ottawa foodies

Does anyone know a good place to pick up Japanese cooking supplies? I've read through the forums and I didn't see a similar topic, so I apologise if I am creating a thread that has already been done.

I was pretty excited when T&T opened as I hoped I would be able to get things like aburaage (either plain aburaage or prepared inari pouches), konbu, wakame, etc at a reasonable price, but after a few careful inspections it turns out that they don't carry aburaage or inari skins (or at least I can't find them), nor Japanese varieties of sea weed other than toasted nori.

I really love Japanese food and I've actually gotten pretty good at cooking it at home, but inarizushi is my favourite thing and I've just not been able to find aburaage to make it myself. As for the sea weeds, I know they are available in health food stores and some grocery stores, but they charge an arm and a leg for them. Any advice?

online or if you're in toronto, the biggest asian mall in canada called PACIFIC MALL. i get all my asian cooking supplies there. mega huge.

if they don't have it, you don't need it.

Arianna, I've seen kombu (Kombu) all over the place -- even at natural/vegetarian stores like Rainbow Foods Rainbow Foods. You may wish to check out Win Tai Market Win Tai Market, as it has the biggest selection of Japanese groceries I've seen.

Like Fresh Foodie said, Win Tai Market has so many Japanese foods.
Inari pouch you are looking for, if you cannot find it at store, then you can cook it at home. Buy a block of tofu, thinly slice it, remove water and deep fry it. That's how you make Age.
I think you can find square shaped (Age) at Chinese grocery store. Be careful some are hollow like Inari pouch and some are tofu inside.

If you find Age, boil it and squeeze out water ( to remove oil), then cook Age with soy sauce and sugar.

www.recipezaar.com

Korean stores like Arum Arum and Polaris vendor 1801 have some of the products you're looking for.

Quick & dirty Japanese-Korean translations:*
Wakame - "miyuk" (it's dried so you'll need to soak it in water)
Inari skins - ask for "yubu" or "yubu cho bap"
Konbu - "Dashima"

*No guarantee of success

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your excellent replies! I'm in the middle of moving but when I am finished I will definitely check out all the suggestions. Hopefully while I am at it I can figure out how to make that tasty seaweed salad they have at all the ayce sushi places - although out of all my friends apparently I'm the only crazy one who loves it. I've been told that it is actually Korean and not Japanese, so hopefully I'll have some luck finding necessary ingredients :)