I have recently moved to Japan and I am trying to scope out grocery stores. I have specifically looked into this but I am slowly going insane because google is only giving me webshops, so I will ask this here.
Does anyone know a single store besides National Azabu, which is far away from me (it would double my expenses if I went there only for cottage cheese), that stocks crumbly cottage cheese (メイトー カッテージ チーズ 粒タイプ)? I am happy to know that Japan makes a distinction between crumbly and creamy, because creamy is some horrible abomination of mankind that does not exist in Eastern Europe but countries like Sweden have only that, but it seems that almost every single store only stocks creamy. There have been similar posts, but it seems that most people are looking for the creamy type, which I am not.
4 comments
Last time I went, National Azabu does not sell any cottage cheese you can not buy at other large grocery stores:
Are you talking about this stuff?
[https://www.meg-snow.com/products/detail.php?p=cottage](https://www.meg-snow.com/products/detail.php?p=cottage)
If so it`s available at many places, including maruetsu.
I think you are looking for a place in Tokyo, but you should be more specific about which area could be convenient for you.
Have a look at your local Seijo Ishii. I’ve seen the tsubu -type cottage cheese there before.
Almost any big grocery store I’ve been to carries both. It’s not unusual at all! [Just look for this one (the blue package not the red).](https://www.meg-snow.com/products/detail.php?p=cottage)
I’ve seen it at Seiyu, Peacock, Niku no Hanamasa, Maruetsu, etc. Of course each grocery store stocks differently, but it really isn’t very hard to find.
You’re probably having difficulty searching it because dry cottage cheese is the more common one to find, so it usually doesn’t have any descriptors like 粒 on the package. The creamy one is red and says うらこし on it, so that’s the one you should avoid.
It’s packed into package pretty tightly, but if you mix it up, it definitely is crumbly.
Now this is standard mass-produced cottage cheese, so I’m not sure how picky you are about amazing quality, but I’ve had no problems with it as a standard cottage cheese. In the US, our cottage cheese tends to have the bits in it, but actually have a bit creamier liquid around it. I haven’t found something like that here, so I often Frankenstein it by adding a tiny bit of milk to it.