We found the relatively secluded Japanese delicacy shop named Anyu while walking near Oktogon, and entered in hopes of purchasing some authentic sushi ingredients. We did not expect that what we could find would exceed our wildest imagination: the instant seaweed soup and mustard leaf for salads are only the tip of the iceberg. Strange, but tasty.
The Japanese delicacy shop named Anyu (not to be confused with the breakfast place in Buda) hides along Eötvös Street, opening from Andrássy Avenue, since March 28, and offers an incredible stock of goods.We only wanted to buy some dried seaweed for making sushi, but we managed to spend almost a whole hour amid the sea of special ingredients, which often reminded us more of sci-fi elements than actual food. We did not know anything about more than half of the store’s selection, so we had to ask the kindly smiling Japanese ladies for help, who spoke Hungarian surprisingly well. One of them told us that she came to Budapest because of her Hungarian husband, and has been living here for ten years.
Most products are ingredients that are frequently used in Japanese cuisine, like several varieties of rice available in, for example, 40-pound bags. They also have all kinds of soy sauces, noodles, wasabi paste, tofu, and seaweed.In addition to these relatively basic products, we also saw rather bizarre ones, like the instant seaweed soup, dried sour plums ("umeboshi"), dried fish, broth, mustard leaf for either rice or salads, Japanese barbecue sauce, salty Japanese mayonnaise, gyoza (meat-filled Japanese “ravioli”), dried daikon radish, ginger cream, and curry cubes.
Their green tea and sake collection is also remarkable. There even is a champagne-like sparkling sake version, and we spotted a Japanese grain pálinka on the shelf, as well.We learned that the goods do not arrive directly from Japan, but first go through a distributor in Germany – but of course, this does not affect the quality of the products. We have to fatten our wallets in preparation for purchasing this special merchandise, but we will not be doing our daily grocery shopping here anyway.
One of the best things about this place is that we can buy and eat freshly made fried sushi, sweets, and potato croquettes, since the store has a kitchen, as well. This is where the name originates from – Anyu ("Mom") is the one who usually feeds us, just like in this case.In the future they would like to expand the stock of the store, and they are also thinking about starting cooking classes.
