# Where to buy ingredients for making Sushi



## an98f (Feb 15, 2005)

I LOVE SUSHI. I can't seem to get enough. But it gets costly going out. So... I want to make my own but all I could only find a few ingredients: eel, seaweed, ginger. I live in NY so there are plenty of stores around, that I don't know about.  I'm looking for the following ingredietns: surf clam, shrimp, octopus. Please help. I'd really appreciate it.


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## kitchenelf (Feb 15, 2005)

The octopus you may be able to find at a specialty store - the shrimp is always cooked so that's easy - the surf clam can probably be found at the same place your octopus is found.  You just have to make sure that they are sashimi grade products.

Salmon and Tuna are more readily available - freeze your salmon for 24 hours before using - sashimi grade tuna is ok to eat right away.

Keep any left-overs in baggies on top of ice.  

Nori, wasabi, sushi rice (short-grain rice) - you should be able to find these things at any grocery store - maybe a larger one versus a corner one.

Now, with this information what else do you need to know?


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## marmalady (Feb 15, 2005)

You live in NYC?  Can you get over to Fort Lee?  There's tons of Japanese groceries there, one big one right on the river - used to be 'Yau Han' (sp?), but changed names, and I don't know what the new name is.

You'll find absolutely everything you need there, including any of the fish/seafood you'd like to try, and all the accompaniments, too!


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## Lugaru (Feb 16, 2005)

What she said... for your fish, especially if your doing sashimi, go to a japanese grocer. You can get great and cheap sushi ingredients at your local market (sushi chef is a decent brand and very cheap) but it will be nowhere as good or inexpensive as what you will find at a japanese, or asian in general, market. 

Btw for your eel, especially if your using smoked eel, I highly recomend picking up a container of thai garlic and pepper paste (the orange stuff with a green lid and a rooster on the bottle). It's a staple of chinese and japanese cooking as well and when mixed with a little mayo it make's an incredible topping for smoked eel or smoked salmon sushi. 

As for your shrimp get 'em raw if you can and stick a bamboo skewyer though them lenghtwise before boiling, that way they will end up straight and easier to mount on some rice.


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## Claire (Feb 20, 2005)

If I can find most of the ingredients here in a very small midwest town, you aren't trying hard enough!!!!  Find an Asian grocery, but even our small town grocery has much of what you need.  The hardest thing to find over the years has been the pickled ginger, but it isn't very hard to make yourself (buy fresh ginger, peel, then, using a potato peeler, peel the ginger into a small bowl or jar.  Cover with rice vinegar.  Won't be exactly the same, but it will do.  Eventually the Dubuque Asian grocer (a Vietnamese couple) started carrying it so I didn't have to do it myself.  I use CalRose rice, which is what everyone in Hawaii used for everything.  It made a great sushi.  Alternately, if you cannot find CalRose or "sushi" rice, if you live in a hispanic community, La Preferada sells a "pearl" rice that works well.  Both also work for risotto, believe it or not.


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## Claire (Feb 25, 2005)

I guess most assume the 'raw fish' aspect of sushi.  Steamed shrimp, a simply omlet-like sheet of egg, crab (or, yes, even krab), cucumber, avocado, asparagus.  If you, like me, live about as far from an ocean as you can get, you can still have fun with sushi.  Don't get me wrong; when I get to a city with daily flights in from the coast, I go for raw fish sushi.  But if it scares you or your guests, sushi has many alternatives.  And it can be a mecca for your vegetarian friends.


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## buckytom (Feb 25, 2005)

if you live in southeastern ny, i.e near the city, look for a chain of asian markets called "han-ah-reum". there's one in little ferry nj, and in queens and on long island. it is an excellent source of asian foods, and have a sushi dept. they sell everything you need including most of the fish you'd mentioned, as well as nori, short grain rice, rice vinegar, and sushi mats.


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## masteraznchefjr (Feb 25, 2005)

han-ah-reum i love that place lol. I bought some sushi grade salmon for 3.99 cause the guy stamped the wrong label on it, but you can find fresh sushi fish there and stuff to make it


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