Archive for the 'shopping' Category

(Chronologically Listed)

Ichiban Kan online store accepting orders

Heads up that the new online store for Ichiban Kan, a Japanese-style discount store with cheap bento gear and household goods, has fixed their shopping cart and is now able to take orders. I wrote about the launch of Ichiban Kan’s online store last week, with a store review and links to their shipping policies (continental US only at the moment). Their bento selection is a bit limited for now, but evidently a shipping container of bento gear is on its way from Japan.

I went through their store and made a list highlighting some of the more interesting products for the bento maker (and a product warning). They’re still adding new products (i.e. food items are not up yet); stay up to date on new developments via Ichiban Kan’s blog. (Read on for Biggie’s product highlights…)

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Published by Biggie on April 9th, 2008 tagged equipment, organize, review, shopping | 58 Comments »

Soft launch of Ichiban Kan online store

Ichiban Kan logo Sounding the death knell of the eBay $9 egg mold, Japanese-style discount store Ichiban Kan finally debuted its online store yesterday in a soft launch. Their shopping cart is not working at the moment, though, so you cannot yet place orders. Ichiban Kan e-mailed me that they did a test run today with an unexpected error, but still anticipate being able to take online orders in a matter of days (not weeks). (UPDATE: They’re accepting orders now; see my list of good Ichiban Kan products for the lunch packer.) You can browse some of their inventory now at www.ichibankanusa.com, but be aware that all of their products are not yet up on the site. The store’s bento selection is a little slim, but they write on their blog that they have a shipping container full of bento gear on its way from Japan now, and will continue to “aggressively” add more products to the online store. Stay tuned. (Read on for my initial review of the online store.)

As I wrote in the San Francisco Bay Area bento gear shopping guide, Ichiban Kan is a good bargain store with an ever-changing selection of Japanese household goods, including matching bento boxes, insulated bento sets, bento accessories, collapsible sandwich cases, bento bags (kinchaku, insulated bags), egg molds for shaping hard-boiled eggs (2 for US$1.50, available in fish/car and rabbit/bear shapes), rice molds, character bento goods (Cinnamoroll, Hello Kitty, Shinkansen, Pokemon), cute food cups, food picks, sauce containers, chopsticks and utensils with cases, rectangular tamagoyaki omelet pans (see my tamagoyaki tutorial), etc.

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Published by Biggie on April 2nd, 2008 tagged SF Bay Area local, equipment, review, shopping | 52 Comments »

Food books in my kitchen

On seeing my new kitchen bookshelf that holds most of my cookbooks and some organized lunch gear, reader Spiceaholic of One Bite at a Time asked for a list of all my cookbooks. Twist my arm! Please pardon me while I indulge my inner Virgo; here’s an organized list of my 150 or so books (plus food writing) with brief comments. They’re not all ringing endorsements; some of these I’ve had since college, others are more like souvenirs I’ve picked up in my travels. Plenty of award-winners, though — I do have a weakness for the James Beard and IACP cookbook awards. I’ve underlined my favorites. Have a recommendation for a really outstanding book? Let me know in comments. (Read on for the full list of cookbooks with commentary…)

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Published by Biggie on March 31st, 2008 tagged review, shopping, tips | 37 Comments »

Japanese auction & overseas shipping services

I know how frustrating it is to get excited about unusual bento boxes and accessories on Japanese websites, only to find out that the online stores won’t ship outside of Japan. Mail order companies that wouldn’t ship internationally were a pet peeve of mine when I lived in Japan, especially when looking for clothes and shoes. Being 5′10″ with size 11 feet made it hard to find properly fitting things there — my nickname “Biggie” is short for Bigfoot, after all! Anyway, I digress.

There are a number of online companies that will act as your own personal shopper or “friend in Japan”, placing bids on Japanese-language online auctions, accepting packages you order from mail order stores that won’t ship internationally, and shipping them over to you (for a price, of course — the low end is around 10%). This opens up the bento treasure of Japanese online stores (in addition to J-List, which does ship their bento stuff overseas). I’ve put together a list of some of these shipping and auction agents, some bigger online stores, and translation tools to guide you. (Read on for the full list.)

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Published by Biggie on March 24th, 2008 tagged shopping | 16 Comments »

Egg-wrapped onigiri lunch

I woke up early and decided to see how microwaved thin egg sheets (usuyaki tamago, tutorial here) would work as an alternative to nori seaweed wrappers in fake maki-zushi. (Okay, technically if you don’t use flavored sushi rice it’s just an onigiri rice ball.)

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Mini onigiri rice balls wrapped in a thin egg sheet, mini plum tomatoes, scallop and shrimp cakes (review below), and zucchini with Korean barbecue sauce.

Morning prep time: 18 minutes, which was simply too long for me, even using frozen scallop & shrimp cakes, frozen rice and a frozen egg wrapper that I’d made previously. In the morning I microwaved the rice and egg wrapper (very briefly, on 40% power so as to not actually heat it and make it rubbery), made the onigiri (notes below), and microwaved the zucchini in my microwave mini steamer. (Read on for a review of the scallop and shrimp cakes, packing notes, and cooking notes for the faux makizushi.)