May 21, 2006
Culinary Affairs Department
Mitsuwa Marketplace
My wife has developed a taste for snacking on Edamame (fresh ripe soybeans that have been parboiled and frozen) which we usually get with take-out sushi. She wanted some for tonight, so since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to check out the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights.
We found what we came for, but not much else. It's not that they had a small selection—quite the opposite—but Mitsuwa just isn't intended for people like us. We're Americans who are interested in a taste of Japanese food, but we don't know a lot about it. I guess what we wanted was an ethnic grocery, where the food is foreign, but it's marketed and explained to us natives.
A place like Mitsuwa, however, is clearly intended for Japanese people who are looking for a taste of food from the old country. Most of the food had only Japanese labels, and even when there were American labels it didn't help much, because we haven't got a clue what the food is or how to prepare it.
I'm sure the food is superb, and if you already know all about Japanese cooking, this is the place for you.
As for my wife and I, next time we'll just visit the ethnic foods aisle at Jewel.
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Don't fear the unknown!
On a recent trip to the pan-asian market in Roosevelt Heights (here in the NYC) my girlfriend and I simple boggled at all of the stuff that packed the shelves with little or no english explanations.
We bought stuff that looked fun anyway and with few exceptions they all turned out to be delicious with a little help of some sleuthing on the web.
Would I eat some of the things we made again?
Maybe not. But it was fun exploring completely bizarre flavors, new ways of looking at old foods (duck!) and learning to pickle lotus root.
It's worth going to Mitsuwa just to get the frozen buckwheat noodles and cold soup broth. Nummy, nummy treat in the summer time!