Does anyone know where you can buy sacks of Japanese rice in Sheffield? At the moment I buy it from the Chinese supermarket near Woolworths in town, but they don't always have any in stock. Somebody mentioned when I first moved here that there was a van that came round every-so-often selling Japanese stuff. Does anyone have any info?

theres another chinese supermarket at london road, you can try there. if not, just keep checking tai sun to see if they have any. nope, never heard of the van sorry.

there is an international mini-market on Filey Street at Broomhall. They may be worth a look

Ive heard of that van! It does exist! For some reason I seem to think it goes to ranmoor halls but i may be wrong!?! I'll ask my flatmate and give you a more defined (!) response later!

I will check out the filey street mini-market and the shop on London road. Thanks for the info. Would appreciate you finding out about the van. Cheers

theres a large asian cash and carry place near meadowhall (cant remember name >__<) and theres a smaller one called Adams but i dont think they sell japanese stuff..

or if u got a car, u can try wing yip in manchester, www.wingyip.com.

i'll try to get the name and address of the one near meadowhall for u! :D

is jap rice any different to other rice? and also is the food any different fropn chinese as my other half wants to go to that new japenese place on london rd but i don't know if we'd like the grub or not.

Thank you for all the info.
Japanese rice is a lot nicer than normal long grain rice (I think!)
It is stickier and just nicer tasting. Not really like chinese, less dry. The food is very different from chinese. There is lots of raw fish ( which is delicious if it is really fresh). The taste is difficult to describe, but it is very healthy food I have been told.
We haven't been to the restaurant in town, but if it is anything like the real stuff, it is definitely worth going. If you do, let me know what it is like...

apparently from what ive heard, its right expensive...

A bit expensive unless you buy it in large quantities-but worth trying...You can buy a smallish packet from Sainsbury's-it's called NISHIKI

i'm going to the one on london road next week! the food taste like a real japanese place, but it might be run by chinese ppl tho! and yeah, jap food is much healthier than chinese food, i dunno why ppl think chinese food is healthy, they put alot of oil in the cooking!! >____<

about the japanese rice, i found out what that cash and carry near meadowhall is called, Bookers! but they dont sell japanese rice, sorry! >___<

looks like theres only wing yip at manchester now lol!

Ok. Thanks anyway - may go at look in Bookers anyway, see what other stuff they have.

The restaurant is called wasabi sabi, I went recently with my girlfriend, you can eat in either the restaurant ie table service or in the tapanykai (spelling). We had the tapanykai, very over priced, small portions but good entertainment also got the feeling they want you in and out asap. Would recommend it once, for a group but its not up there with the best. BTW booking is essential at the weekends.

sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm looking for similar - any good sources of Japanese food, rice included, (for home cooking not eating out) so I'd be interested to know the results of anyone's searches.

Thank you (or doumo arigatou gozaima****a if you prefer ^_^ )

oh and yes, the owner of Wasabi Sabi is in fact Cantonese, but apparently wanted to open something different to the mass of Chinese restaurants on London Road

i dont think its going to do that well because the stuffs so expensive. also, there seems to be a large increase in chinese/cantonese restaurants recently,heard anothers gonna open near tai sun supermarket.

o yeah,i dont think theres any place in sheffied that focuses on just selling japanese stuff. you could check out the places mentioned earlier.

Not that impressed with Wasabi Sabi. It's very expensive in my opinion. I had the cheapest 'meat' set dish and that was £22 puls a bottle of Kirin beer and a bottle of water and it came to £27 total. maybe that's nothing to some but it's expensive in my books. Especially with the (little) amount you get.
Interesting thread. My view is .....

Wasabi Sabi : I suppose what your paying for is the cooking display which you get when you order Tapen Yaki (the set meal). Lots of food juggling and flames whooshing. The foods freshly cooked in front of you but such meagre amounts !! Good to watch but is it worth it all in the end ? I don't think so.

White Van : The white van and chinese supermarket ? I think you may be talking about Kung Heng on london Road. It's a small chinese supermarket which gets deliveries from London (?). The white van brings lots of chinese food and ingredients as well as chinese pastries and savoury meat buns which are really nice if you steam them up. You have to be quick though as the van brings only so much stuff and the chinese community snap stuff up when it arrives. It can be good fun battling between the chinese people as they examine and choose there food stock for there weekly cooking. You can get rice and noodles there too. The van usually arrives at about 3pm on Sat afternoon or thereabouts.

As for chinese and japanese rice. It's the same thing. It just depends on which rice dish you want to cook. some dishes you need short grain, some long. Japanese use short grain for stuff like Sushi.

The point about Japanses food being more healthy than chinese is down to choice of what you eat. To say chinese food is unhealthy and full of fat is incorrect. If you're basing your experience from chinese takeaways and some restuarants in town, then your not eating authentic chinese food. This food is enhanced and modified to fit the western pallette (monosodium glutemate).

'Real' chinese food is freshly stir-fried meat and plenty of veg in a very hot pan/wok for a couple of mins such that it retains the goodness and vitimins in the food. Dim Sum is also steamed and great to eat (not fried or fatty). You can try Dim Sum at 'Dim Sum' on London Road (small resuarant). It's reasonably priced too. There's other places you might want to try (China Cafe on London Road, or Noodle bar is ok too) but you might have to travel to your nearest china town to get better stuff. I personally don't think East One is that bad and Candy Town is quite good, especially when it's chinese new year when they put a dragon show on (although they up the price a bit at that time too).

The 'Eat as much as you like' for a set price are ok but it's very fatty and deep fat fried mainly. Not great food but just fast food for the masses.

This is all just my opinion but hopefully it has helped or given you some idea's. Let me know what you think ?