MARKETS : Super Sushi Source

Ebisu Market, 18940 Brookhurst St . (in McDonald’s Plaza), Fountain Valley, (714) 962-2108 or (714) 962-2072. Open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Twenty-two years ago, Katsuo Takeda, a sailor who had come to Southern California on a Japanese oil tanker, staked his scant capital on a UPS-style truck and converted it into a mobile mini-market. Back then, Japanese supermarket chains weren’t very common; for 13 years Takeda did a good business selling groceries door to door. His truck loaded with Japanese groceries, he’d drive from the San Fernando Valley to Palm Springs and even San Diego to serve Southern California’s spread-out Japanese-American population.

Today Takeda runs a mini-empire that includes a Japanese supermarket complex in Fountain Valley with an on-site sushi master, a snappily designed ramen and okonomiyaki restaurant, and a branch of Bonjour, the tremendously popular Japanese-style French pastry shop in Gardena.

What customers have always sought most from Takeda is his fish--the very freshest he can obtain. Some of Ebisu’s customers prefer to bring their fish home undressed--the uncut skin, it is said, acts as a natural envelope that preserves flavor. A few even bring their own ice-filled picnic coolers to drive the fish home. “You really want to be careful with fish this good,” one man in the parking lot told me as I watched him pack his just-purchased fish into a cooler in his car.

Inside the store, the fish case holds an assorted line-up of firm-fleshed, bright-eyed whole fish. At the counter the store’s fish-men dress fish and prepare them according to the most finicky cook’s specifications. Anyone wondering what to do with an unfamiliar ingredient or how to tackle a recipe will be met with valuable advice from Takeda’s son, Joe.

In front of the main fish case, across from the display of restaurant-quality sushi, is another of the store’s main draws--specialties prepared by Tsugiko Takeda, Katsuo’s wife. In a kitchen on the premises, her staff makes up Japanese-style fried chicken, spinach cooked with crushed sesame seeds and other dishes that taste as though they were made for a family dinner. A more elaborate section of hot dishes is slated for the future.

Expect to find all manner of Japanese ingredients here too, from hundreds of pickles to Japanese margarine and traditional pastries that look like artwork. Hurried cooks will certainly want to explore the huge section of instant sauces and seasoning mixes.

Shopping here can easily become an event. Fortify yourself beforehand at Ebisu’s ramen shop, where you can watch the chef grill your order of okonomiyaki (a sort of egg-y pancake dubbed Japanese pizza because you can select a wide variety of toppings). Afterward, revive yourself with cappuccino and pastries next door at Bonjour.

SHOPPING LIST

FRESH FISH

Selections change with the season and availability. Shop early; Ebisu buys only enough fish for the day and the supply dwindles toward evening. Here is a small selection of what you’re likely to find:

FISH FOR SHIOYAKI

Shioyaki, or salt-grilling, is an ancient and simple Japanese method for cooking small fish that are eaten whole. The fish is sprinkled with salt, then allowed to cure 20 to 40 minutes--the process extracts moisture, firms the flesh and eliminates fishy tastes. Then the fish is grilled, preferably over charcoal, until the skin is crisp.

Although some cooks dress their fish at home, the novice will probably want help from the fish-man, who can supply advice on the correct skewering method for particular fish types and suggest how long the fish needs to rest after salting.

A few fish recommended for shioyaki include sama , or saury pike, a long, skinny pointy-nosed fish at its prime in autumn; fresh sardines, larger than any you’ve seen in a can; ayu, or sweet fish, a trout-like river fish with delicate meat (it’s best May through the summer months); silvery pompano, prized for its white, firm meat; and shima aji , a variety of small, meaty-fleshed mackerel known as yellow jack.

* Other Fish: Occasionally Ebisu has rock cod, for broiling and braised dishes, and sculpin, a ferocious-looking small red fish. With its prickly spines removed, skulpin is favored for deep-frying because of its many crisp bony parts. The fresh sardines and pompano are traditionally deep-fried too.

FISH FOR SASHIMI

* Tuna: No formal Japanese dinner is complete without a sashimi course, and tuna is by far the most popular. The store goes through 20 to 25 200-pound whole tunas per week, though some of this fish supplies restaurant customers. You can buy the tuna in a whole piece, which is what many cooks do if they don’t want to consume it all at once. “It keeps better if it’s not cut,” says Joe Takeda.

Sashimi slices come cut in the traditional hira zukuri -style in thick rectangles. The less expensive kaku zukuri -style of cube-cut tuna is ready for donburi (described below in the sushi section) or for salads and cooked dishes. Keep tuna tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and then cotton toweling to prevent it from absorbing refrigerator odors.

* Kibinago: These tiny, sparkly silver fish are neatly filleted and lined up like soldiers in overlapping rows. Kibinago make a delightful sashimi course or are offered as snack food with sake and beer. Serve the little fish with a miso dipping sauce made by combining 1 tablespoon each white miso, sugar and rice vinegar, 2 teaspoons mirin (sweet cooking sake) and 1/4 teaspoon grated ginger. Add additional vinegar to taste.

* Nippon Hamachi: Fresh yellowtail flown in from Japan, though expensive, is preferred to the fresh-frozen kind served in most sushi bars. You can easily recognize fresh hamachi because the dark, fatty strip of flesh that runs the length of the fish is red rather than the brown color it turns after freezing.

SUSHI INGREDIENTS

Under a blue ceramic-tile roof, Ebisu’s sushi master flips rice onto little logs for nigiri sushi. Watching him, you are convinced that making sushi at home is a job for only the most skilled and dedicated cook. But many home-style sushi dishes are as easy to put together as a salad.

Tekka donburi, for instance, (usually shortened to tekka-don ), is a simple bowl of sushi rice topped with attractively arranged sliced or diced raw tuna and roasted strips of nori . Lightly smoked salmon slices and a julienne of shiso leaves is another option for this sort of dish. The similarly assembled chirashi-zushi or “scattered sushi” is topped with a colorful assortment of sashimi and perhaps several types of fish roe.

* The Basics: Ebisu has all the components for homemade sushi: seasoned sushi rice or shari, angel-hair-thin shredded daikon and multi-pointed aromatic shiso leaves. You’ll find gari (sushi ginger) in the pickle section; wasabi and pre-toasted nori , the thin sea-vegetable sheets for garnishing or wrapping sushi rolls, are on the grocery shelves.

You’ll also find lightly smoked sushi salmon in blocks or slices and strips of salmon skin, ready to be broiled until crisp for salads or maki (sushi rolls). Octopus, squid, other shellfish varieties that vary with the seasons and many kinds of Japanese “caviar” prepared from fish roe are in the fish case and the cases to its right.

* Konbu Kazunoko: This is a thin strip of kelp sandwiched between two layers of crunchy yellow herring roe. The taste, as you bite into the crunchy eggs, is wonderfully briny and vaguely sweet. Konbu kazunoko must be soaked in water for about four hours, then drained and marinated. Bottled menmi sauce is an ideal marinade.

* More Fish Roes: Along with the konbu kazunoko and ikura, the ever-popular salmon roe, are flying fish roe ( tobiuonoko ) and cod roe. Don’t be put off by the fact that Ebisu displays some of these roes in a freezer. Many roe products have been frozen whether they’re sold that way or not. Because they are high in oils, the roes don’t freeze completely solid and their texture remains undamaged.

The freezer to the right of the sushi kitchen holds at least half a dozen different brands of mentaiko, lobes of cod roe still in their membranes, seasoned with spicy hot pepper. There are as many brands of tarako, a milder version of the roe. Both have dozens of uses: Japanese cooks roll them with sushi-rice for maki-zushi or stuff them into plain rice cylinders or wide triangles to make onigiri --rice sandwiches. The roes top rice in a bento lunch box, and grilled slices of them garnish ochazuke. In less abundant times, ochazuke was literally rice with green tea poured over it, but these days the liquid is just as likely to be a flavorful broth.

* Sashimi Knives: It’s important that fish for sashimi and sushi be cut in a single stroke for a neat appearance--preferably with a sashimi-bocho , the Japanese knife designed especially for that purpose. Right by the sushi section Ebisu carries a good collection of sashimi-bocho and other Japanese kitchen knives.

CURED OR MARINATED FISH

Before the era of refrigeration, the Japanese became masters at figuring out how to preserve their catches; their variations on basic fish-curing methods are endless. Here are just a few of the most popular varieties.

* Iwashi Ichiyaboshi: Ichiyaboshi, which means “dried overnight,” describes the method for curing this large sardine, which has been lightly salted and slightly air-dried. But the flesh isn’t dried out at all; it’s simply denser than fresh sardines and the curing intensifies its slightly sweet, fishy flavor. Iwashi ichiyaboshi are delicious grilled over charcoal or broiled until the skin is crisp. Split and filleted, then packaged in fours, you’ll find them in the freezer case to the right of the sushi area.

* Aji Hiraki: These are Spanish mackerel that have been lightly salt-cured and dried longer than the ichiyaboshi -style sardines. Cut into pieces and broiled, they are often served as nibbles with beer or offered as okazu with rice.

* Tara Kazu-Zuke: Thick slices of meaty cod with the silver-gray skin still intact are buried in sake lees, a white substance that resembles creamy salad dressing but is actually left-over fermented rice mash from sake making. “Do not wash it off,” advises Joe Takeda. When it’s broiled, tara kazu-zuke has a pronounced musky, winy flavor and a buttery texture.

* Buri Moromi-Zuke: Yellowtail prepared in the same style as tara kazu-zuke is marinated in a grainy, rusty orange-colored miso sauce. Although this particular miso isn’t fermented as long as standard misos, some will find its flavor quite salty. In a Japanese meal, where the fish is served in small portions, the saltiness is welcome as a counterpoint to larger servings of blander rice and vegetables.

* Otsumami: It’s against the rules of Japanese etiquette to consume sake or any alcoholic drinks without a little something to eat. The snack foods served with such drinks are tsumami --known more formally as otsumami --literally meaning “picking up.” Tsumami --not to be confused with zensai, the appetizers that begin a formal meal--range from small servings of elegantly cut sashimi or chunks of grilled, skewered foods to crunchy roasted soybeans.

* Chilled Otsumami: The small tidbits offered in a sushi bar before everyone begins to order are also in the tsumami category--a fact that follows Japanese culinary logic since the sushi served at a sushi bar is meant to accompany sake rather than be a formal meal.

Ebisu displays a selection of sushi-like tsumami in a cooler next to the fish case. You might try the kogane ika (thin, almost translucent strips of cuttlefish strewn with flying fish roe) or kasunoko wasabi , a mix of crunchy herring roe dressed with pale-green Japanese horseradish. Wasabi kurage is a little salad-like mixture of jellyfish strips marinated in sweet rice wine and dressed with wasabi, while uni kurage are the same jellyfish strips mixed with sea urchin.

Vegetables too can be tsumami. One freezer holds large bags of edamame , or young green soybeans, individually frozen in their shells. You pop them open and eat the beans like peanuts.

* Dry Otsumami: In a small section adjacent to the cookie and cracker shelves is a wild profusion of tsumami. My favorite brand, Relish, is, I suppose, the Japanese equivalent of Frito-Lay. The offerings include packages of pastel-hued shrimp-, squid- and sardine-flavored rice crackers and saki ika , which are finely shredded dried squid in spicy and lightly sweet-salty flavors.

Other brands offer little cracker balls with a peanut in the center that resemble beige M & M peanut candies or kiushu mame , crunchy deep-fried peas. There are tiny crackers made from sweet rice, including a variety wrapped in toasted nori as if it were maki ; kaki no tame , crescent-shaped and spiked with hot pepper or horseradish; and tiny star-shaped crackers flavored with bonito. Beef jerky, another favorite tsumami , is offered in a wide array of styles including a spicy-hot version.

A FEW JAPANESE BASICS

* Dashi: Anyone who cooks Japanese food must know about dashi, an all-purpose cooking stock that is to Japanese food what chicken or meat stock is to formal Western cooking. It’s what makes a dish taste Japanese. It’s a base for many soups but it’s also the foundation of variously seasoned braising stocks that are used for everything from noodle dipping sauce to cooking fish or vegetables.

Unlike its western counterparts, dashi can be made quickly, by simmering together three ingredients: water, a thick kelp called konbu and katsuo bushi , flakes of dried bonito fish.

Dashi -making is easier now than when cooks laboriously and skillfully shaved their own dried fish into flakes. These days, most people rely on instant and near-instant dashi no moto products. The most popular dashi no moto is a tea bag-like pouch filled with all the ingredients needed for the stock. Simply boil the bag with water for 10 minutes and the dashi is ready. Dashi no moto also comes as a concentrated liquid and as tiny granules to which you add water. Sometimes these are labeled hon dashi --true dashi.

Buying dashi can be somewhat confusing at first because the labels are so varied. In addition to the three styles of dashi no moto, you find katsuo dashi --made with dried fish and no kelp--and konbu dashi, made only with kelp and used for non-seafood dishes such as beef shabu-shabu. There’s also niboshi dashi and iriko dashi, both made from tiny sun-dried fish. These stronger-flavored stocks are favored by some cooks for udon noodles in soup. Finally, a dashi simmered with vegetable scraps is called koi dashi.

For most purposes, it’s best to check the ingredients list on the package label and get a dashi no moto containing kelp and bonito.

* Cooking Stock Mixes: The foundation for hundreds of Japanese dishes is a mixture of dashi, soy sauce and mirin , the sweet cooking sake. Several products now on the market combine and concentrate these ingredients to produce a handy, just-add-water preparation for making soups and sauces or simmering fish and vegetables.

Menmi sauce by Kikkoman, labeled entirely in English, provides a chart on its label advising how much water to add for various purposes. Dipping sauce for cold noodles requires 1 part sauce base to 1 part water, while soup stock calls for 1 part base to 4 parts water. Momoya brand, imported from Japan, makes several varieties of sauce mix with the same sort of chart on its labels. There are slight variations among these sauce bases; the manager can translate and counsel you on the best one to buy for your purpose.

TSUGIKO TAKEDA’S HOME-STYLE DISHES

* Kabocha Amani: Amani, meaning sweet-cooked, aptly describes the complex flavor of these plump Asian-style squash wedges that have been braised in a soup stock enriched with soy sauce and sweet rice wine. The stock brings out the intense pumpkin-like flavor of kabocha’s dense flesh. ( Kabocha, in fact, often goes by the name Japanese pumpkin.) Tsugiko Takeda’s version is the perfect complement to grilled fish and rice.

* Horenso Goma Ae: One of Japan’s most popular uses for spinach, this dish of the braised green is flavored with crushed sesame seeds. It makes a good first course or can be okazu, the term that means things to go with rice.

* Saba Konbu Maki: As every sushi aficionado knows, maki is food enclosed in a wrapper. In this case the maki filling is cooked mackerel inside a roll of soft, broad kelp leaves braised to a delicious tenderness. The rolls would be an excellent preface to grilled foods or fine as part of an okazu selection.

* Tori Tatsuta Age: Takeda’s fried chicken is marinated, then dipped in corn and yam starches before it’s deep-fried. The frying method, called tatsuta age, gives each well-seasoned bite an unbelievable light crunchiness.

* Agedashi Dofu: These large fresh blocks of firm tofu take on new character when quickly deep-fried and served in a slightly sweet dashi -based sauce. They’re topped with the traditional garnishes of grated radish and razor-fine slices of green onions.

* Sansai Okoa: On weekends only, Takeda cooks up big servings of this special dish, a blend of steamed mochigome --sweet rice--mixed with bamboo shoots, Japanese shiitake and shimeji mushrooms along with other vegetables. Most cooks are probably happy to leave the tedious chore of cooking the mochigome to Takeda’s kitchen. It must be soaked overnight, then spread out in a thin layer over cloth before being steamed above a pan of simmering water.

The market also sells the ingredients for making sansai okoa at home. Wel-pac mochigome has clear directions for cooking the rice on the back of its one-pound package. Ready-to cook “mountain” vegetables to mix with the rice come water-packed in plastic containers. Look for kinoko sansai and sansai mixed mizuni near the pickle section; both vegetable assortments contain fern buds, bamboo shoots and various mushrooms, among other things. You pour simmering water over the vegetables in a colander, then cook them in a cup of dashi mixed with 1/4 cup menmi sauce mix for 4 to 5 minutes.

* Miscellaneous Dishes: Takeda’s kitchen also turns out eggplant stuffed with ground pork and miso sauce, deep-fried white fish and saba no orishi , mackerel lightly breaded with Japanese bread crumbs and fried.

In the cooler look for ten kazu , crisp flakes of batter leftover from deep-frying that are skimmed from the cooking oil. A commercially made brand that looks almost exactly like Rice Krispies isn’t nearly as good as the home-style kind. Ten kazu is best known as a garnish for hot udon or soba noodles in soup. You sprinkle it on just before serving.

Near the sushi station are Takeda’s homemade daikon pickles in plastic bags. Cut into thick julienne strips and mixed with flecks of konbu and a tiny dash of hot red chile, they are the fresh style cured overnight and sold the next day.