Entries Tagged as 'mitsuwa'

Super H Mart

November 14th, 2011 · 1 Comment


Super H Mart :: Niles, IL


Come to H Mart and try some peaches. You will fall in love.


Durian


Jackfruit


Banana Flower, Aloe, Lemongrass, ToranDae


Wei-Chuan Preserved Duck Eggs


Just a few different kinds of kimchi to pick from.


Fish so fresh it’s alive!


Yes! I often feel this way about chips.


Marukome Miso – Chipotle flavor!


What we came for: Kalbi


Two whole aisles of nori


Bleh!! Beef bile & pork blood!


Sempio “salad sauce”


Many kinds of oil.


Fujiya candy at the checkout.


I got bibimbap at Durebak in the food court and it was not very good.


Not very tasty bibimbap.


Lots of toy vending machines at the exit.


Also, when we left we passed a Korean Best Buy inside the store.


Korea Times newspaper.

In preparation for my birthday barbecue back in September, Dallas and I went shopping out at the Super H-Mart in Niles. This Asian supermarket reminded me a lot of Mitsuwa, except that Mitsuwa is more Japanese and Super H-Mart is more Korean. (See my visit to Mitsuwa here.) But, it’s basically the same concept. Huge grocery area, a section of rice cookers and housewares, other stores around the edges, a liquor store, and a food court. Differences I noticed at H-Mart were that the produce section was really huge, in the other retail stores area there was a Best Buy with everything in Korean, and the seafood area had live fish.

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My First Bibimbap

August 27th, 2009 · 4 Comments

bibimbap
Mitsuwa Marketplace, Arlington Heights, IL

My first bibimbap was from Mama House, located at Mitsuwa Marketplace.

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Doug & Naoko’s Holiday Party

December 31st, 2007 · 1 Comment

Tons of food!!

Naoko’s Desserts

Naoko’s Banana Custard

Naoko’s Chocolate Twinkie Train

On Saturday we went to Doug, Naoko and Tommy’s house for their annual holiday party with friends & family. Even though Doug told us that Naoko would only be making appetizers, we all knew better than to eat anything before going. Naoko is kind of Martha Stewart. All of the food she makes is so delicious and beautiful. She’s a fantastic cook and baker. And every time you think there couldn’t possibly be more food, she’d pull out something entirely new and set it out beautifully on the table.

This is what I remember she made: Cheese fondue with vegetables and bread for dipping, meatballs, two different noodle dishes, three types of maki (one had hotdogs and egg in it and is a favorite of the kids!), croissant sandwiches, a cheese board, spinach dip, potstickers, and chicken wings. Oh, and Chex mix that a drunken Doug told us 100 times was a secret family recipe of his grandmothers’. Just when you thought you couldn’t eat any more, Naoko pulls out a cake plate and arranges mini tiramisu and strawberry shortcakes, banana custard on the side and 3 different ice creams for the kids. Heather also brought some clam dip and I made Laura’s Cranberry Shortcake Streusel Bars (everyone loved them, even Chris, who doesn’t like cranberries) but we were no competition for Naoko!

Along with the food, we enjoyed many sake pours. Others had brought sake as well, but I liked the one we brought best. Danny had driven us out to Doug & Naoko’s house and on the way we were instructed to pick up a couple bottles of sake at Mitsuwa. We’re never really sure what kind is good, so I took photos of a sake bottle I still had at home from my 30th birthday. Doug and Naoko, who know what sake is good, had gotten it for me and for some reason I never threw the bottle away. It’s Ozeki Karataqmba and runs about $30/bottle at Misuwa, which is not bad because the bottle is pretty gigantic.

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Making Wontons

September 5th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Kathy & Laura
Kathy & Auntie Laura

Caroline
Caroline

Kathy & Laura Making Wontons
Kathy & Auntie Laura

Stuffing Wontons
Making Wontons

Uncooked Wontons
Uncooked Wontons

Danny Frying Wontons
Danny Frying Wontons

Wontons
Finished!

On Sunday all of Dallas’ family who were in town and who live in the suburbs came to our house for a (mostly) Korean dinner. Dallas’ parents, George & Kathy, & Auntie Laura came first. I was trying to finish up making some cookies when they arrived, but once Kathy & Auntie Laura got into the kitchen I pretty much had to surrender. I was fine with that, though. I knew the food they would be making was going to be fantastic and that they needed to do what they needed to do. Kathy was the ringleader and she gave everyone else jobs to do. In the end, Dallas’ whole immediate family, plus some Aunties and his sister’s friends and Danny all helped in making the meal. It was fun to have everyone involved.

Auntie Laura had taken George and Kathy to both a Korean market and Mitsuwa before coming to our house, so they brought all the ingredients they needed. For dinner we had oriental chicken salad, kalbi ribs, ahi sashimi, wontons, spinach namul, Hawaiian mac salad, and probably even more things that I’m not remembering right now.

I was the most excited about Dallas’ mom’s famous wontons. I’ve had a lot of the other foods we ate that day before, but not the wontons. Whenever Dallas visits his parents he always raves about them, but they don’t exactly travel well, so I’ve never had them. I special requested wontons and Dallas’ mom was nice enough to agree to make them at our house even though we had to make special arrangements to get the proper cooking gear here to do it. George and Danny ended up setting up an electric wok out on our porch so that our kitchen wouldn’t get full of oil. And extra thanks to Danny, who sat out there in the hot sun over a big wok of hot oil all day to cook the wontons. They were delicious.

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Mitsuwa

March 20th, 2006 · 13 Comments

tuna_sashimi.jpg
Tuna Sashimi :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Octopus Sashimi :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

daikon.jpg
Daikon :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Cute Packaging :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

open_mouth.jpg
Open Up :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

crunky.jpg
Crunky :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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The Motherload, East Ukrainian Village, Chicago

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Katsu Pork, Roscoe Village, Chicago

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Sukiyaki, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Yesterday I tagged along with Danny and Lori to go to the Japanese store that I kept hearing Dallas’ family talk about, Mitsuwa. It’s in Arlington Heights, which makes it impossible for us to get to, but Danny & Lori have a car so, problem solved.

Mitsuwa is a huge Japanese supermarket. Then there are a few seperate shops around the outside, but under the same roof: A bakery, a liquor store, a place that sells pottery, and a big food court. The produce, meat and seafood all looked great. I was wondering where people were buying their daikon! The snacks and confections are the section of any Asian supermarket that I love, though. The packaging is always so irresistable and cute. .. and in New York I used to always buy strange candies and then take them home and try them to see if they were any good. I used to always send it to my niece, too.

Dallas wanted me to pick up some norimaki for him. . the kind with the nori (seaweed) on the outside. I don’t really like it and it makes your breath smell like ass, but Mitsuwa had about 20 different kinds to choose from. I prefer my rice crackers not to have a lot of nori. Yum. I was also looking for some ume (asian plum) candy for him. I got all confused trying to figure it out and picked the wrong candy. Hey, don’t send a white girl from Wisconsin to the Japanese supermarket to do your grocery shopping unless you’re looking for some new things to experiment with! I did a pretty good job, though. I was also looking for some lychee. I remember buying it on the street in New York, but I didn’t find any in the produce department at Mitsuwa. Oh well. Re: the chocolate candybar called “Crunky”: Either Lil John has a new product he’s endorsing or they meant to say “Crunchy.” One last thing, we were surpised that Mitsuwa had Kaua’i Kookies since the only place we’ve ever seen them is on kaua’i. There were only 2 flavors there, but still …

Later that night we all went to Danny & Lori’s where the boys cooked katsu pork and sukiyaki for us. Then along with that we had maki, inari, bao, and sashimi that I bought earlier. So good.. so much food! It was the first time I had sukiyaki but if Danny ever says he’s making it again, I’m stopping whatever I’m doing and hailing a cab to their place. So delicious.

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