Dear food knowledge / スーパー

If you live in Europe, you may often find yourself wanting to eat Japanese food.

Do you know what ingredients you can find at the supermarket?

So this time, I would like to explain about Japanese food ingredients that you can buy at supermarkets and shops in Europe.

Ingredients for Japanese food that you can buy at supermarkets and shops in Europe

We will introduce the basic ingredients used in Japanese food that are necessary when making various Japanese dishes.

Especially if you are planning to move to Europe, knowing foods that are easy to obtain will help you decide what to prioritize and bring from Japan when you move.

Basic sashisuseno "se", soy sauce: Obtaining difficulty ☆

Soy sauce is required to prepare most Japanese dishes.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of supermarkets in Europe that have small corners for Asian ingredients.

So it's becoming relatively easy to get your hands on soy sauce.
Kikkoman's bottle type soy sauce is placed in a nearby supermarket.

However, the options are limited, so if you want variety and a range of sizes, we recommend using Japanese food stores or online shops.
There is a high possibility that both light and dark soy sauce are available, and not only that, but also sashimi soy sauce.
You will find the type of soy sauce that you need.

Useful for binders and fried foods, Bread crumbs: Difficulty of obtaining: ☆ ☆

Bread crumbs are necessary when making hamburgers, pork cutlets, etc.
You can substitute it by shaving hard or dry bread, but it takes time and often does not shave cleanly.

Therefore, you may want bread crumbs that are sold in bags.

Depending on the store, it is possible to buy bread crumbs at the supermarket, but to put it the other way around, it is not everywhere.
If you can't find it at a nearby store, there is a high probability that you can find bread crumbs at a Japanese food store or an Asian store.
Larger supermarkets often carry it.

By the way, flour, which is also necessary for frying, is sold at supermarkets in Europe.
They are often bundled together in powder form and are easy to find.
However, it depends on the store whether they have all kinds of flour, medium flour, and strong flour, so you need to be careful.

When making sushi at home, wasabi: Obtaining difficulty ☆☆

Wasabi is rarely used, but it's something you'll crave when making sushi at home.

When I live in Europe, I sometimes have local friends and colleagues who want to try sushi, so I have a sushi party at home.
In fact, the popularity of wasabi is increasing, with people from overseas saying they want to try wasabi.

Some European supermarkets have recently started selling wasabi.
Whether wasabi is used as a spice in creative dishes and rankings, or because Japanese food is becoming more popular, it is sometimes put together with the above-mentioned soy sauce in the Asian food section.

Dashi and Miso Necessary for Various Japanese Foods: Obtaining Difficulty ☆☆

In Europe, it is very difficult to obtain dashi from katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and kombu (kelp).

Also, it is basically impossible to buy dashi soup at supermarkets in Europe, so these are not sold at all.

Dashi-related ingredients must be purchased at Japanese food stores, Asian shops, or online.

In these places, you can find a wide variety of dashi soup stocks.
However, there are cases where granule-type or packed dashi is available at large supermarkets.
With this, you don't have to use ingredients that are hard to get in Europe to make the dashi stock, and you can complete the dish in a short amount of time.

Besides miso soup, of course it is necessary as a base for Japanese food, and it can also be used as a base for mixed rice.

Of course, miso is required to make miso soup.
This miso is also hard to find in European supermarkets, except for large supermarkets.

In addition, there is an increasing number of BIO-affiliated shops that sell health-conscious foods in Europe that sell miso as a healthy food.

As for the size, they are rarely sold in packs of the size commonly seen in Japan, so they are sold in smaller packs and bags.
If you don't need a large amount, or if you're looking for a small size for traveling or at a friend's house, you can find it at BIO stores.

Lastly, I would like to introduce some foods that you can buy anywhere in Japan, but are surprisingly difficult to buy in Europe.

Furikake to accompany white rice: Difficulty of obtaining: ☆☆☆

When you eat rice, you may feel lonely with only white rice.

In such a case, the rice will be dramatically delicious just by adding furikake.
Furikake is usually sprinkled over rice, but there are many other ways to use it, such as adding hot water to turn it into ochazuke.

In Europe, where rice is not a staple food, and in countries where japonica rice is not as sticky as it is dry, furikake is not a familiar dish.

Unfortunately, furikake is not readily available in European supermarkets, and can be purchased at Japanese food stores.

If you don't have a Japanese food store in your living area, or if you don't want to bother, you can also look for it from the online shop.

lastly

What did you think about the Japanese ingredients and foods that you can buy in European shops?

For those who have lived abroad, it is important to know that living in Japan and moving to Europe for the first time makes decisions about what can and cannot be bought. This is a confusing point.

Small condiments such as furikake don't take up space in the bag, so we recommend you bring a few of your favorite items.

On the other hand, liquids such as soy sauce are heavy and bulky, so it is convenient to procure locally.
Our Germany-based online shop also carries soy sauce, mirin, and various other Japanese foodstuffs, ranging from table-sized to commercial use.

Dashi is one of the essential ingredients as one of the basic seasonings of Japanese cuisine.
It can be used for miso soup, simmered dishes, oden, warm soba and udon soup, and even curry, so it is very useful.
It's light, small, and very convenient, but sometimes it's too convenient to run out of stock.

If you live in Japan, you can easily go to the nearest supermarket to buy it, but if you live in Germany, there are cases where you don't change the soup stock in your neighborhood, which is a problem.
Have you ever had the experience of being forced to use the local fish bouillon that you can buy at your local supermarket in Germany?

[Japanese soup stock VS German fish bouillon] I will explain the difference!

First of all, what is the difference between Japanese dashi stock and bouillon sold in Germany and Europe?
In this article, I will explain the bouillons you can buy in Europe and tell you the difference.
Also, I will explain the story of miso soup made with fish broth in this article.

Japanese soup stock

Since ancient times, Japan has lived as an island country, enjoying the blessings of the sea.
Dashi has a long history in Japan, and it is said that fish and other ingredients have been boiled and eaten since the Jomon period.
From the literature, it is believed that bonito and kelp were also used as offerings in the Nara and Heian periods.
There is a description of "dashi" in the literature of the Warring States period, and we can see that it is deeply connected to Japanese history.

By the way, there are various types of Japanese dashi, such as bonito, kelp, shiitake mushrooms, shellfish and crab, as well as chicken bones and pork, which are often used for ramen.
However, when it comes to everyday ingredients, bonito stock is the most popular, and kelp and shiitake mushrooms are also commonly used by some people.

Dashi is basically a momentary process that extracts the essence in a few minutes, but before making dashi, ingredients such as dried bonito, dried shiitake mushrooms, and kelp require a lot of time and effort in the previous process.
Japanese dashi, with its sharpness and condensed umami, is indispensable in cooking Japanese food, and it can be said to be the foundation of Japanese food as it brings together the overall taste and creates harmony.

European broths and fonds

Of course, Europe also has food equivalent to Japanese soup stock.
There are two equivalents of dashi in France: bouillon and fond.
Phong is used as a source.

For example, even those who are unfamiliar with French cuisine may have heard the name "fond de veau".
Fond de veau is a type of soup stock made by simmering veal, bones, potherbs, etc. for a long time.
Fond de Veau can be used as a sauce for steak, hamburger, meuniere, etc., as well as a beef stew ingredient.

On the other hand, bouillon is an ingredient used when making soups and potages.

Bouillon is French, but it is called Brodo in Italian and Broth or Soup stock in English .
Regarding German, it is written as brühe in German.

The main flavor of pho is meat, but bouillon has a strong vegetable flavor and is gentler than pho.
There are vegetable bouillons, but there are chicken, beef, and fish bouillons, and chicken bouillon seems to be the most common.

As for how bouillon is made, the process is very different from that of Japanese dashi.
While Japanese dashi takes a lot of time and effort to make the ingredients, it only takes a few minutes to extract the essence.
In comparison, bouillon is made by simmering fish, meat, flavored vegetables, etc. for a long time, instead of taking the time and effort in the previous process like Japanese soup stock.
Bouillon is characterized by its gelatinous umami and richness, and when it cools, this gelatinous substance solidifies, making it one of the main salty ingredients in meat dishes and soups.

Bouillon readily available in Germany

There are several manufacturers selling this bouillon in Europe, but two famous ones are "Maggi" and "Knorr".

Brunosingu, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Maggi is a brand owned by the Swiss food company Nestlé, while Knorr is a brand that originated in Germany but is now owned by Unilever, a multinational company that includes British and Dutch companies.

Unilever, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I see both in Germany, but personally I have the impression that I see Knorr more often.
I've used both Maggie and Knorr, and I don't see much of a difference, so it doesn't matter which one you buy.

The Difference Between Japanese Dashi and German Fish Bouillon: Miso Soup

Well, there are liquid types of bouillon, but solid ones are common, and you can buy 4, 8, or 12 pieces for less than 1 to 2 euros.

Miso soup consists of dashi stock and miso as the minimum ingredients.
I used to cook miso soup with fish bouillon, but I felt a slight difference in taste.

In the first place, if you dissolve fish broth in hot water, you will get a fragrant smell like niboshi ramen soup.
When I put miso in it, I felt that it was saltier than miso soup made with Japanese dashi.
The resulting miso soup tasted good enough to eat, but I think Japanese people might find the taste strange.

By the way, if you check the ingredients of dashi and fish bouillon, you can see the difference.
As an example, let's compare the ingredients of Ajinomoto's Hondashi and Knorr's fish bouillon.

If you look at the raw materials of Ajinomoto on the website , it will be as follows.

" Salt (manufactured in Japan), sugars (sugar, lactose), flavor ingredients (bonito powder, bonito extract), yeast extract, yeast extract fermented seasonings/seasonings (amino acids, etc.) "

On the other hand, if you look at the raw materials of Knorr's fish bouillon from the website , it will be as follows.

"Iodized salt, flavors (E621, E635), fully hydrogenated palm oil, cornstarch, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, palm oil, approved flavors (including fish, shellfish, molluscs, eggs, milk, celery), cod. of fish powder (including crustaceans and mollusks), garlic oil (including crustaceans), onions, spices, sugar, garlic, citric acid."

As you can see, fish bouillon uses more ingredients, and the salt content per 100g is about 43g for Hondashi and about 50g* for fish bouillon. If you use , you can see why the saltiness is strong. (From the website, sodium 19701 (mg) x 2.54 ÷ 1,000 = 50.04)

summary

As I wrote above, fish bouillon is suitable for ramen soup, but when cooking miso soup and other Japanese dishes, Japanese dashi is more familiar and nostalgic than fish bouillon.
In conclusion, Japanese dashi is the best choice for Japanese cuisine, although it can be used as a substitute.

When making Japanese food, we highly recommend using Japanese dashi stock.

When living in Europe as a student or member of society, there are Japanese foods and ingredients that you absolutely want to eat.
When you cook for yourself or your family, there are many times when you want to enjoy the familiar taste of Japan.
Here, we will mainly explain the ingredients necessary for Japanese food that you can buy at supermarkets and shops in Europe.

Procure ingredients in Europe and make curry

Curry is an easy and convenient dish for students to stock up on.
It's the same for working people and people with households, and it's a dish that will make your family happy.
This time, I will explain the ingredients used to make Japanese curry in Europe.

Ingredients for curry bought at European supermarkets

First, let's take a look at the typical curry ingredients: carrots, onions, potatoes, and meat.

Carrots, onions, and potatoes, these three types of vegetables can be purchased in European supermarkets as well as in Japanese supermarkets.

However, there are differences in the size and taste of vegetables, and of course, the price, depending on the country or region.

Here is an example of European carrots.
Compared to Japanese carrots, they are slender and shorter.
Many of the carrots sold in European supermarkets are of this type, and if you are expecting the same kind of carrots as in Japan, you may be a little disappointed.
However, when you actually eat it, there is no big difference in taste.

Next is onions.
This is also a little smaller than Japanese onions like carrots.
Many supermarkets have yellow onions, white onions, and red onions.
Buy according to your taste.

The last is potatoes.
This is almost the same as what you can buy at Japanese supermarkets.
Personally, I think Baron or May Queen is closer to Baron.

Potatoes are often sold in 1kg bags, so if you put a lot of potatoes in the curry and still can't use it all, it's delicious to make French fries or potato chips.

Meat that is sold but difficult to procure

And regarding meat, unlike Japan, they don't sell thinly sliced ​​meat.
If you really want it, I think you have to go to a butcher who sells it by the piece and have it sliced ​​thinly.

It may not go well with curry, but if you have a tongue (tongue) handling, most tongues are thinly sliced, so you might want to consider that.

It may be one way to enjoy the curry made in Europe to enjoy the large chunky meat.

Extra: Japanese curry roux not sold in local supermarkets

It is very difficult to find retort curry roux like those sold in Japanese supermarkets in European supermarkets.

Basically, it is difficult to get it unless you buy it at a Japanese grocery store, an Asian shop, or an online store.

Of course, if you don't mind spending time and money, you can make curry without using Japanese retort curry roux.
You can buy a wide variety of spices in most European supermarkets.

Of course, you can combine various spices to make Indian-style curry, and you can also add bouillon to make it Japanese-style.

They also sell small bottles of spices labeled Indian curry or British curry.
In that case, it is possible to get closer to the curry you want to eat with just that spice, but since the contents are small in the first place, depending on the amount you make, you may need a whole bottle or more at a time.

However, it's still difficult to make curry that tastes like Japanese retort curry, so buying curry roux at a store like the one mentioned above may be the best solution.

Remarks: About rice

Even if you eat curry, nothing will start without this rice.
Most supermarkets in Europe sell rice itself.

However, most of it is rice for risotto, and there are cases where the heart remains in the rice even after it is cooked.

Indica rice is sometimes sold, so there is something different, but you can eat curry more deliciously than rice for risotto.

If you really want to eat Japanese rice, you need to buy it at a Japanese grocery store or online store, just like Japanese curry roux.

There are several types of Japanese rice available in Europe, but one of the most famous is Yumenishiki.

It's Japanese rice from Italy, but it's just like the rice you buy in Japan.

If it is this, compatibility with Japanese curry is perfect and you can enjoy it deliciously.

Ingredients that are delicious when added to other curries

In addition to the basic ingredients, there are many ingredients that make curry delicious.
I will extract and explain some of the ingredients available in Europe from among them.

Garlic for example.
Adding garlic when making curry enhances the flavor and makes it very appetizing.
You can get it as easily as in Japan at supermarkets in Europe.
European garlic has a good flavor and can be enjoyed deliciously.

Eggplant is delicious when added to the dish.
Compared to the eggplant in Japan, it feels very large.
The appearance is similar to Japanese round eggplant, but the size is larger than that.
Even if it looks different, it doesn't taste bad, and of course it's delicious even if you put it in curry.

There is also paprika.
European supermarkets sell large paprikas whole.
Paprika has a unique taste that is different from bell peppers, and it is very delicious as an ingredient to add to curry.

Also, paprika powder is often lined up in the spice corner as a seasoning and coloring, so you may be able to use that as well.