Meal planning and grocery shopping were already demanding enough tasks without throwing the outbreak of COVID-19 into the mix. Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a national state of emergency on April 16, many across the country have been heeding calls to cut human contact by 80 percent; Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike also requested residents to limit trips to the grocery store to once every three days. Since most Japanese kitchens and pantries are quite compact, it’s more important than ever to make pantry storage space count.
The Japan Times talked to three experts — Nami Chen, the chef and recipe developer behind the Just One Cookbook Japanese recipe blog; Katheryn Gronauer, an Institute for Integrative Nutrition-certified health coach and Tokyo-based cross-cultural corporate trainer; and Shihoko Ura, the Australia-based cook behind Chopstick Chronicles — about how to stock (but not hoard!) your pantry with nutritious, multipurpose ingredients that are easy to find in your local Japanese supermarket.