When my aunt came to visit us last October we went grocery shopping. I told her I was looking forward to getting some pot stickers and sushi there. She was mortified to say the least. She practically yelled at me saying it is impossible to get good sushi in a grocery store. She went on and on ( a little snobby to be honest) about what its like in Japan and stuff you will buy in grocery stores will make you sick. She had to take it back, some of it anyways lol. Our local grocery store is HEB and in the one we shop at there is a sushi bar where it's made fresh right there in there little booth. It's excellent quality and affordable and I buy some for myself every time I go there. I am just curious, who has a grocery store that makes something you would not normally expect in a local store? Was it good? I would love to hear more about different stores that have unexpected items in them.
It is very common nowadays found in many Western countries either the United States, France and Spain, a little tray of sushi in the supermarket, properly labeled, respecting the cold chain, kept at the perfect temperature, health standards and that come with everything needed for consumption:soy, wasabi, ginger and another tasty things. Like everything in life we can not generalize, for surely there is sushi with excellent quality at a good price, made at the time and respecting the Japanese tradition. I do not have food prejudices and I think I can give an opportunity to the sushi sold in these shops.
My boyfriend loves sushi from the grocery chain Giant Eagle. I'm not a big sushi fan anyway, but I don't know that if I was a sushi fan, I would eat it from a grocery store. I guess don't knock it til you try it, though! Sushi in grocery stores seems more and more common these days.
We have special sushi stations in our local grocery stores. They make fresh sushi and you can even order the ones you want. They do make some special things to make sushi more attractive to other people though.
Up here in Wisconsin, we have a chain called Festival Foods that sells sushi near their deli. They have well-trained chefs preparing rolls almost constantly, and if you come during the busier parts of the day, they'll thank you for buying their sushi. It was really nice. I've gone there and bought maybe four or five different varieties at different points and every time I did I was satisfied with the purchase.
I'm not a big fan of sushi but every so often I get a craving for a spicy tuna roll. Many years ago, some of the Kroger stores that were in affluent areas had a sushi bar. This was one of my first experiences and it wasn't bad. One day, I got pretty sick in the stomach and never got sushi from Kroger again. However, I will get it from Trader Joe's.
I think Whole Foods sushi could be pretty good but it just doesn't taste fresh enough or something, but what can you expect for something sitting in a cooler that long. Sometimes the rice gets stuck together and the seaweed breaks apart. I liked getting sushi to go at Whole Foods over typical sushi places though, because they don't come in styrofoam containers and certain plastics which I dislike.
I buy the sushi at Giant Eagle on occasion, my main gripe isn't the quality but rather the prices of it. It drives me nuts paying like $10 for what is basically like an ounce or two of tuna and some rice wrapped in seaweed. The markup on it is ridiculous, it's not that time consuming and labor intensive to roll up some sushi, and the ingredients are largely inexpensive. There is actually another sushi restaurant in my neck of the woods that has half price sushi on certain days of the week, and not including drinks and tip, it's actually cheaper than Giant Eagle's sushi. I think the quality on the grocery store stuff is fine though. If there were any problems with it, such as people getting sick, I'm sure we would hear more about it, and the stores would stop selling it due to fear of lawsuits.
Yea, any grocery store that I've seen selling sushi has a sushi bar where it's prepared at in the store. Sushi is one of those things that you sort of want to see prepared in front of you. I'm not one who to really trust Sushi that's just available to be taken at any time as I don't want it to be sitting out the for a long while. One item I didn't expect to be all that great was a coffee shop in Raley's that wasn't a major chain. The coffee was absolutely delicious and is now one of my favorite places to go for coffee
I never, ever buy raw fish from a local grocery store, even if they prepare it in front of me. I just don't trust it as much as I would a traditional Japanese restaurant. So, I opt for the cooked rolls when I decide to buy sushi rolls from supermarkets. If I wanted sashimi, I would get it from the Japanese restaurant. Aside from sushi rolls, I also get little sides from the Asian section. Mochi and dango have to be two of my biggest weaknesses.
I don't know if other groceries do it better, but ours does maki fairly well. I would only ever buy it if I were craving for it that much, though, but I'd of course much rather buy it from an authentic Japanese restaurant. We do have some fast food Japanese restaurants here that sell sushi of a similar quality and price, and I tend to trust those more than grocery stores since they do specialize in it and their food is slightly of higher quality, but more often than not I just pass on them and would rather just spend more and get better and more authentic quality as much as possible.
Sushi at grocery stores is not a bad option, although I must say that you have to really read the label and see if it's not that old anymore. I would be very careful with that since it's using a lot of raw seafood. Also, I would consider the reputation of the grocery store. If it's known to have a high turnover of products, then I guess it's safe to assume that they always sell new ones. If I have a choice though, I would just go to my local Japanese resto and order my sushi there. If you are in a hurry, they can do it fast for you anyway.
