Marukai: Japanese shopping thrills in my back yard

MARUKAI CORPORATION.

I've loved this place ever since they opened a branch here in San Diego. The grocery carries all sorts of Japanese yummies--as well as lots of Hawaiian specialties (as lovingly documented by my favorite Hawaiian ex-pat, mmm-yoso). I just dropped by today and picked up some cream stew roux cubes, some daikon and carrots, some fresh fish trimmings for soup (very cheap and oh so good), and a couple of surprisingly tasty energy drinks. A lot of the fun with these places for me is just checking out the goods, giving myself a cross-cultural education by way of foodstuffs. For instance, like many stores Marukai has got its holiday food displays up and running, but unlike mainstream supermarkets, Marukai's haul includes such traditional Japanese New Year's fare as kagami mochi, which are ever so cute, like little flattened snow men. Sure beats hell out of candy canes.