The Maruichi Japanese Food & Deli opened nearly two years ago in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner, stocking a huge collection of Japanese food products. Cooks from afar came seeking many of the hard-to-find fresh ingredients and pantry stables. Even after one visit, it might compel a novice to seek recipes for Japanese dishes and embark on a new cooking adventure. Several months ago, the market moved across the street into an even larger space, a closed Gap store. The inventory has grown, too, and there is a berserk amount of items: from the sushi-grade fish (octopus, fluke, surf clams, Atlantic bluefin tuna, Spanish mackerel from New York) and a broad selection of premium rice, like Ubaramai and Koshihikar, from varied regions of Japan and with their own nuanced flavors. “Japanese customers care about where their rice is grown,” says store manager Josh Nakama. You’ll find gift boxes filled with mochi rice cakes or packed with popular cookies produced in northern Japan. Cosmetics and body care products and stationery imported from the country fill one section of the store. “We’re like a supermarket you find in Japan,” he says. The company, with stores in West Hartford, and Scarsdale, N.Y., still operates the original Brookline location that’s now named Maruichi Select, stocking a smaller and curated collection of items. Fresh pastries and the beautiful Kutani porcelain dishes are on display. A small mill in the rear of the store cranks out freshly milled rice daily. There are many novelties: vinegar made of purple sweet potatoes, fermented soybean pastes, soy sauces with fishy flavors, such as one made with sea urchin. “If you’re looking for weird things, then shop here,” says Nakama. Maruichi Japanese Food & Deli, 306 Harvard St., 617-505-5009, and Maruichi Select, 299 Harvard St., Brookline.
ANN TRIEGER KURLAND