Baking Japan

(Sorry, this is going to be one of my more boring posts, but I do have a couple of readers who are on their way to expat with us soon and I know they'll be fascinated...)

Since I have some extra time on my hands I wanted to do more baking while we are here.  Unfortunately, as I shopped, I found that baking supplies are one of the hardest things to locate/translate here.  Most baking supply packages don't have handy pictures of the item or what you do with it.  You have be be able to read it.  Boo.

But after almost three months (!) my baking cabinet is finally in order.  (As for what I'm making with all of this, I'm thinking of starting a "recipes" page soon....maybe.) I had to resort to ordering several things but thanks to the wonderful blog Surviving in Japan I knew about the Foreign Buyer's Club and Tengu Natural Foods.  Both of these websites ship imported foods from right here in Japan.  Below is an idea of what is available here and what isn't.

What I Found Easily

• butter, eggs and whole/low-fat milk, of course (but unsalted/fake butter and fake eggs I don't know about)
• white and brown sugar
• spices (except for onion powder, garlic powder and ground cumin, oddly)
• flour (although it is really hard to translate and I suspect it's all rice flour, so I just gave up and ordered some all-purpose)
• vegetable and olive oil
• vanilla
• baking chocolate
• sea salt
• lemon juice
• the only fresh herbs readily available are basil, parsley, mint, oregano, chives and rosemary
• fruits, but some things come and go
• yogurt

What I Had to Hunt/Get at the Imported Foods Store/Excessively Run Through Google Translator

• cocoa
• baking powder
• cornstarch
• cornmeal
• shortening
• powdered sugar (although I found it AFTER I ordered it)
• shredded coconut (saw it, didn't buy it....ick...)
• ready-made frosting (As for ready-to-bake cookies, pie crusts, etc.......forget it.  Scratch, baby.)

What I Had to Order/Come Up with a Substitute

• wheat flour
• chocolate chips
• oats
• baking soda
• stock/broth
• vinegars (other than rice)
• buttermilk and/or heavy creams
• bread crumbs (I can't find panko--aka japanese bread crumbs--it's here somewhere but it's hiding from me....fortunately it's easy to make)

TA-DA!  (hey...I'm a housewife...this is what I do now... ;)

oh, and the giant bucket in the photo is rice.  because this
is Japan and rice doesn't come in bags smaller than 10 lbs.