JMarket Round Up

TC and I were out and about earlier this week in the Kearny Mesa area...

We hit up three local Japanese markets for candies and snacks for an upcoming dinner party...

They were out of the pink peanut butter filled mochi at Nijiya. We would have to try our luck at Marukai next. But first, a little snack...

It looks like the same snack we had earlier this year...A vegetable croquette and a seafood kakiage.

TC's croquette was so nice and crunchy on the outside and fluffy and light on the inside. Both of these fried items tasted even better with Tonkatsu sauce on the side. Those packets are hard to open! Or maybe I'm just lame like that.

Our next stop was Marukai Market. Again, no pink PB mochi. They had tons of the plain white mochi which people were snapping up like there was no tomorrow - well, it was for Japanese New Year. We picked up another snack, a package of the Takoyaki. TC also got a Calpico yogurt drink. The drink looked so gross to me. It looked like thin milk and the fact that it had yogurt in it made me want to throw up in my mouth.

The bonita flakes were "quivering" in the breeze. The food looked curiously alive.

Bite this...

Octopus balls = good eats.

Next stop was Mitsuwa. Parking was not as nightmarish as I thought it would be but it was terrible when we left. Lunch hour time. You know how that can be.

TC wanted the fried oysters and one red bean filled mocbhi so we got that one last snack before heading home.

I guess we weren't going to go out for lunch as originally planned since we snacked all morning.

Even though I didn't find what I originally wanted, it was still fun going around the different markets and seeing all of the different kinds of special Japanese New Year foods and gift sets.

Not as good as Hogetsu's...

A few more recipe posts and I'll call it a day. I want to watch my dvr'd episodes of Bourdain's "The Layover". The Amsterdam episode is calling my name...