Maruta Shoten is really a Japanese American market, and for that reason it feels like home to many of us who grew up going to a store like this one. It is small enough to explore it on your own and (if you grew up without Japanese school) is full of foods with unfamiliar letters on the packaging. The foods themselves are familiar enough: square tubs of roasted nori, 25-pound bags of Calrose rice by the door, super-kawaii containers of Hello Kitty and Botan rice candies. By comparison, other stores like Uwajimaya fall in the pan-Asian category and are more focused on a variety of Asian countries like the Philippines, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. Maruta is small, and the aisles are a bit narrow, but never, in our experience, oppressively crowded. Like many small ethnic food markets, Maruta is manageable, and delivers small bites of Japanese American-ness, both culinary and culture-wise. more ›

As Seattlest reported last month, Kress IGA was expected to open in June, and that day has arrived. Downtown Seattle now has a supermarket! more ›