MARKETS : Shopping for Soba, Sushi and Shabu-Shabu

A bottleneck of cars jockeying for position in the parking lot at Marukai Discount Japanese Food Mart is the only sign of life on this desolate stretch of Vermont Avenue in Gardena. Tucked between an empty phone switching station and the flashy El Dorado gambling casino, Marukai sells bonsai gardening tools, wind chimes, fresh soba noodles, beautiful sashimi trays, instant matsutake mushroom soup, hand-carved wooden rice bowls, red-bean flavored ice cream bars and rubber Japanese garden slippers.

It’s not fancy here. The aisles are tight and the floor is concrete. But shelves are packed with a treasure trove of edible discoveries--many of them selected and imported directly from Japan by Marukai Inc. You’ll see the Marukai brand name on several styles of green tea, bamboo shoot tips and tempura mix, among other things.

Cooks who use Japanese ingredients, whether for authentic dishes or fusion cooking, love Marukai for its serendipitous selection of unusual brands. The store is well organized, but there are always a few randomly placed boxes of Japanese mayonnaise in squeezable plastic bottles or bubble gum wrapped with Japanese cartoon characters. A tiny Seiko watch department sits next to rare brandies and futons opposite the Japanese pharmacy items.

“The idea for Marukai grew out of necessity,” says Art Noda, a close associate of Marukai owner Hidejiro Matsu. Marukai Inc. started out as a distributor of Japanese giftware, with locations in New York, Cerritos and Northern California. But the economic downturn of the late ‘70s put these novelties at the bottom of shoppers’ lists.

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Matsu, who was already well connected in the Japanese wholesale food business in Hawaii and Osaka (where his family had a food distribution company), reasoned correctly that a discount membership grocery and housewares store would fit the revised spending habits of local Japanese consumers. So in 1982 Matsu opened Marukai on 166th Street across from the Gardena Buddhist Church. Patrons paid a $4 membership fee and were sent a monthly newsletter offering special deals on Japanese merchandise.

In those days, discount merchandising was unfamiliar to Japanese businessmen, and Marukai seemed like a bold idea. “Matsu is a creative risk taker,” says Noda. The risk clearly paid off, for Marukai soon needed to expand into its present, much larger location on Vermont.

Recently other Japanese stores have begun to compete with Marukai’s low-price deals, so I can’t promise you won’t find similar prices elsewhere. But Matsu is thinking ahead and he has changed his strategy once again.

The desire for excellent service, he feels, is making a comeback among his customers. His service-oriented “New Marukai,” presently under construction, promises to be as imaginative as his discount merchandising in the early ‘80s. In addition to such conveniences as dry cleaners, mailing service center and shops such as a florist, and a food court, New Marukai will display cultural exhibits from the various provinces of Japan. The displays will give customers the opportunity to educate themselves about such traditional things as kimonos, regional porcelain and Buddhist altar goods. Cultural programs and cooking classes are also scheduled.

New Marukai will also have a recycling center and offer environmentally-friendly products such as organic produce and household cleaning agents. A philosophy has evolved here, one of “using business to bring the old and new together to help the 21st century work for our children,” says a blurb for New Marukai. That will be another story.

Shopping List

SUSHI MADE EASY

Watching a skilled itame-san working behind a restaurant sushi counter can easily intimidate a non-Japanese cook. But making sushi at home really isn’t an impossible task. Almost everyone in Japan can make several kinds of home-style sushi. The easiest version, chirashi sushi, is simply a bowl of sushi meshi (rice prepared for sushi) tossed together salad-style with finely cut fish and other ingredients. Some chirashi have one or more kinds of sashimi with garnishes and pickles arranged on top of the rice.

The second easiest home-style sushi, hako-zushi , is made by pressing the rice and fish or other topping into variously shaped molds called kata. The finished sushi is simply unmolded.

There’s also inari-zushi . For this style you buy deep-fried tofu squares called abura-age from the tofu section. When thin slices of tofu are deep-fried, they puff up, leaving a pita-bread-like hollow to be filled with plain sushi meshi or rice mixed with chopped vegetables or smoked salmon. Marukai has everything you need for these sushi styles.

* Sushi Rice Flavoring (Sushinoko): Preparing sushi meshi , the vinegared rice for sushi, can be a difficult chore because there is no single recipe to guide the cook. If the rice is very moist you need less vinegar than for drier rice, and if you need less vinegar you need less sweetener, and so on. Sushinoko eliminates those problems. Simply sprinkle a 75-gram bag of this powdered, seasoned and sweetened vinegar over four cups of cooked short-grain rice and mix well.

* Rice Cookers: For perfect rice, all you really must know is how to turn on a rice cooker. You’ll rarely see such a vast selection of these gadgets in one place as at Marukai. They range from one cup to 10 cups in capacity. And some brands offer deluxe models that can be programmed to turn on and off at any hour automatically.

* Sushi Forms: Marukai has dozens of forms to make sushi. Some are plastic, others wood. They turn out thick or thin sushi rolls, triangles and various kinds of layered sushi. Most have “international” labels with easy-to-follow pictographic directions.

* Prepared Wasabi: The Japanese horseradish, wasabi , is said to stimulate the taste buds and digestive juices. It is fabulous when freshly grated. But fresh wasabi is difficult to get, even in Japan. Most restaurants end up mixing the powdered, dehydrated wasabi with water to get that familiar smooth green paste. Now wasabi comes in the slightly better form of toothpaste-type tubes. You don’t have to mix, and the tube ejects only as much wasabi as you need. Look for several brands of wasabi in tubes against the north wall of the store.

* Sushi Fixings: Marukai imports canned Sushi Mix under its own label. The seasoned, assorted vegetables and tofu that make up the mix are often used for vegetarian sushi or futomaki , a thick roll of rice wrapped in roasted sushi nori.

* Canned Quail Eggs (which for some inexplicable reason are in the canned fruit section) make a charming garnish for chirashi , or they may be used at the center of a sushi roll. Marukai’s fish department is, naturally enough, another good source of sushi materials.

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NOODLES, RICE AND MORE

* Soba: Japan’s famous buckwheat noodles may be humble or luxurious. Buckwheat was once the grain of poor farmers who couldn’t afford, and often weren’t allowed, to eat rice. Now in some parts of Japan soba has become a status food, requiring hand-milled, specially grown buckwheat, purified water and noodle-making masters with years of training.

The soba selection at Marukai boggles the mind. Start in the cooler section, where there is plain fresh soba (made in L.A.’s Little Tokyo) or fresh Japanese-made soba with soup packets to which you need only add water. Then move on to the dry noodle section. There you find plain soba of varied lengths and thicknesses. The various brands of cha soba contain powdered green tea. The yamaimo sobas are made with a little mountain yam ( yamaimo ) that gives the noodles a slight springiness.

Among the regional soba styles is wanko soba, unusual for its short (barely four inches) lengths. Kirishina soba , a thin but irregularly shaped noodle with a rustic quality, is reminiscent of noodles handmade in the countryside.

* Soba Tsuyu: So what do you do with soba ? You eat it with garnishes and soba tsuyu , a soup-like mixture of fish-stock, soy sauce and either mirin or sugar.

Serve cooked fresh soba chilled on a mat and accompany it with a bowl of the tsuyu , a small mound of thinly sliced scallions and a little wasabi . To eat the noodles, pick them up with chopsticks or a fork, swish them in the sauce and quickly down them (the sauce doesn’t cling for very long). The tsuyu may also be heated and the noodles served in this broth topped with steamed vegetables, tsuyu- seasoned chicken chunks or beef.

Tsuyus have recently come on the market in concentrated form. Kikkoman’s Nemmi sauce is one such example. Tsuyus are also available in a fully prepared form called “ straight type.” In addition to soba tsuyu there are udon tsuyu and somen tsuyu (made with a thin wheat noodle). Each is appropriately seasoned for its particular noodle. Some brands of tsuyu are made without MSG.

* Soba Konnyaku: Chewy and mint-green colored, these precooked strands are not soba but a condiment for it. Konnyaku , colloquially known as devil’s tongue jelly, is a firm, gelatinous substance made from a starchy root. It also comes in blocks that are cut into shapes and simmered in soupy broths or stews. Soba konnyaku , meanwhile, is eaten chilled with soba tsuyu . Marukai imports its own brand of soba konnyaku . A woman demonstrating the product told me it was delicious cut into short lengths and made into a salad with lettuce, crab (or imitation crab) and a Japanese salad dressing.

* Shirataki: Another noodle-like form of konnyaku , shirataki , is also known as white waterfall for its glassy, shimmery appearance. Shirataki is popular as a sukiyaki ingredient because it soaks up the flavorful broth.

* Truly Instant Rice: Rice, the absolute essential part of most meals, is usually cooked by the gallon in most Japanese homes. But for the couple or lone diner in a hurry, packaged cooked rice is the ultimate Japanese emergency food. It can be stored unrefrigerated. Simply boil the unopened pouch for about 10 minutes or heat in a microwave for two minutes.

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SEASONINGS AND FLAVORINGS

* Kasu: Officially called sake lees, this fermented mash of rice is what remains after sake is made. Kasu tastes very much like sake, and like sake, it is said to remove the fishy smell from fish and to tenderize foods. There’s a marinade for fish called kasuzuke (roughly, “soaked lees”).

Kasu looks like uncooked oat bran in cream, and it’s a rather odd sight to see slices of cod or salmon (which you find in the fish department) marinated in it. There is also something called itah kasu that is firmer, like a raw dough. Plain kasu in plastic bags is stored in the cooler with the miso.

* Mirin: It’s been said that at the heart of Japanese cooking is the trio of dashi (fish stock), soy sauce and mirin; they are used together in everything from soups and cooking broths to noodle dipping sauces. Occasionally labeled in English as sweet rice wine, mirin is almost syrup-like, with an exceptionally low alcohol content. In cooking you must never substitute sake for mirin but rather use plain sugar.

Mirin is especially pleasing when boiled and reduced to a viscous syrup, seasoned with soy sauce and used as a glaze for grilled foods.

* Sukiyaki Sauce Base: Sukiyaki, which means “plowshare-grilled,” got its name from the time Buddhist laws forbade eating meat. Hungry peasants, when lucky enough to find game, would grill it in the fields right on their plowshares. It was reasoned that if you didn’t take the game home to cook, then it wouldn’t count as an official meal and you were not violating any precepts.

Beef, a relatively new food in Japanese cuisine, has become the star of sukiyaki, but the dish is also made with all sorts of other foods. Shirataki and tofu are popular ingredients because they soak up sukiyaki’s delicious sauce. One of the most popular sukiyaki dishes, udon suki , is made with seafood (obviously not found in the farmer’s fields) and thick wheat noodles.

But sukiyaki is simply grilled meat (or chicken or fish) to which you add a sauce and then vegetables. If sukiyaki is prepared at the table, diners often cook their own vegetables a few at a time in the broth.

Marukai sells a sauce concentrate that you simply pour onto the meat after it is grilled and then add vegetables.

* Shabu-Shabu Dipping Sauces: Shabu-shabu is another cooked-at-the-table beef dish like sukiyaki, and is likewise new to Japanese food. It’s supposedly named after the sound made when the beef gets swished-swished through bubbling water as diners cook it in their table-top hot pot. Cooked like this, the beef and ensuing vegetables are pretty bland, but several delicious dipping sauces are usually served alongside to season them.

Marukai stocks two of these sauces. The first, with a sesame paste base, is rich and creamy with the slight tang of vinegar and garlic. The second is soy sauce-based and spiked with mirin, lemon juice and rice vinegar. Look for these at the back of the store with all the other sauces.

* Umeboshi: Somehow the Japanese palate is in love with the excruciatingly sour taste of umeboshi , the pickled green plums that make your hair stand on end. There is even an umeboshi -flavored chewing gum for those who want more than a quick hit of sourness.

Salt and red amaranth leaves flavor and add color to umeboshi, which are regarded as a digestive aid, a breath freshener and an eye opener at breakfast (which they surely are).

Marukai has many brands of umeboshi : tiny ones the size of peanuts and others slightly smaller than a prune. Some are flavored with dried bonito fish. Some umeboshi are packed in globe-like jars with a drape of cellophane under their lids that is designed to resemble a cloth or towel. The packaging is meant to evoke the old-fashioned pickling jars that people used when they made their own umeboshi at home.

In pureed form, strained to remove the plum skins, umeboshi are used to season sauces. Occasionally, you’ll find a sushi recipe that calls for umeboshi puree (also called bainiku ).

* Demi-Cured Pickles: Kyuri usujio ichiyazuke --literally lightly salted cucumber, pickled one night--is the half-cured dill of the Japanese pickle world. Most non-Japanese find these extremely pleasant because they’re not as salty and strong as other Japanese pickles. Look for them in the pickle cooler near the fish department.

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The following recipe is excerpted from “Northwest the Beautiful,” edited by Kathy Casey (Collins Publishers: 1993).

SAKE KASU COD

1 1/2 cups kasu (sake lees)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon light-brown sugar, packed

3 tablespoons sake

3 tablespoons mirin

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 (6-ounce) fillets black cod, skin on

2 tablespoons oil

In bowl mix together kasu, sugars, sake, mirin and salt. Spread half marinade in bottom of non-aluminum baking dish. Lay fish over, then spread remaining marinade over fish. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 48 to 72 hours.

Prepare fire in charcoal grill. Remove fish from refrigerator 30 minutes before grilling.

Wipe all marinade off prior to cooking, or let some marinade remain. Brush fish pieces with oil. Grill flesh-side down 5 inches from medium-hot coals 4 to 5 minutes, then turn and cook skin-side down about 2 to 3 minutes more. Both sides of fish should be slightly charred and flesh should be opaque throughout. Makes 4 servings.

* Marukai Market, 15725 S. Vermont Ave. (south of Redondo Beach Boulevard), Gardena. (310) 538-4025; mail order, (310) 538-4499. New Marukai, (213) 625-2853.