Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, New Jersey, is having the Umaimono Japanese Regional Artisan Food Fair this weekend, and even though the supermarket is not in New York City, JapanCulture•NYC had to be there.
Through Sunday customers can discover and enjoy several types of regional cuisine straight from Japan. Specialties such as inarisushi that contains crab meat and lotus root; seafood bento with crab, squid, salmon roe, and uni (sea urchin) beautifully presented in adorable boxes; and various types of fish roe were huge draws.
Japan is known for its sweets, and no food fair would be complete without them.
Of course, the line for ramen was out the door. For this year’s fair Mitsuwa is presenting the specialty of Kamome Shokudo Shio of Kesennuma, a town in Tohoku that was decimated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
Another popular food was takoyaki by Takoya Kukuru of Osaka. The line was configured so that customers could watch the chefs’s speedy hands turn the dough filled with chunks of octopus and other goodies.
The fair continues through Sunday, June 23. Mitsuwa is open from 9:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. Tip: Go early! For more information on the food fair and to learn about the shuttle bus service from Manhattan to the store, please go to Mitsuwa’s website.