Did you ever walk along the beach and see shiny little crabs scurrying sideways in the sand? Or maybe you saw crispy sun-bleached crab shells nestled among the driftwood, seaweed and beach glass that had washed up on the shore? Did it ever occur to you that those little critters would make a tasty snack? If not, you're not alone. Rather than buy any, I thought taking a picture would do the trick...
Lee and and I were anything but crabby this weekend. We enjoyed a leisurely Sunday afternoon at the Nihonmachi Street Festival in Japantown . Mostly this gives us an excuse to eat Asian style street food, listen to Taiko drums, watch Polynesian style dancing, and poke around some of our favorite stores in Japantown. We have lots of stores we like in Japantown, but my top two picks are Ichiban-Kan where I find cheap kitchen utensils and gadgets galore and Nijiya, a Japanese mini-market with everything from fresh shiso leaves to sushi grade fish.
There isn't an aisle in Nijiya not worth exploring. Usually I find something I haven't seen before. On this trip we discovered a couple of things, including beautiful boxes of bath salts promising Japanese style mineral baths at home. But perhaps my favorite aisle in any Asian market is the snack food aisle. I'm not a big snack food eater but I love seeing what other folks like to snack on. While I had seen crispy little fish, wasabi peas and dehydrated squid before, I have to admit, these crabs were a new one on me.
Nijiya
1737 Post St
San Francisco
415-563-1901
Ichiban-Kan
22 Peace Plaza
San Francisco
415-409-0472
