Easy macro shopping before New Year's Day
Blog entry of Tuesday, December 29, 2009:
Five pounds of organic rice bran for $1.99? Packs of organic soba for $1.99? A 4-pack of non-GMO natto for $1.99? These bargains and many more are now available at Japanese grocery stores. In the Los Angeles area, most of these stores are in the Little Tokyo district downtown, but others are in West Los Angeles. In addition, some sushi restaurants have a small dry goods section and cold cases which may have some of these items for sale now.
So, why is the week before January 1 such a great time to shop for macrobiotic ingredients at Japanese grocery stores? It turns out that many Japanese families do a lot of home cooking for their New Year's celebrations, so the Japanese grocery stores stock a great many more traditional items than they offer at any other time of the year.
Other hard-to-find macrobiotic staples I found at the Nijiya Market in Little Tokyo today include organic kinako flour (soybean flour), unfiltered Nigori sake, packets of fresh maitake mushrooms for only $3.99, and dry wheat flour pancakes ready to soften in warm water and fill with homemade ingredients and serve as spring rolls.
It made my day to find just the organic rice bran, however, since I had been looking for it both in physical stores and online with no luck at all for several years. Not only did the Nijiya market have the organic rice bran in 5-pound bags, but it was cheap! Wowsers, $1.99 for organic rice bran? That is a good deal.
Remember, however, that if you put off your shopping at a Japanese grocery store until after January 1, their stocks of all of the above will be vastly depleted; in fact, they often run completely out of their special items. So shop now!
Five pounds of organic rice bran for $1.99? Packs of organic soba for $1.99? A 4-pack of non-GMO natto for $1.99? These bargains and many more are now available at Japanese grocery stores. In the Los Angeles area, most of these stores are in the Little Tokyo district downtown, but others are in West Los Angeles. In addition, some sushi restaurants have a small dry goods section and cold cases which may have some of these items for sale now.
So, why is the week before January 1 such a great time to shop for macrobiotic ingredients at Japanese grocery stores? It turns out that many Japanese families do a lot of home cooking for their New Year's celebrations, so the Japanese grocery stores stock a great many more traditional items than they offer at any other time of the year.
Other hard-to-find macrobiotic staples I found at the Nijiya Market in Little Tokyo today include organic kinako flour (soybean flour), unfiltered Nigori sake, packets of fresh maitake mushrooms for only $3.99, and dry wheat flour pancakes ready to soften in warm water and fill with homemade ingredients and serve as spring rolls.
It made my day to find just the organic rice bran, however, since I had been looking for it both in physical stores and online with no luck at all for several years. Not only did the Nijiya market have the organic rice bran in 5-pound bags, but it was cheap! Wowsers, $1.99 for organic rice bran? That is a good deal.
Remember, however, that if you put off your shopping at a Japanese grocery store until after January 1, their stocks of all of the above will be vastly depleted; in fact, they often run completely out of their special items. So shop now!
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