I have recently started to try to make some Japanese foods, using books and recipes I've found on the internet. My problem is finding the right ingredients. I don't have a specifically Japanese shop near me. The local Oriental / Chinese supermarket has loads of things that I don't recognise.
I wonder if there is, anywhere, a list of cooking ingredients with their names in Chinese, where they exist. I don't know if this makes sense, but I'm getting at is that I might be looking at what I want to buy, but I don't know it because it has a different name. Are those jars of red pickled ginger benishoga, for example? Or are the pickled plums from Hong Kong the same as Japanese umeboshi? I love browsing round the shops, but it can also be frustrating at times.
