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I have a new favorite specialty market... Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater NJ.
This Japanese superstore is your one-stop shop for produce, prepared foods (sushi, bento meals, Japanese pickles), fresh bread, sake, thinly sliced meats for shabu-shabu (Berkshire pork and wagyu beef!), Japanese confectionery, sushi-grade raw fish; the place for hard-to-find Japanese specialty ingredients and to purchase the high-tech rice cooker of your dreams.
Also a great place for a quick lunch - we found ourselves overwhelmed by all the choices at the food court. A warming bowl of ramen at Santouka? Perhaps some Berkshire pork katsu from Katsuhana? Or maybe some cold zaru soba at Kayaba?
After carefully weighing all my options (and inspecting the numerous plastic food displays), I settled on the spicy cod roe spaghetti from Italian Tomato:
Mmmmmm... salty/briney flavor of the creamy cod roe sauce reminded me a little of sea urchin, spaghetti was perfectly al dente.Kris made a beeline towards Katsuhana for the pork tenderloin combo meal - two small Berkshire pork tenderloins, 2 tempura prawns, 1 potato croquette filled with 'crab cream). Here's the plastic display:
...compared to the real food:
The Berkshire pork katsu was really tender and not greasy. The combo also came with rice, potato salad, and a small bowl of soup (pork broth with veggies).For dessert, Ito En's green tea soft serve ice cream (really addictive, good matcha flavor):
The purplish gray hue of the black sesame soft serve can look intimidating but the taste is actually quite mild, tasting almost like peanut butter:
We also grabbed some doughy treats from Oishinbo (from left to right: taiyaki, creamyaki, obanyaki):
Taiyaki and obanyaki are filled with red bean paste; creamyaki is filled with a vanilla custard:
Couldn't resist picking up a couple of Kobe-Injinkan maki (thin crepes filled with chestnut paste and red bean paste) from Japanese confectioner Kobe Fugetsudo:
And a slice of 'kase tarte' (souffle cake with made with cheese) from Italian Tomato:
Tasted like a cross between cheesecake and spongecake with a mild, creamy, slightly egg-y flavor.But the weirdest thing we encountered that day was a limited edition azuki-flavored Pepsi imported from Japan (and yes, it really does taste like azuki red bean!):
Three hours later, we finally left Mitsuwa carrying $75 of groceries we didn't really need (thank goodness we live over 60 miles away, otherwise I'd be here everyday):
Mitsuwa Marketplace (New Jersey location)
595 River Road
Edgewater, NJ 07020
(201) 941-9113
http://www.mitsuwanj.com/
12 comments:
What a cool place! It must be so fun to browse though all the exotic goodies. This post reminds me of how I feel when I walk into an Indian shop with all its weird and wonderful spices and other ingredients. Its always fun to discover new foods :D
That noodle dish you had looks fab. I would have chosen that too.
*kisses* HH
Sounds like a terrific market! The spicy cod roe spaghetti looks fantastic and so does the pork!
I'm sure you'd have spent another 3 hours if I were there with you guys!
The black sesame soft ice cream looks so delicious! I'd also definitely go for that katsu set that Kris had, good choice!
Heavenly Housewife: It's times like this I wish I had a bigger stomach (I should go on the Kobayashi training plan) :)
5 Star Foodie: The spicy cod roe was so good, who would have thought fish eggs would go so well with cheese and spaghetti?
Kenny: Kris always wants tonkatsu whenever he sees it! So when are you coming already? :)
The ice cream looks dreamy.
I guess the mentaiko udon / cod roe spaghetti may be the next thing hitting everyones minds.
I read a blog post with a recipe from someone last week, then had it at a restaurant on the last week, bought the ingredients and made it at home, and will probably make another batch (with homemade udon!) and post about it tonight. The internet is such a connected thing! :p
Jessica604: Definitely been dreaming about that soft serve! And you're right, all I've been seeing lately are posts about Japanese food, so I've been craving it like crazy. I also plan on making the cod roe spaghetti at home but I'm cheating a little bit - I bought one of those packaged mixes at Mitsuwa so all I have to do is add the spaghetti! Hopefully one day I'll graduate to making the real thing from scratch :)
:) ...every time I view this post that matcha cone taunts me.
The cod roe noodle is SO EASY! The post where I found the recipe said it was "ridiculously easy", no exclamation, no emphasis. but I really have to say that it is fantastically, 1-2-3 EASY. The hardest part would be to locate the mentaiko in the store (I wandered around fujiya for a while before finally asking a clerk, who gave me two options). I think you should definately try making it, all you need is noodles, mentaiko, butter, garnish, and about five minutes.
Jessica604: Awesome, I can definitely handle a 4 ingredient recipe that only takes 5 minutes! I'll have to look around Mitsuwa for mentaiko on our next visit. Thanks so much for the easy recipe :)
All that awesome food was from a food court?! Certainly not a typical mall FC. Seriously, sixty miles or not, I'd have a hard time not going there every weekend. I must have that cod roe spaghetti - mentaiko is now my Holy Grail ingredient!
Wow, we have a Mitsuwa around here, but I must have missed something in the food court. I love Mentaiko, (the cod roe spaghetti) and must look for that next time! I read that Pepsi also has a shiso pepsi, must look for that too! What a fun visit, looks like you feasted well.
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