza night. Opened the trader joe’s yuzu kosho and mixed it with soy sauce. I think I actually prefer the yuzu-kosho flavor!!!
by kiwi619
