Your favorite Asian market finds?

[Folly]

Of course I delight in all the cookies and snacks, but there is real food there too! Right now my freezer has breaded shrimp, cream corn croquettes, gyoza, and cha shui bow. The Korean market I frequent has beef, pork and lamb shabu shabu meat. This is cut much thinner than any stir-fry meat that I can get at Safeway. I use it in sukiyaki, curry as well as in stir fries. It melts in the mouth! At the Japanese maket, Nijiya, I can get a tray of ground beef and pork This combo saves me time and I don't have to buy two separate packages. Very nice flavor for soboro, curry, or spaghetti sauce. The salted salmon comes cooked or un-. The cooked pieces are great for popping into a bento.

But my overall favorite is rakkyo - pickled scallions. Perfect as a gap filler. It comes in several flavors: regular, ume/shiso, and spicy. The ume/shiso is a pretty pink. Sliced into chopped cucumbers, it makes a great instant salad.

[Folly]

... Oh yes, on my shopping list are frozen edamame (looks great lined up on a long toothpick or small skewer) and mochi ice cream. This last is quite unique: imagine a golf-ball of chewy pounded rice, filled with strawberry, chocolate or green tea ice cream. Not good for bento, but a real treat at home!

[varenikje]

Well, I love to make maki sushi for myself and my children, so I am generally looking for seaweed, the various pickles that go inside of the sushi (takuan, and the like), pickled ginger, red julienne and pink thin slices, canned eel, kampyo (inside of a gourd) and a few other things, like carrots and green beans (for color) and also what we used to call fishcake, which had a pink outside and a white inside. Is it kamaboko? Something like that. Then I usually get a can of the um... I forget the name of them... made out of deep fried tofu, little bags that you stuff rice into then garnish with a little flower shape on the open side... Ahhhh. I guess my mom didn't let me get so many candy=ish things, although she did let me get tomo ame, which was made out of millet jelly, I believe and had a rice paper wrapper that melted in your mouth.

[pauline]

I went shopping at the big Asian grocery store and came back with lots of bento goodies. I think the best find is the frozen bbq eel though. It's pre-cooked and pre-sauced so I just need to thaw it out and heat (if I want). I never knew it was available! I was thinking it'd make for a good Unagi don bento. I don't really know how to make sushi, but I can probably just lay that over some molded rice and pretend. I picked up some masago too. I can top plain rice with that for a visually appealing bento. Or maybe cold soba would work too?