Grocery shopping at Yokohama Chinatown

I live in a Japan in a city call Yokohama. It’s a port city, a tourist destination for beautiful ports, exotic western houses sited on the hillside, many, many imported cultures when Japan open their door to foreign people 160 year ago. Among tons of interesting places to visit, Chinatown in Yokohama is the must go places when visiting this city.

私は横浜に住んでいます。港町横浜は人気の観光地でもあり、美しい港、エキゾチックな洋館が並ぶ山手、そして数々の外国からの文化を日本に招き入れた歴史ある街。観光名所は沢山ありますが、横浜と言えば日本一大きい横浜中華街は外せないですね。

Chinatown was always my favorite place to visit. Whether it’s in Kobe, where I grew up or Boston and New York where I studied. Chinatown was always a place to dine but for me it was more important to buy, stock-up Asian groceries. Yokohama Chinatown’s grocery store has been decreasing year by year but there are still old places providing rare spices and dried ingredients for chefs in and out of town.

中華街は私のお気に入りの場所。育った神戸でもそうだったし、留学先でお世話になったボストンとニューヨークの中華街もお気に入りでしが。美味しいものを食べに行くのはもちろんですが、私にとってそれより大事だったのが、食材を買いに行く事。横浜中華街は通い始めていた頃と比べると年々食材屋が減少していますが、老舗はまだまだ頑張っています。

What I got in October

A bag of Thai rice noodle (10mm thickness)　タイの米麺１０ミリ
Szechwan pickles (pickled freshly ones in the Japanese method)　ザーサイの漬物
Dried red chilli　唐辛子
Dried Szechuan peppercorn　花山椒
Chan Pui Mui ( preserved plum seasoned with orange peel and licorice )　中華の梅のお菓子
Almond cookies　アーモンドクッキー

Thai rice noodles, chili and Szechuan peppercorns was on my shopping list. Buying these in Chinatown are much cheaper and fresher so I prefer getting it there. Yes, Thai ingredients are cheaper if bought at Yokohama Chinatown than Thai grocers too. But the selections are limited. The noodles are from Sakamoto Shoten. Not a fancy place, just an old grocery store in Chinatown.

先日２時間ほど時間があり中華街をパトロール。パトロールと言っても買う物リストもありました。先ず、タイの米麺の１０ミリの太麺と花山椒など。中華街でタイの食材？と思われると思うのですが、意外とタイの食材屋より安く買えるんです。何でだろうと私も思うのですが、昔から取り扱いがあり、問屋さんとの付き合いかで安く仕入れる事が出来るのでしょう。昔と違って揃う物が限られているのですが、一度、タイ食材と言う目線でパトロールしつつ、何が買えるかメモって置くと役に立ちます。ちなみに麺は市場通りにあるさかもと商店で購入（この太さは他の店では取り扱いがこの辺りでは無かった。）

I haven’t been to Genhoko since they moved their main branch. I was curious about the new place but keep forgetting to go. The new place seemed a little bigger than their old place but the selected items seems less than their old store. Still they sell good quality items which I trust a lot. On this day, I got some fresh Szechwan pickles sold at Genhoko. These pickles are originally made for Genhoko. It’s not like the salty ones you usually buy in other places. You don’t need to soak it in the water to desalinating them. It’s so easy to treat them, you just need to slice it thinly, marinate it with a bit of sesame oil and dash of soy sauce and top it on tofu, pan fried them, or when the pickle gets old you can put it in a soup.

ふと、源豊行に最近寄って無いなと思い出す。本通りから移転してから中々立ち寄れずにいたので寄ってみる事に。移転先の店舗が前より広めのせいか、品揃えが少なく感じつつも、こだわった食材が並んでいた。ここでしか買えない乾物もあるし、今では何処でも買えるピータンもここのがお気に入りです。もう、知っている人は知っている源豊行オリジナルの搾菜を買う。日本の漬物屋に作ってもらっている浅漬け的な搾菜はここでしか買えない。あの面倒な塩抜きもいらないし、お茶うけ的にポリポリいける。古漬けになればスープに入れたり、炒め物にすると良いので無駄が無いです。

I got some almond cookies from a old Chinese confectionary call Jyuraku. This place is famed for steamed sweet cakes and if you are lucky you might bump into steamed turnip cakes. This was the first time I got a bag of cookies and was so addictive.

聚楽の前を通ると小袋にアーモンドクッキーがカウンターに一つ売れ残っていた。大判のアーモンドクッキーは良く見るのですが、小さめの物はあまり無く、買って見ることに。素朴な味わいで大正解だった。次回もあれば買うだろう。

The dried spices and Chan Pui Mui (Chinese plum sweet) are all bought at Mansyo Shoji. Another favorite place to shop in Chinatown. I trust the freshness of there dried spices and they carry a lot of unique spices and sauces. Chan Pui Mui sold here are the only ones I like. They are from Hong Kong and I just love this taste so much. I’ve tried others, even bought some while visiting Hong Kong but this particular brand just hits my taste.

最後に萬勝商事でスパイス類と、秋だなぁ、お茶だなぁと思い好物のお茶請けを。陳皮梅は梅をみかんの皮で出来た茶菓子。香草も入っているため、メーカーによって苦手な物もありますが、萬勝商事で取り扱っている香港の物が好み。中国茶が恋しくなる秋にはこう言う菓子と合わせたいなと購入。

On the same day, I also had lunch in Peking Hanten. Peking Hanten is established in 1955 and is one of my partner’s favorite restaurant. Pekin Hanten is one of the rare places to be open till late at night (not anymore due to covid) and very helpful to people who worked till late but still want some fine dining to entertain their guest. ( I’ve heard a lot of musicians, conductors enjoyed this place in private rooms.) Xiaolongbao are one of their signature (you can see the chef making them as you walk by the restaurant) but anything here is good. Their taste tend to lead toward classic, sometime a tad salty, though I can see the cooks are well trained by ordering the simplest of their repertoire. Peking Hanten aren’t cheep eateries compared to others in the area but still very reasonable, but if you want to try a bit before indulging the menu, try their lunch sets! There are several option to choose from 1000 ~ 1500 yen which are very reasonable plus the menu are seasonal so you won’t get bored of it! The picture above was stir fried soft shell crab with chili which came with soup, pickles, cold dish, a bowl of rice (with free seconds) and a cup of coffee. Not bad isn’t it?

この日は中華街でランチも楽しみました。久しぶりに北京飯店へ。ここは夫家族のお気に入りの場所。昔からある老舗ですよね。味わいは物によって濃いめもありつつ、シンプルな一皿をオーダーするとここの料理人の腕の良さを感じます。お昼時にはランチセットがあり、おすすめです。写真のソフトシェルクラブのピリ辛炒めにスープ、漬物、冷菜、ご飯（おかわりOK、夫にとってこれ大事）と食後にコーヒーも出ました。よほどの事がなければすんなり入店出来ますし、観光客も少なめで落ち着いて食事もできます。